The most grueling task for Harry during these two weeks had been to meticulously go through Voldemort’s memories.
Since he had no prior knowledge of how many Horcruxes existed or when they were created, he had no other option but to witness the entirety of Tom Riddle’s life.
From the beginning to the very end.
He witnessed the cold, gray walls of the Wool’s orphanage where Voldemort had grown up.
He witnessed him being bullied because he was different from the rest.
Despite knowing the monster and the cruel man the boy would become, Harry felt a flicker of sympathy for the child.
That sympathy, however, was quickly extinguished as he witnessed Tom Riddle discovering his powers.
With his new found powers, the child began a reign of cruelty and savagery.
He first only retaliated against bullies who had tortured him.
But it did not take him too long to become drunk, obsessed and arrogant about his powers.
He began torturing the innocent.
He himself became the bully but he was far more dangerous and insane.
By the age of ten, Riddle was already dreaming of world domination.
He was convinced that he was a unique and a superior being.
That these powers made him special.
That he was destined for greatness.
Then came the moment his illusions were shattered.
Dumbledore arrived at the orphanage and informed him of a hidden world filled with people who possessed those same powers.
He longer remained the unique and special boy he thought he was.
There were a lot of people like him.
And this bruised his ego.
Harry watched as that bruised ego transformed into a lethal obsession for more power.
He witnessed Riddle’s descent and downfall into the darkest corners of magic.
He witnessed Riddle falling to depths Harry could not have even imagined to get a bit of more powers.
He witnessed the cold-blooded murders Voldemort committed to create each Horcrux.
Harry witnessed the subsequent reign of terror that Voldemort unleashed against Wizarding Britain.
Seeing the atrocities Voldemort committed against innocent people left Harry in a state of constant rage and disgust.
He found himself physically ill, nearly vomiting as he felt the echoes and the cry of the pain Voldemort had inflicted on those who dared to oppose him.
He could not fathom how a man could fall so low.
Through these memories, Harry finally understood the true meaning of the Dark Arts.
Previously, he had considered the three Unforgivable Curses to be the height of dark magic.
That they were the worst of the magic to exit.
The spells Voldemort had mastered, the ways he could torture a soul, liquefy organs, or trap a mind in eternal illusion of agony, made the Unforgivables look like child’s play.
By the end of the two weeks, Harry’s primary mission to go through these memories had been a success.
He had found out the knowledge of every Horcrux Voldemort had ever created, how they looked, and where to find them.
The first was Riddle’s Diary.
He had already destroyed the diary and Horcrux by the basilisk venom in the Chamber of Secrets.
The second was the Ravenclaw’s Diadem.
It was hidden close to him, a place where he would have least expected, in an unknown location at Hogwarts called the Room of Requirement.
The third was Slytherin’s Locket.
It had been hidden in a seaside cave under the protection of a layer of dark curses and other blood magic protections.
The fourth was Hufflepuff’s Cup.
Voldemort had given the cup to Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black.
And Voldemort had merely asked her to hide it.
He had not enquired about its location and as of now Harry was not sure where it could be.
The fifth was the Gaunt Ring.
It was a family heirloom which Voldemort had stolen from his uncle.
Harry witnessed the stomach turning scene where Voldemort framed his own uncle for the murder of the Riddle family.
The Dark Lord had personally executed his father, Tom Riddle Sr., and his grandparents, fueled by a loathing for the weak Muggle blood of the Riddle family in his veins.
But the hardest memories to endure and watch were those of the night his life had changed forever.
Harry witnessed his father’s final moments, with tears trimming down his face, James Potter facing the Dark Lord with a defiance and resistance that surpassed his skill.
He saw James try and buy every second he could, shouting for Lily to run away, never hesitating, to stand against the Dark Lord, even as the green light claimed him.
Then, he saw Lily.
His mother.
He watched through Voldemort’s cold eyes as his mother begged for Harry’s life, her face a mask of grief and love.
He heard Voldemort offer to spare her.
It was a strange mercy Voldemort was offering her because of some unknown debt.
He witnessed her stubborn, magnificent and powerful refusal to step aside from her son.
The memory reached its climax.
The Killing Curse struck Lily and her body collapsed.
And then, Voldemort turned to the baby Harry in his crib, and a second flash of green was directed at the crib.
He felt the agony of the curse rebounding, the sensation of Voldemort’s soul being ripped apart like wet paper.
One fragment of the soul fled into the night, while the other fragment latched onto the only living thing left in the ruins of Godric Hollow.
And after witnessing all of Voldemort’s memories, there was one question that took root in his mind.
He wondered and contemplated why his mother, a witch who was brilliant and powerful, had not even reached for her wand.
Unlike his father, James, she did not even try to put up any resistance.
Why?
In fact, from what he knew and the subtle observations he made from Voldemort’s memories, Harry was certain that Lily was much more magically powerful than James.
If she had helped his father, there was a chance, however minuscule, to take down Voldemort.
But she did not even attempt.
But after witnessing the scene multiple times, Harry came to a conclusion.
He realized his mother had performed a specific ancient ritual to save him, and, most probably, its final requirement was a willing sacrifice of life.
For the sacrifice to work, Lily never picked up her wand to fight.
She willingly sacrificed her life which provided a certain protection for Harry against Voldemort.
And the protection did not end after Voldemort was vanquished but it continued or should have continued if not for Dumbledore’s interference.
The fool Dumbledore, thinking himself the greatest and most knowledgeable wizard, tweaked that protection, converting it into a blood ward.
In doing so, he effectively ruined the protection his mother had left, and the last bit of its remaining power had been used against Quirrell in Harry’s first year.
The other thing Harry concluded was that Voldemort had no intention of turning him into a Horcrux.
The soul fragment latching onto his forehead had been a pure accident.
The last memory Harry saw was of Voldemort’s soul wraith in Albania, trying to find a method to regain a physical body.
Another important realization for Harry was that he possessed an eidetic memory and had a perfect recall of everything since his birth.
The removal of binding on his mindscape and the blood ward had unleashed all of Harry’s powers.
He had heard from Sirius what happened after Voldemort was vanquished, but Harry could now see everything from his own perspective.
He witnessed his mother’s death through his own eyes and saw Voldemort being defeated.
And whatever he saw, had chilled him to the bone.
Immediately after Voldemort was vanquished and his soul wraith disappeared, he saw Peter Pettigrew arrive.
A coward as always, Pettigrew panicked when he assumed that Voldemort had been killed.
He took Voldemort’s wand and fled the scene.
The second person to arrive, before Hagrid took Harry away, was Severus Snape.
The person Harry now hated the most.
Snape sat at the very top of Harry Potter’s kill list, even above Voldemort himself.
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