Several days before committing the decidedly unprofessional, clandestine act of "bribing the Giant Squid with slices of bread to sneak into the Black Lake and secretly follow a student for information," Brian had received a message Dumbledore sent back with his Phoenix Patronus.
It was that extraordinarily long, astonishingly information-packed, supersized Patronus message, arriving late at night, that had put Brian on his guard against Draco Malfoy. Honestly, at first he had thought Dumbledore was simply letting him know he was safe, so he listened while eating apple pie. Later, however, he completely forgot to chew the pie in his mouth.
"Chet, the weather is lovely today, and I am still on the road searching for Voldemort's Horcruxes. Before setting out, I had three suspicious locations in mind. The first two yielded nothing, and today I reached the last-the home of Tom Riddle's mother in Little Hangleton, the old Gaunt family house. It is not far from Little Hangleton, which may well be why Tom Riddle's parents met.
"Every wall visible from outside, large or small, high or low, is covered in moss. All three hundred and seventeen roof tiles have fallen off, exposing rafters here and there that have nearly been eaten hollow by insects. It is worth mentioning that thick nettles grow around the house, reaching all the way to the windows. The windows are very small, perhaps large enough for small animals to pass through when clean. Naturally, that is impossible now, because they are covered in thick layers of old grime-hmm, there is also a dead snake nailed to the door. It appears to be a viper.
"-All right, forgive me for saying so many irrelevant things in one breath. Please believe me, this is not by choice,
"but out of necessity. Voldemort placed a great