Slytherins heir? Says who?

[bkb042]

No: HPFGUIDX 43571

     How did Riddle discover that he was the Heir of Slytherin, 
anyway? In CoS, Diary!Riddle, while talking to Harry in the Chamber, 
claims that the blood of Slytherin runs in his veins through his 
mother's side, yet in the graveyard scene of GoF, Voldemort states 
that his mother died giving birth to him. So how did he find out? 
It's not the kind of thing that his father would have told him about 
even if he had been involved in the childs' upbringing. Nor would it 
have been included in whatever records were kept at the orphanage 
where he grew up.(This would be in the late 20's to early30's if Tom 
finished at Hogwarts in the spring of '45). Is there a geneology 
section in the Hogwarts library? If so, why hasn't Harry used it?

     One explaination would be the ability to speak parseltongue. 
Again, in the Chamber, Diary!Riddle describes himself and Harry 
as "probably the only two Parselmouths to attend Hogwarts since the 
great Slytherin himself". A thousand years since Slytherin left 
Hogwarts and then TWO parselmouths in the same century? Diary!
Riddle's use of the word "probably" was prudent because there's no 
way for him to know for sure.  After the incedent at the duelling 
club, Ron tells Harry that "it's not a very common gift". Either 
this is the understatement of the year, or the ability just isn't 
seen (or heard, for that matter) in England very often. If the gift 
was as rare as Diary!Riddle seems to think, why would Harry's use of 
it create the stir that it did? It would show up so seldom that no 
one would have memory of it, and nothing would be written about it 
other than through association with Slytherin, probably as a 
footnote in his official bio. Dumbldore speculates that the ability 
was passed to Harry on the night that Voldemort's AK rebounded. Let 
us not forget that GINNY, while posessed by Diary!Riddle, opened the 
Chamber both to release (and presumably command) the basilisk, and 
also to enter the Chamber herself towards the end of CoS. This gives 
evidence that the ability can be imparted through an enchated item 
such as the diary.

     Working hypothesis: Riddle, as a first year, read the Slytherin 
bio and was intrigued by the legend of the Chamber of Secrets. He 
then began to study all that he could over the next few years about 
Slytherin himself, and his research eventually took him into the 
restricted section of the library. Being a favorite of almost the 
entire faculty (Dumbledore excepted), such access should not have 
posed much of a difficulty.  It was in the restricted section, that 
he obtained the clues to give him the location of the entrance to 
the Chamber. At this point in my theory, I should point out that I 
do not believe he was a parselmouth. He had found the tap with the 
snake scratched on it and dedeuced the parseltongue "password". He 
then transfigured himself into a snake in order to open the tunnel.
 (I am not suggesting that he was an animagus; Animagi transform at 
will but wizards can transfigure themselves with spells as evidenced 
by Krum in the second trial of the Triwizard tournament.)
 This is how he gained access to the Chamber and it's contents. One 
of the items I think he discovered was a "Last Will and Testament" 
which was enchanted with some of the essence of Salazar Slytherin in 
much the same way that the diary was imbued with a little of Tom 
Riddle. It was after Tom's possession by this document that he  
literally became Slytherin's heir, AND aquired the ability to speak 
parseltongue because, in a sense, Slytherin HIMSELF now lives!

     Prediction: The Chamber of Secrets will be the room to be 
revisited. I fail to understand why Dumbledore hadn't pulled Harry 
out of class in order to open the Chamber for him at some point in 
the last two books, or why the twins didn't cajole him into it for 
the purpose of exploring.

I await your criticisms with clenched teeth and closed eyes. Be 
gentle!

bkb042