Chapter Two: Missed Signs
A copy of the Daily Prophet lay on the desk, its headline reading the same as it had the same for months.
"DARK MARK APPEARS OVER DEVON: 6 MUGGLES DEAD"
The attacks were nothing new. They had been going on for almost a year. Muggles around Europe were being attacked and murdered by Death Eaters, the loyal followers of Voldemort.
Otherwise known as Tom Riddle.
Oh, he knew that Voldemort was indeed Tom, even if most didn't. Those others that did know looked back on the quiet Slytherin boy and wondered how such a seemingly polite and well-mannered boy had turned into such a madman.
Whenever Dumbledore reflected on the child Tom had once been, he didn't wonder at the seemingly radical changes that had occurred in Tom. He wondered how he could have missed the signs that had led up to this.
For there had indeed been signs.
Dumbledore had always thought that the 'revelation' that Hagrid was the one responsible for opening the Chambre of Secrets and attacking Muggleborns was both ludicrous and suspicious. The mere idea of Hagrid hurting anyone was impossible; the current gamekeeper wouldn't hurt a fly, much less a person. It was also too coincidental that only hours after voicing the idea of catching the one responsible for the attacks, Tom turned in Hagrid. At the time, Dumbledore hadn't believed that it had been Tom opening the Chamber, but now…
Now he knew the truth. And he wondered how he could have missed what Tom was becoming.
He had known that Tom was unhappy at the Muggle orphanage he was forced to stay at each summer. Now he knew that staying there had only intensified his hatred of Muggles.
He had known about the meetings at night in the empty 3rd floor classroom. At the time, he had dismissed it as simply a club, a gathering of friends. Now he knew that they had been meetings of future Death-Eaters and their leader. They had plotted, schemed, and planned their attacks on Muggles, preparing to send their world into chaos and terror. And they had succeeded. They had perfected their plans, gathered together, and struck the wizarding world like a hammer.
It was too late to do anything, only to watch as their world was slowly being destroyed, with no idea how to stop it.
Husbands were losing wives, wives were losing husbands, children were losing parents, sisters, and brothers. All because no one had noticed as a young Slytherin had evolved from Tom Riddle into Lord Voldemort. Now they had to live with what they had unknowingly created. For they had indeed created Voldemort. Even if they had not made him what he was, they had not stopped him, or helped him. There had been signs, small cries for help, but they had been ignored.
Mistakes had been made.
Those mistakes had plunged the wizarding world into darkness. A few careless actions had changed a young boy forever and made him a madman. A few signs had been missed, and now the world was paying for it. The story that had been writing during those years was finished, and its ending was like a horror story. He wished he could go back and rewrite the past.
Unfortunately, the past was the past, and now Dumbledore had to work on the future.
Except he didn't know what their future was.