BRAVE Riddle / Voldemort-Potter connection

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 40317

I had:
> > A comment on the fact that brave is capitalized when Riddle 
> > describes himself as "parentless, but so BRAVE." ...  Voldemort 
> > may be ever-so-evil, but he's not a wimp...

And Eloise (who really didn't need to apologize for the Latin 
discusison) replied:
> ... I always read that the opposite way: that the 'bravery' in 
> question was just part of the act that Riddle was putting on....
> I interpret it as his mocking the gullibility of Dippet... 
> BTW, is it really capitalised? in my UK version, it's italicised...

Ah, that's a good interpretation; in fact, I think I like it better 
than my own.  (And you are right, it's italicized, not capitalized.) 


Now, about whether Harry is related to Riddle, Eloise noted:
> Dumbledore... tells us that Voldemort is Slytherin's only remaining 
> descendent. If this is correct, Harry *cannot* be Riddle's grandson. 

I used this argument, too, a while back.  However, someone then noted 
that the passage reads last surviving descendent in some versions of 
the book, and last surviving *ancestor* in other versions. JKR was 
asked about this is an interview, and said something like "You've 
noticed the deliberate error."  At first, I thought she ment the 
publisher had made an error, but in retrospect, I wonder if perhaps 
*Dumbledore* was supposed to have made a deliberate error, and said 
"ancestor" hoping Harry would think he meant "descendent."  So,  
perhaps Voldemort is Slytherin's ancestor, in which case Harry could 
be Slytherin's and/or Voldemort's descendent. Of course, for this to 
be true, someone would have had to travel back in time (Voldemort, 
Slytherin, or some other ancestor of Syltherin's.) 

The argument that Voldemort truly is descended from Slytherin, not the 
other way around, comes from the "Heir of Slytherin" chapter of CoS.  
Here, Tom Riddle says "I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar 
Slytherin himself, though my mother's side?"  If Riddle was 
Slytherin's ancestor, it might still make sense to say that 
Slytherin's blood ran through his veins, but it wouldn't make sense to 
describe it as on "my mother's side".  (And, it would be weird that 
he is called the "heir" of Slytherin.) Of course, at age 15 maybe 
Riddle didn't know how he was related to Slytherin, and simply guessed 
that he was descended from Slytherin via his mother. And "heir" could 
just refer to inheriting the Chamber of Secrets, rather than to being 
a descendent.

Judy Serenity