Riddle's Ancestry (was How did Harry survive Voldemort's attack as a baby?

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 11981

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., pbnesbit at m... wrote:
> > but why then would [the Death Eaters] they support
> > Voldemort if he had a muggle [parent]?

I think JKR did that to point out the irrationality of the Death 
Eaters, and perhaps as a parallel to the wide-spread rumor that 
Hitler, who wanted to exterminate all Jews from the face of the 
Earth, had a Jewish grandparent. 

> It was Riddle's *father* who was the muggle.  In CoS, p. 231 UK 
> edition, Voldemort explains how he "became" Voldemort.  'I, keep 
> the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me before I was
> born, just because he found out his wife was a witch?'...
> This is the reason (IMO) that Voldemort hates people born of muggle 
> parentage.

I agree with you about this quite probably being the reason why 
Voldemort hates Muggles (perhaps partly also because of having 
been treated badly in the Muggle orphanage), and then spread his 
hatred from Muggles to half-Muggles. It surely is the reason why he 
murdered his father and grandparents (was that the first thing he did 
upon leaving school, or was he on holiday?).

However, I keep thinking (and saying) that what Tom Riddle, Jr 
believes about his parents might not be the exact truth: I wrote this 
up in detail in a post titled Tom Marvolo Riddle which is archived at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/9903