Chapter 6
In the Muggle village of Little Hangleton 50 years ago, one of the village’s wealthiest families, the Riddle family, had all been found dead. Their gardener Frank Bryce had been framed for their deaths—until the Riddles’ bodies were examined, and doctors could not tell how they had died. There was no proof that Frank had murdered the Riddles, so, even though almost everyone in town still believed him to be a murderer, he returned to his cottage on the Riddle property. The murder had in fact been committed by a member of the family—Tom Riddle Snr’s magical son, Tom Riddle Jnr (although even then Tom Jnr had taken a new name, Lord Voldemort, as he was ashamed that his father was a Muggle). The Killing Curse, which Voldemort had used, did not leave any sign of damage when it was successful, though for mysterious reasons Harry had been left with a lightning-shaped scar when Voldemort later tried to kill him; this was why the doctors who examined the Riddles’ bodies could not tell how they had died.
In the present, Wormtail had rejoined Voldemort and was trying to help him regain a body, but had not seen much success so far. Voldemort and Wormtail went into the Riddles’ old house, where they discussed all further plans they had; Wormtail pointed out that the entire Ministry would be at the upcoming Quidditch World Cup, so any perpetrators of Dark activity there would likely be caught—so they should wait until after the World Cup to do anything to help Voldemort regain a body. Voldemort pointed out that by this time, his faithful servant will have rejoined them, implying that he was not satisfied with Wormtail’s efforts.
The faithful servant in question, Barty Crouch Jnr, had escaped from the wizard prison Azkaban by having his dying mother disguise herself as him with Polyjuice Potion, with the help of Barty’s father Barty Crouch Snr. Crouch Snr had sent his son to Azkaban to begin with, for torturing Harry’s classmate Neville’s parents into insanity, but Crouch Snr was now rescuing his son to fulfil the last wish of his (Crouch Snr’s) dying wife.
Back to the present, Frank Bryce saw lights on at the Riddle house, and he thought that it had been invaded by the teenage boys in the village who often tormented him. But when he went to listen at the door of the living room, he heard someone else entirely talking, though he did not know who it was: a man with a high, cold voice—Voldemort— and a man who Frank did not know was Wormtail. He heard them talking about their plans to kill someone named Harry Potter, in which Voldemort said that his “faithful servant” would be heavily involved. But Wormtail noticed Frank listening at the door (he had most likely done the homenum revelio spell non-verbally) and Voldemort killed Frank, though Frank was screaming so loudly that he did not hear the words Voldemort spoke.
Right after this, at the Burrow, Harry awoke suddenly after having seen Voldemort and Wormtail’s entire conversation and encounter with—and killing of—Frank, whose name he did not know but who he could tell was a Muggle. His scar was hurting very badly, and of course he immediately told Sirius about the dream he, Harry, had had. Sirius told him, “If it hurts while you’re at school, go directly to McGonagall the Elder—she’s got Mad-Eye Moody out of retirement. That shows me that she’s reading the signs, even if no one else is.” Harry remembered how immensely helpful Professor McGonagall had been when Harry needed to be rescued from the abusive Dursleys, and knew that he could trust Her.
Harry went into the Burrow to find that Hermione had arrived. He took her to the tent where he and Sirius were living, and she was happy to see them. “I’m happy to see you under the circumstances,” she said, “but I’m disgusted that werewolves are being harmed even further than they are just from being denied employment. Mr Black, did the Ministry really nullify your marriage to Professor Lupin ostensibly for Harry’s safety?” “They really did that,” Sirius confirmed. “I don’t know who’s behind it all, except for a Madam Umbridge who wrote the anti-werewolf legislation enabling the Ministry to destroy families in this way. Of course, ours might be the only family that the Ministry has broken up—werewolves never become any kind of parents. But Harry and I are making do here—it was so nice of Mr Weasley to put an Extension Charm on this tent for us.” Ron entered and said, “Yeah, Hermione, my room’s pretty crowded with Fred and George rooming with me. Bill and Charlie are in their room.”
Harry, Ron, and Hermione went in for breakfast with the Weasley family; Charlie revealed (though he only reminded Harry, Ron, and Hermione) that Lupin wasn’t the only teacher in the history of Hogwarts who had potentially put the students in danger without being connected in any way to Voldemort (referencing former DADA teacher Quirinus Quirrell, whose body Voldemort had inhabited—so he was quite literally connected to Voldemort). Harry asked, “Who was the other one?” “Hagrid,” said Charlie. “You three should know, I had my friends smuggle Hagrid’s dragon away from Hogwarts! Dragons cannot be domesticated. How Hagrid got to teach Care of Magical Creatures I don’t know. If I wanted to do anything but take care of dragons…I was always good at Care of Magical Creatures, I even got an O.W.L. in it! Unlike in the Muggle world, you only need life experience rather than a teaching degree to teach at Hogwarts…” “Of course Hagrid’s lessons haven’t been nearly as dangerous as taking care of a dragon,” said Hermione defensively. “I’m sure you’ll understand that Malfoy insulted Hagrid’s hippogriff Buckbeak, whom we rescued from execution, even though Hagrid had told us that hippogriffs attack if you insult them. The problem was that Malfoy wasn’t listening.” “I just hope he doesn’t show you any creatures that are more dangerous than hippogriffs,” said Charlie, “in or out of class.”