… thin scar on his forehead … shaped like a bolt of lightening … as long as he could remember… got it in the car crash … parents died … didn’t work …unemployed …get themselves killed … drunk I expect …

---

He’d hear bits an pieces of the story, rumours, and gossip but never the whole thing. Always before when he had asked his aunt, she would brush him off but when he asked her on his 11th birthday, she told him the story…

---

“I suppose the story starts as far back as 1928, with the story of a half-blood wizard by the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle. His mother died during childbirth so he was raised by his muggle father, a man who trained him in the family business. By the time he was twenty, he was already a successful businessman in his own right. By the time I was born he owned several businesses in various domains and he’s acquired many more since.

“In 1980, the year you were born, he bought out the company your father worked for. Somehow your father manage to escape the initial layoffs. His luck didn’t last. At the beginning of October the next year, he lost his job.

“He was only in shock at first but depression quickly set in and he began heavy drinking to drown his misery. The night your parents died you had a dinner reservation that had been made nights in advance. Your mother suggested cancelling –you really couldn’t afford to eat out, finances being what they were –but your father insisted. He’d been drinking that day, which tended to bring out his violent side, so your mother gave in, to keep the peace, on the condition she be the one to drive.

“Your father got even more drunk at the restaurant, so much so that when it was time to leave he made such a scene over the keys that management literally had to kick your family out of the restaurant. Your father managed to get hold of the keys and got behind the wheel. When he hit the cement divider he was driving far above the speed limit. Your parents, in the front seats, didn’t stand a chance. But, you. You survived. You survived with only that scar on your forehead to show for it.”

---

There was a long awkward silence when she finished his story. Finally, encouraged by her frankness, he broke the silence to ask a question that had plagued him since the rumour had reached his ears years earlier, “Is it true that Mum and Dad would be rolling over in their graves if they knew I was living with you? That you never wanted me?”

“Who told you that? Your cousin?”

He shook his head violently in denial but she made no move to answer his questions, appearing rather to be lost in the memory of times past. Finally she answered…

---

“I certainly hope your parents aren’t rolling over in their graves… but it is true that I was never their first choice of guardian. My sister and I… we never were very close to start with. As the years passed we grew further apart. The year before you were born we had a terrible row. I heard news of her, through a common friend but after that day we never spoke again…

So, no, your parents didn’t choose me as guardian. Unfortunately, the person they did choose made some rather rash decisions… Storming Riddle’s office and trying to kill him, in some perverted attempt to seek justice, was certainly not the wisest course of action. The attempt was sloppy anyway and even had Riddle not been a wizard would probably not have succeeded. And well… prison isn’t exactly an acceptable place to raise a child… So you were brought to me, your next-of-kin. Admittedly, I didn’t want you at first, a painful reminder of my sister and our lifelong feud. But I’ve grown to love you over years and I’ve never regretted taking you in. I love you now as much as I love my own son. Don’t you ever let others make you doubt that fact. I love you, and I always will.”

“I love you too, Aunt Lily.”

---

A/N: Well what do you think? This little dribble just popped into my head the other night. I hope you enjoyed it. The next chapter of ADBWL is on it's way but I've been really busy lately and haven't much free time for writing so it might be a while... While you wait, please review this fic.