A connection, which isn't really a lie
George had simply dived into it all.
It animated him, filling him up, asking questions and checking as he went. Parchments scribbled across as he worked on logistics. Ron voiced a few points, trying to find a flaw in the crazy idea, but either from sheer shock lingering or Harry and George's responses…none stuck. George pressed on. Details batted back and forth, how to make it make sense, where the evil twin had supposedly attended school, why Tom never knew of a twin, reason for the memory loss, concerns over his look matching the twin since Voldemort had done a number on himself and so why would Tom remain identical to him, and many more. George was all over it.
Still, there were moments Harry and Ron and Hermione caught him getting offbeat, glancing to his side or nudging at air. Then doggedly pressing onward. His focus all on the project at hand as his hand scribbled and mouth moved as he talked it out or asked questions.
Harry had attempted to suggest George leave it to them, they would have it covered between the three of them. Between Ron's strategic bits and Hermione's smarts and Harry's knowledge of Tom. But George declined it before Harry even got the words out.
Said it made for a great distraction, something tangible to focus on, to organize and sort out and plot out all the details.
Still, there was a pause, and the edge of George's mouth turned downwards. "As much as this makes a great…distraction, all this devising and planning," he clarified with a wave of his hand. "It is still… How sure are you about it being just Tom and not—"
"Voldemort rearing up his head and coming back for me again?"
Harry finished for him. George nodded, Ron's head bobbed fiercely beside his brother. He glanced to Hermione. Bottom teeth nibbled at her lip. She did not nod her head in agreement, but the worry and concern shined through. Harry shrugged.
"I don't? Not fully. But even if it was a split second decision, not much thought behind it, I do know what I was thinking when I fired off that spell. And the Elder Wand did fix my supposedly unfixable holly wand. So, it's far more likely to stick? If it doesn't…well, this kind of covers issues of sending an innocent person to Azkaban or death or from Dementors and most of the issues Ron brought up in someone keeping an eye out on him without really clueing him in or orchestrating him to have much reason to go Voldemort all over again? Plus a connection with me, which isn't really a lie… And if it doesn't stick, well, I mean, I'd have front row seats and the one most suited to dealing with that. More of a head's up than any other time I've dealt with him."
There was silence as they took Harry's answer in. Ron's mouth pursed, likely trying to figure out something to say against that. Then George shifted back in his seat and blinked up at Harry.
"Elder Wand? That's…" A chuckle broke free and George shook his head. "I'd ask how, but of course you got your hands on an object straight out of The Tale of Three Brothers."
Ron snorted. He, Harry, and Hermione all shared looks between each other across the table George was working at. The older Weasley was already back to scribbling and flipping through a pile of books and missed the look. Which Harry was thankful. Because he suddenly feared the question over a different object cropping up. He shook his head at Ron and Hermione, quickly making use of his hands to search through the various items spread across the table. The other two followed example.
The Room of Requirement had provided plenty to pull from in material. Old Hogwarts paperwork surrounding Tom Riddle, including paperwork from the orphanage (Their guess of that being pulled up was due to Dumbledore), a few old photos. They'd unearthed a list of wizarding schools that had closed and shut down in the early 1900s (due to the wizard war with Grindlewald) which proved helpful. Harry had pulled out the album Hagrid had given him first year too. The same one he'd gone to the trouble of adding family trees for both sides in what he was told and found. As well as placing in other old family photographs, the few he could find.
Which brought up what relative of Harry Tom was supposed to be. Because, people knew the Potter side well around here. Not so much of the Evans side. Except…Petunia. And some photographic evidence going against Tom being on the Evans side. There was shared hair color and manner of parting it in common with the few pictures he saw and the one of his Evans grandparents he stole for his album, but…
"He's smart." Hermione fretted. "I mean, at the very least, driven and ambitious. Slytherin. We know that much for anything that's Tom and not… I can't imagine he would leave alone looking and searching for any of the family connection. If it, the evidence, had been tampered with. Or meeting your aunt. She would be his daughter, but for her to not remember him and to call another man her father? It can't possibly work. He would want to seek out any other family too other than you, Harry."
This started a discussion and Ron grasping a hold of this detail to speak a point against the crazy idea. They talked over the possibility of an unknown uncle to Aunt Petunia, perhaps half off the Riddle side, but that really didn't work. Talked of Tom being an adopted brother to Harry's grandfather. But same issue as what started the discussion in Aunt Petunia having no memory about this man in her family.
"Part of his obliviated memory," Harry said at last. George paused, quill brushing the parchment as he tapped and thought through it. "A glamour of some kind? Voldemort tried to recruit him and Tom declined. Ran? Left? He wouldn't have liked to be underneath someone, even when he was younger from what I gathered in the memories Dumbledore showed me."
"Obliviated his happy memories," George suggested. "It'd certainly keep him distracted, trying to figure that out. Going back to the muggle world, falling in love, having a family. You weren't around then, so you wouldn't know details. And, well, as funny as the idea of a dotting grandpa tied in with…"
George waved his hand about, expressing the words he couldn't quite pin down, then continued on, head tilting in his curiosity.
"Why are you so persistent and attached to him being a grandfather?"
And Harry grinned.
Tom, as much as Tom Riddle probably disliked it, was such a common name.