Potter/Voldemort Connections

[plinsenmayer at yahoo.com]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C862
From: plinsenmayer
Subject: Potter/Voldemort Connections
Date: 4/1/00 6:53 pm  (ET)

Hi:

Just posted this to the harrypotteranonymous onelist, so I apologize to
those of you who are on both lists/boards. Is there much overlap? I'm
always concerned that I'm posting about something that's already been
discussed: I can't keep the 3 HP lists that I'm on straight in my
mind. <g>

A friend (who I've been trying to persuade to join this group) and I
were discussing the question
of whether the similarities between Voldemort and Harry might indicate
a familial relationship of
some sort. I think the evidence is overwhelming that Harry's biological
parents are James & Lily
Potter. I would imagine Rowling wanted to be sure that people didn't
start thinking that it would be
revealed that Harry is Voldemort's son or something. But, could he be
a grandson of Voldemort??

I know it's been discussed on this board or on the harrypotteranonymous
listserve whether there
could be a family relationship between Voldemort and Harry through Lily
Potter's family. It was
suggested that maybe Tom Riddle's muggle father might have remarried
and had Lily & Petunia.
But, I thought that was probably unlikely since in Chamber Voldemort
(Riddle) is 66 and so his
father would be at least 84. Lily Potter would have been 30-42 at that
time, had she lived (assuming she had Harry sometime between the ages
of 18-30). So, it seems to me that it would be a stretch to try and
argue that the man who fathered Tom Riddle also fathered Lily Potter
(which would make Voldemort Harry's half-uncle if true).

But, in relating all of this to my friend, it occurred to me that there
could be a familial relationship through Harry's father's side. The
Potter surname is the problem. If Voldemort were James Potter's father
for example, how did James end up with the surname Potter? I conjectured
that maybe Riddle fathered James and, as his muggle father had done,
he abandoned James' mother. James' mother than remarried (a man named
Potter), and James took his stepfather (or adopted father's)surname. The
physical similarities between Voldemort and Harry are, after all,
similarities that James would share as well (black hair, slender build).

Thoughts?

Penny