Tom Riddle

[Simon J. Branford]

No: HPFGUIDX 2889

Peg wrote: "Well, Tom Riddle had come up with his nome de evil at Hogwarts,
although I don't think he told anyone the name while he was there."

In CoS (Chapter 17 - page 231 UK edition, page 314 US edition - I think the
page numbers are correct) he says to Harry: "It was a name I was already
using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I
was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins
runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I,
keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was
born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry - I
fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day
fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

Peg wrote: "I don't think he did much to establish an adult identity as Tom
Riddle.  Think about it: no credit rating.  Probably no record of marriage
or owning a home.  As far as his victims knew, he arrived on the scene,
fully blown, as Lord Voldemort.  Not much for newspaper reporters (or
historians) to go on) if he kept the two identities separate and switched
from one to the other upon graduation (particularly if he laid mostly low
for several years in between--perhaps off in Transylvania comparing notes
with the vampires?)"

And to think the whole mystery would have been solved if only someone took a
little attention to anagrams!
It does leave the question of what people thought had happened to Tom
Riddle. He is supposedly one of the greatest students ever to go to Hogwarts
and then he goes missing. Did anyone make any enquires?
Or do we get left with the answer that Lord Voldemort killed Tom Riddle
(this idea is taken from some film - Star Wars?).

Simon