Harry and the riddle of Riddle/Apparate or Die Trying

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 39452

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Edblanning at a... wrote:
> Ali:
> > The recent thread about Voldemort being Harry's grandfather has 
made me wonder about some of the half hints / foreshaowings, red 
herrings  or simple narrative that JKR has slotted into the text:
> >  "Whilst Harry was sure he had never heard the name T.M.Riddle 
before,  it still seemed to mean something to him, almost as though 
Riddle was  a friend he'd had when he was very small, and half-
forgotten" p174 
> > 

Eloise:
> 
> I have interpeted this as being to do with the connection between 
Harry and Voldemort. As there is a bit of Voldemort inside him, so 
there is a bit of Riddle. although it's interesting that Riddle's 
name meant something to him, when Voldemort's (and it's highly likely 
>he heard his name, isn't it?) didn't.
 

Naama:

I see it differently. The familiarity thing, IMO, is simply part of 
the insinuating magic of the Diary. For Memory!Riddle to work, the 
person holding the Diary must communicate with him via the Diary. So, 
you have a piece of Dark Magic that can operate only if it's victim 
voluntarily engages with it. There must be a lure, right? The sense 
of semi familiarity, curiosity, the inability to get rid of it - 
that's the way the magic of the Diary works on whoever holds it 
(i.e., Ginny was also drawn to the Diary in the same way).  If it 
didn't, Ginny and Harry would have simply thrown the shabby, empty 
little notebood away. 

<snip>

Eloise:
> 
> I have a niggle of my own here. I find it very hard to believe that 
Slytherin can have only one living descendent. Surely the whole thing 
with genetics and inheritance and stuff is that your descendents 
increase with every passing generation? That's why so many people can 
>trace themselves back to royalty. 

Me:

Yes, but lines can also die out. In the wizarding world, I assume 
that lines can die out not only through childnessness but also when 
the child is a squib. 

Eloise:

> The only way I can see it happening (barring ruthless culling of 
relatives) is that Slytherin and his descendents operated a strict 
one-child policy for the last thousand years, which seems a bit 
unlikely.
> 

Me:

Not necessarily. One descendent may have several children, some of 
whom die childless. 


Naama