[HPforGrownups] Re: BRAVE Riddle / Voldemort-Potter connection

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 40319

Judy:
> 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."  
> 

I decided not to get into the ancestor business. But I should have known 
better: there's always a LOON around somewhere.....;-)

This may be terribly crass. If it is, please forgive me, only this has been 
brought up enough times for me to begin to wonder whether this just *could* 
be one of those English usage things. I'm sure I'm stating the obvious, but, 
in British usage at least, 'Ah, you've noticed the deliberate error,' is such 
a common way of admitting a mistake (perhaps JKR's, rather than the editor's, 
hence the tongue-in-cheek response?) that I've always taken it to be just 
that. As Judy so graphically demonstrates, you have to jump through a lot of 
rings to get 'ancestor' to make any sense.

Eloise,
glad that Judy liked her *brave* Riddle interpretation.



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