Dumbledore's Legacy to the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter Three: Eileen's Secret

The Prince mansion sat in a once-exclusive London neighborhood and had been owned by Eileen's parents, the late Frederick and Margaret Prince. The mansion was now run-down and shabby, with most of the antiques and objects of art long since sold. Frederick's great-grandfather, Alwerner Nigellus Prince, had made the family fortune with his famous, if controversial, research. His last published book was titled: "The History and Legacy of Objects Which Confer Immortality - a Tribute to Genius." The attic was still filled with scrolls of his unpublished notes on parchment.

The Princes were an old pureblood wizarding family, and many of them had studied at Hogwarts over hundreds of years. Eileen and her ancestors had all been sorted into either Ravenclaw or Slytherin, and were known for their intelligence and ambition. The grown Princes, while holding their own ideas of the benefits of racial purity, never let politics interfere with their accounts at Gringotts. They maintained their wealth very tidily until Frederick's foolish scheme to mine dragons' gold backfired. He and Margaret began to sell off the family heirlooms one by one when Eileen was still a child. Their hope was that Eileen's intellectual ambitions would restore the Prince home to its former glory.

The inside of the Prince mansion had the ambiance of a tomb. Furniture was shrouded with beige linen cloths, and a thick layer of dust smothered all in a silent world. Fine brocaded wallpaper curled and cracked away from the wainscoting, and showed large sections of still-brightly colored paper where priceless paintings had once hung. Even the grandfather clock made no noise; its magical mechanism had long since failed.

Up in the attic, it was much the same. Deathly quiet also reigned here among the crates and trunks cluttering the dusty floor. An ancient wardrobe stood against the far wall, illuminated only by beams of weak, watery sunlight coming through the small windows.

Suddenly, for the first time in twenty-odd years, the silence was broken. Severus Snape Apparated into the floor space between a wall shelf full of books and two cracked leather trunks adorned with the initials E. P.

Snape gave only a cursory glance at his surroundings before setting to work; he hated this house and its memories. He had spent so many hours alone in this very attic when he was a small boy. He had come back only because of his promise to Dumbledore.

Snape remembered arguing with Dumbledore about coming here. They had been walking near the Forbidden Forest one night last March. Dumbledore had requested that Snape search through his mother's school things in order to confirm Dumbledore's speculations about a connection between Eileen and Tom Riddle. Snape had refused, saying that he was already doing more than the other members of the Order, and that the Death Eaters might discover his duplicity if he made this search. He did not tell Dumbledore his real reason for trying to avoid this task: he did not want to revisit the past. After some heated discussion, Snape finally agreed that he would go on Dumbledore's command.

With efficient, practised movements, Snape cleared more space with a few casual flicks of his wand. He cast an Evadus Spell to purify the air of the dust motes dancing in the morning light. Three dissimilar cauldrons and his potion kit were quickly set up on a worm-eaten table surface. Bottles and vials with contents of every imaginable shape and color were arranged precisely and with great speed.

Snape's hands moved quickly between the potion ingredients, the uneven work surface, and each cauldron. After quickly preparing the Seekardus cloves for grinding and pouring a coppery liquid into a decanter, Snape took up his wand. The muttered incantations were interspersed with changes of color, texture, and sound coming from each cauldron. This was the Potion Master at the height of his skill. The small space held all of the tension of an orchestral crescendo.

When a golden hazy steam had begun to float up from the smallest cauldron, Snape stopped his flurry of movement.

He began to remove the contents of each of the two trunks with a summoning swirl of his wand. Each object wafted up into the air, where it hung for a moment before settling down on the cleared floor space.

Snape drew a complicated "S" design in the air with his wand while saying "Ovit Revilio!" A silvery thread streamed from the end of his wand through the golden haze towards the objects littered on the floor... and dissolved. Snape swore under his breath and riffled through one of the books he had brought with him. He moved half a foot closer to the golden steam, adjusted his wand movement so that the "S" shape had a slightly fatter base, and spoke the incantation again. "Ovit Revilio!"

This time, the silvery thread arced towards a nondescript oak bookend and encircled it. The silvery light grew bright and then faded. The bookend was gone, and in its place was a sheaf of parchment.

Snape's thin mouth twitched in a self-satisfied way. He scooped up the bundle of sheets and scanned each page quickly. The morning light was quickly changing to that of afternoon; time was running short before the Death Eater Council that evening.

Every inch of each page was covered with second year Herbology notes. There was nothing there of interest. Snape cast a rapid sequence of charms on the parchment in his hand, beginning with the Specialis Revelio spell. No change. His face contorted in disappointment, but inwardly he was enjoying the challenge. Snape forced his mind to quiet down and empty of all emotion. He cupped his hand over the top sheet and felt the emanations of energy. And an idea slowly came to him.

Snape emptied the smallest pewter cauldron with an impatient "Evanesco" and tipped in a selection of ingredients from his work surface. He added one strand of his own greasy black hair, and the cauldron contents began to issue a sickly green steam. As he held the sheets over the steam, the writing on the top page slowly changed in format from class notes to journal entries.

Snape's eyes glinted as he sank onto a nearby chair with the journal in his hands. He flipped through the entries until a single word popped out at him like a beacon, over and over again. Horcrux.

So Dumbledore had been right. Snape shook his head in wonder as he began to read through the entries, which were followed by a fat wad of research notes and curse recipes. The handwriting in the first entry was a more excited version of the small, neat penmanship from the Herbology notes.

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March 31, 1944
You'll never guess what happened to me today! My Defense Against The Dark Arts essay was the best in the entire second year - not that surprising - but in addition to that, I won FIRST PLACE for the entire school! I received my prize from Headmaster Dippet himself, and those Ravenclaw girls looked just green! Professor Merrythought said this had never happened before!!!

Professor Slughorn invited me to one of his parties tonight. He told me that my essay reminded him of my great-great-grandfather's genius, and that he is sure that I'll go far in my career. But best of all... Tom Riddle was there! And he talked to me! He asked me all about my paper and my great-great-grandfather! Wait until the other second year girls hear about this; they are dying to get to know him. He always hangs out with his own group. I know some of the kids don't like him. They're just jealous. Before I got into bed tonight and started writing this, I looked in the mirror and my face was so pink - I can't believe he talked to me.

April 2, 1944
Scuttling Skrewts! Tom and I talked in the common room tonight! He wanted to talk to me in private. He is so handsome. He wants me to help him with a project for one of his NEWT classes. Tom said that the others are really jealous of him and will try to copy his project if they can, so I need to keep it a secret. He said he's so lucky he met me! He wants me to do some research at home about Horcruxes; he was amazed when I told him I already knew what they were. He said that Madam Pince wouldn't let him read any of the books in the Restricted Section just because he laughed at her one time! That old lemon!
Eileen Riddle
Eileen Prince Riddle
Mrs. Tom Riddle
Mrs. Eileen Riddle

April 16, 1944
I'm finally back here - with Tom (!) - after Easter holiday. It was pretty easy to go through our attic at home to see what information I could find, but the hard part was trying to sneak Mum's Owl Key for the Adult section of the Gutengamot Research Library out of the house. I needed to find the sources my great-great-grandfather had used and check for any current research. I found some material on how to protect the Horcruxes once they are made - ordinary Dark curses can't be used because they are too harsh on the piece of encased soul. Tom didn't know either; he was really surprised when I told him. I had organized all my notes with references and an index for him, and he was so excited he almost grabbed them from me! I was so disappointed when he couldn't stay and talk. Horcruxes are such Dark magic; I'm glad there aren't any today. Olovram the Feared made the last known one in 1792, and it was destroyed in 1797.

April 20, 1944
I am so tired! Professor Merrythought was really grouchy with me when I fell asleep today during DADA, but Tom wanted some more information on Horcrux preservation. I used Mum's Owl Key, but it took forever for the owl to deliver the scroll last night.

April 29, 1944
I was wearing my birthday cameo bracelet from Mum today, and Tom told me I looked really pretty! I know I'm not, but I really feel like I am when I'm with him. He seemed rather bored at first, but became really excited when I told him that my bracelet had belonged to Mum's aunt, and it had once belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw. It holds five cameos and each is a lovely alabaster profile on a blue stone. Tom wanted to hold the bracelet... and then he also held my hand! He told me he was almost done with his project. I promised him I would finish searching the last bit of Library archive this week. This research is really starting to scare me though. I'll be glad when we can just talk about other things.

May 6, 1944
I got a letter from Mum today. She said she almost sent a Howler, but she didn't want anyone to know my grades were slipping. She said she got an owl from Headmaster Dippet about my last grade in Astronomy. She told me to focus only on my classes STARTING RIGHT NOW, that I wasn't at Hogwarts to have fun. I told Tom that I had to stop meeting him so late in the common room. He looked angry at first, but then he seemed calmer when I said I could meet him a couple more times.

May 12, 1944
Tom and I met again tonight. I gave him the addendum notes I found on the Despiritus and Inferius curses but he didn't say anything, he just grabbed them. He didn't even look like himself; his eyes looked a little weird. He seemed very happy, but at the same time kind of scary. I thought he would tell me about his weekend trip to Hogsmeade, but then he became really mean. I only told him that his ring looked different. I couldn't see the Peverell Coat of Arms on the surface of the stone anymore. I felt really scared, but he apologized and asked me to meet him tomorrow night and that he would tell me all about his weekend.

Tom looked so different. And his ring is different; I know it is. After tomorrow, I'm not going to meet him any more. I don't want anyone to see my research notes. And no one will. I should have known I wasn't pretty enough for him.

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The last meeting between Tom Riddle and Eileen Prince was a memorable one, if only for Tom. He attempted to cast a Memory Charm on Eileen, similar to the one he had placed on Morfin Gaunt a few years before, and was very surprised when she blocked it. His second attempt was made with all of his strength of mind, coupled with the panic of thinking his plan was in danger. The spell was a brutal one and had some serious side effects.

Eileen's memory of the Horcrux research and her journal was erased, and she was left with a deep terror of Tom Riddle, a terror that had blossomed into a distrust of the wizarding world as a whole by the time she finished her education at Hogwarts. Her keen intellect was also dulled by the charm, causing a vagueness of thought that grew worse every year. Her ambitious nature became limited to playing Gobstones, and she became the captain of the Hogwarts school team in her fifth year, right before she did abysmally on her OWLs.

By the time Eileen left Hogwarts with a disappointing single NEWT in Potions and met Tobias Snape at the seaside, Frederick and Margaret Prince had gone from shock and rage to resignation. They tried to keep up appearances with announcements in the Daily Prophet of their daughter's marriage and the birth of their grandson, but in truth they wanted nothing to do with a Muggle convert.

And no one ever found the bracelet.