Standing in front of his Pensive, Dumbledore poured into it the memory Tom had extracted, stepped forward and Tom followed, frowning, though the memory, which he found torturous to see again, had to follow Dumbledore for special reasons.
The two entered the Pensive upside down.
What Dumbledore saw was a park, sunny and full of birds and flowers. A few children were playing carefree in the park.
Looking at the weather, it was probably autumn, a beautiful time of year.
The park is very large and open. Occasionally people run through the grass with their dogs and the park seems to be full of children playing. The children's parents were sitting on the outskirts of the park chatting.
It looked like it was time to go home, so some of the mothers called an end to their talk, got up from the benches and pulled their dolls off the grass.
"I don't want to go~" said an older boy with blond hair and white circles around his eyes who didn't seem to want to leave, he was lying on all fours on the ground, but was dragged away by his mother.
"Sweet little bear~" A pretty young girl in a beige trench coat did not come out onto the lawn, but stood some distance away and shouted the nickname of her daughter, who, unlike the other children, was very obedient and ran to her mother as soon as her name was called, to the envy of the housewives around her.
A beautiful little girl who looked like something out of a painting was jumping up and down to her mother, as she hugged the woman's arm, rubbing her head against her arm, acting like a spoiled child.
Dumbledore recognized that as Peggy as a child, now about seven years old.
"It's getting late, honey bear, time to go home." It was clear that the woman had become immune to Peggy's pouting and was determined to take her away.
The mother and daughter walked to the parking lot, where only four or five cars were parked, all of them small except for a nanny car.
The mother and daughter went to a Palmer, opened the door and got in. The woman started the car, which expelled a jet of black exhaust as it sputtered away amid a cloud of dust.
Dumbledore grabbed Tom as well and followed The Mother and Daughter to the car. Only the two of them were in the front, and Tom and Dumbledore in the back.
They went home, not to the house in Burlington Square, Eastbourne, where Tom had delivered the letter. There they dined with Mr. Grossman, played the latest games and listened to bedtime stories.
Finally, with a "basket of kisses" from Mr. Grossman, Peggy fell asleep.
When Peggy fell asleep, the scene was distorted and Tom and the two were back in the park, and what had just happened was repeating itself again.
"I don't want to go..."
...
"Honey bear~"
...
"Honey bear, it's getting late, time to go home."
...
"A basket of kisses~"
...
A sunny and cool autumn park...
It had been repeated several times, and even Dumbledore felt a little bad.
"What's wrong?" he asked softly.
"The memories in Peggy's mind are very strange, part of them are from the normal timeline, and part of them are repeats of the one I showed you, at least the ones that repeat on the surface." When Tom had gone over Peggy's memories with his spell earlier, he had been struck by the fact that, if one were to compare memory to a book, a normal person's memories would naturally follow ahead, from top to bottom. Peggy is different: her earlier and later memories are split, the earlier ones being normal memories and the later ones being memories of that day in the park, and the cycle is endless, as if there were two Peggies, one living a normal life and the other stuck in a time loop.
The turning point for change came on the day of the park visit.
Dumbledore saw a sudden, intense sadness on Lockhart's face in front of him as the memory flashed forward into the parking lot.
Tom said to Dumbledore, "Professor, this is the deepest memory I found under this surface layer...you, take a look..."
He waved his hand as if he were turning a book, and the scene was suddenly disturbed, as if a stone had been thrown into the water and the contents of the memory had been displaced.
The woman started the car, which spurted black smoke from the exhaust pipe, then emitted a strange hissing sound and stopped. Peggy's mother tried to start it again, but the car did not respond.
At that moment the window of the nanny's car next to her was rolled down. A man in a suit got out of the car and approached the limousine.
"Ma'am, can I help you?" he asked politely. He asked kindly.
"My God, I don't know what happened, but my car died." Peggy's mother also gave up trying and spread her hands to indicate that the quality of the car is problematic.
The man laughed: "That means you got the real thing!".
He circled the car twice, checking it over, "It's probably the engine. BMW engines have been unreliable since World War II, in the best tradition of the company."
Just then the door of the mother car opened again and out stepped a handsome man, dressed in an expensive tailored suit, looking well-dressed and with an air of sophistication.
Tom recognized this as Chris, a leading British actor and director, the kind of man who was said to be related to the royal family.
If Tom recognized him, so did Peggy's mother, who seemed to be a fan of Chris. She asked Chris for his autograph, who gave it to her painfully, and looked at Peggy and Mrs. Grossman for a while, with an eerie gleam in her eye, and suddenly said, "You're so beautiful, not inferior to those famous stars at all!"
Mrs. Grossman was indeed a great beauty, and Peggy had inherited her looks from her. Even after having a child, she was still in perfect shape and had the charm of a mature woman, like a ripe peach.
Mrs. Grossman blushed and smiled.
Chris took advantage of the situation and said he needed two supporting roles for his new movie and wondered if they would be willing to audition, as he had no time off and the car repair company wasn't sure when they would come, so he could have his assistant wait here.
Mrs. Grossman thought about it, accepted his invitation, and climbed into the nanny's car.
Dumbledore, with a sullen face, climbed in with Tom without a word.
After the audition, Chris invited Peggy and her daughter to a nice dinner. He had a private room in a luxurious hotel and invited several friends from the industry for a fun dinner. The sun was already setting as the meal was being consumed.
Chris was already seated next to Mrs. Grossman, his hand resting boldly on her shoulder and the other climbing gently up her thigh.
Mrs. Grossman shuddered.
"Don't be so shy," she laughed.
"I, I should be going now..."
"Don't worry, there's plenty of time." Chris sketched a greasy, lecherous grin.
"Wait, no, help..." Soon, Chris removed his disguise and joined his friends in pinning Mrs. Grossman down on the booth couch and stuffing her with pantyhose in her mouth.
"This is soundproofed," Chris said as he removed his top, "Ma'am, let me see your figure, if you have a good figure, then you can have a wider range of scenes..."
He rode over Mrs. Grossman, pulled her stockings out of her mouth and pulled little Chris out.
"Take him." He looked at Mrs. Grossman, who had her mouth tightly shut, and Peggy, who was crying in a corner, and threatened, "Be good and behave, or I can't guarantee what my friends will do to the little honey bear."
Mrs. Grossman's body shuddered at the words, hesitated and finally opened her mouth.....
The sound of rain and clouds echoed in the room.
After an unknown amount of time, Mrs. Grossman lay on her back on the floor of the compartment, her gaze was distracted and her dress did not even cover her vital parts. Everything seemed to be over.
She said hoarsely, "Can we...go home now?"
Chris smiled and said, "Yes, but wait a little longer."
He went to the corner of the room and lifted Peggy up.
"Wait a minute! You...you promised me..." Mrs. Grossman put her arms around his legs and pleaded, "Please, please let Peggy go, she's only seven!"
"Only seven years old is wonderful enough, isn't it? And I kept my promise, you see, my friends didn't touch her, did they?". Chris didn't care, he tried to shake Mrs. Grossman off, but he couldn't. He gave her two more shakes, but Mrs. Grossman was still clinging to his leg and wouldn't let go.
He picked up a bottle from the table and hit her twice in the back of the head.
She shot a disgusted look at the blood on her pant leg and indicated to her agent, "Remember to help clean it up."
Peggy didn't say a word, her eyes empty and seemingly emotionless.
At that moment, Peggy's memory began to shake violently, as if the world was about to collapse.
The scene changed, backing into a parking lot, the car spitting out a jet of black exhaust as it rocketed off in a cloud of dust.
Dumbledore pulled Tom out of the Pensive.
When he emerged from the basin, Tom buried his face in his hands, refusing to speak for quite a while, and the temperature around Dumbledore seemed to drop a few degrees.
There was a stony silence in the office.
"Peggy is very involved in this Chamber of Secrets business, but she seems to have something special." Tom took the initiative to break the silence, "I was baiting in the common room...". Tom held back his emotions and told what had happened to him, changing only a few details, such as how he was resurrected, which he omitted and Dumbledore had the good sense not to ask for more information.
Dumbledore frowned the whole time, and when Tom finished, he got up and left the office: he was going to go to the school hospital to check on Peggy's condition.
A little later, he returned.
"Tell me more about the changes in that alchemical puppet." Dumbledore asked Tom to give him the details of what happened before and after the [Sister] lost control, and he sighed as he listened.
"Miss Grossman's soul is in a very unstable state," Dumbledore took off his half-moon spectacles and wiped them, "And combined with the memories you showed me, I have a suspicion. Before I ask you to confirm it, can you again describe the state of Miss Grossman's memory?"
Dumbledore sighed again as Tom repeated the story. It was the first time Tom had seen Dumbledore sigh so often.
"It's a sad thing," Dumbledore said with a hint of sadness in his eyes, "What happened that day hurt her so much, she's shut herself away ever since; it's a human self-protective mechanism, at the time she.... Her soul had problems, her emotions were concentrated in one part of her soul and the other lacked human feelings. The soul with emotions closed in on itself, and the part of the soul without emotions was active outside."
"I just saw him, her soul is extremely unstable, it must have been artificially split, most likely Miss Grossman tore her soul apart and injected it into that alchemical doll of yours, turning it into a Horcrux, only this Horcrux is a bit special, it can move freely because it has enough energy."
"So Peggy..."
"It's hard to say which part broke off. If Miss Grossman can wake up, then it is the part of her soul that has feelings, if she cannot wake up and keeps her inner world locked away, then it is the part of her soul that does not have feelings that is split." Dumbledore concluded for Peggy.
"But the [Sister] ran away so cleanly, so there's more chance of the unfeeling part possessing the [Sister]."
Tom: "..."
"So, is there any way to get her to wake up?"
"I could try to modify her memories, that might wake Miss Grossman up." Dumbledore waved his wand, it would not be difficult for him to alter her memories, but it would be a matter of luck if he managed to awaken Miss Grossman's inner personality. After all, she had kept that memory hidden to herself.
Once the discussion about Peggy was over, Tom and Dumbledore were faced with a more difficult problem.
"And the two items from..., have you seen them?" Tom was referring to Riddle's diary and Ravenclaw's crown.
"Yes."
"Hardly anyone knows that Voldemort used to be called Tom Riddle, and that I taught him myself fifty years ago. He disappeared after he left school, and the occasional news that came back of him, even if it was only half true, was quite shocking. When Voldemort finally appeared, almost no one connected him with Tom Riddle." Dumbledore told Tom about that time.
The wizards of the British magical world, who had never come face to face with Grindelwald, feared Voldemort. But in their fear of Voldemort, none of them had asked the question: where did Voldemort come from?
It was as if he had sprung from a stone, no one knew his past and no one wanted to know it.