Tom Riddle and orphanage

[bookraptor11 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 28429

Something that's been bothering me for a while, and I don't think 
it's been discussed, at least not in the past six months (I tried to 
check the posts).

Why is Tom Riddle put in a muggle orphanage?  I know his father 
didn't want him, or may not have known about him.  He could have 
walked out before Tom's mom even knew she was pregnant.  His mother 
didn't have any living relatives apparantly.  However, you would 
think the wizard world would make some provision for orphans, a good 
friend of the family, foster care or something.

Every child who is born a wizard is recorded and a letter is 
automatically sent when it's time to go to Hogwart's, so it's not as 
if nobody knew he existed. Some spell must have been worked 
so the head of the orphanage would think nothing of sending him off 
to school and seeing him come back every summer.  I don't think 
that's usual proceedure for an orphanage to send a child off to 
boarding school, they'd be educated locally.

It's also strange that once he's in Hogwarts and is so talented, head 
boy, etc., that he doesn't make friends who would take him in over 
the holidays and summer. In COS he asks the headmaster if he can stay 
that summer, and can't because of the basilisk.  Even when he frames 
Hagrid, and the troubles end, there's no evidence that he get to stay.
That's another question, I guess, maybe with all his talent and 
popularity with the teachers (except Dumbledore), maybe he wasn't as 
liked by the students?

Donna