Another glass of gin went down, and Mrs. Cole let out a burp, her eyes growing slightly unfocused.
"Yes! Tom was a child born at the orphanage." She seemed drunk, yet also as though she were recalling the past. "I remember, it was the last day of '26..."
"It was freezing that day! A young woman... about the same age I was then, appeared on the orphanage steps in the middle of a heavy snowfall..."
As she recounted the circumstances of Voldemort's birth, Dumbledore let out a soft sigh. "A witch has many ways to survive! Yet she chose none of them..."
In Mrs. Cole's account, Voldemort had always been a very unusual child. He had not liked to cry as an infant, and she summarized the incidents during his upbringing with one word: "strange."
"Strange?" Young Dumbledore asked with interest. "Madam, could you explain that more clearly?"
"Oh! It's like this..." Mrs. Cole paused. Much of the haze in her eyes faded, replaced by a more complicated expression. "I mean... Tom will definitely go to that school, won't he?"
"Of course!" Young Dumbledore nodded. "That absolutely will not change."
"Absolutely will not change?" Mrs. Cole narrowed her eyes slightly, a detective-like gleam flashing through them again as though she were weighing something. "No matter what I say, that won't change?"
"Of course!" Young Dumbledore assured her again.
Mrs. Cole sought confirmation once more. "Really... no matter what, you'll take him away to study there? That boarding school?"
"Madam, no matter what!" Young Dumbledore's expression turned solemn as he said earnestly, "He will attend Hogwarts."
Mrs. Cole straightened her back, her gaze flickering constantly as though she were weighing whether to trust the man before her.
In the end, she made her choice. As though afraid she would regret it