The Years After

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Part 5 – Chapter 3 - Oct. 31, 1991

Voldemort was quite unhappy. He had spent the last ten years searching for the child that had thwarted him. And on the day that he should have finally, finally, made an appearance, he was a no-show. Harry Potter hadn't showed up for any of his classes this term. There had been a brief hope that the child was simply late, and would arrive after some weeks. But that hope was as far-fetched as it sounded.

Severus had been certain, after speaking with that McGonagall woman, that he hadn't even received his letter of admission. Severus was also certain that that bumbling old headmaster had something to do with it.

It was time to get some more information, and if the old fool wasn't going to talk, they'd go about it the hard way. Tonight, one of his pawns—the sniveling Professor Quirrell—was to create a diversion in the castle so that Voldemort could infiltrate Dumbledore's office and locate any information on the boy's whereabouts. Dumbledore had to have something stashed away in his office that would give them some clue as to where to concentrate their search, and tonight was as good as any to start the search.

He managed to slip into the castle through the Chamber quite easily. Thanks to the diversion, he made it silently up to the headmaster's office without a fuss. A simple spell kept the portraits from noticing anything was amiss. Looking around briefly, his eyes zeroed in on the large desk in the center of the room. Bingo. He began rifling through papers piled messily there until he came to a ledger that was deeply buried. It showed all money transfers from the Hogwarts account. It took a few minutes of intense search to find what he had hoped to find. A sum of 1000 Galleons was being transferred to a P. Dursley on the first of every month. Looking back through the register, he could tell that this had been going on for the past ten years.

He flipped the book back to the current month and stared at the entry for another long moment. As he fingered the page, he noticed something odd. Stuck in between the next two pages was a missive written in dainty script on Muggle lined paper. It read: "5000 sterling is no longer enough. Things get more expensive every day and people are starting to ask questions. Send more or the deal's off." It was signed "P. Dursley."

Hearing a noise outside the room, Voldemort quickly put everything back the way he had found it. He looked around quickly to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. A quick disillusionment charm protected him from view, and another flick of his wand dispelled the charm on the portraits. Luckily for him the window was open, which allowed him to slip out. Using a controlled levitation and featherlight charm, he slowly made it to the ground. He got what he had come for. Now, all that was left was to find this P. Dursley. And, judging from the clues he gained tonight, this person was in the Muggle world.