Mrs. Riddle (was: Re: Grindelwald)

[mrnipha]

No: HPFGUIDX 76178

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "bibphile" <bibphile at y...>
wrote: 
> Robyn:
> > Why did she have no one to turn to at the time of her death?  Why 
> > would she choose a life for herself and her child apart from
other 
> > magical people?
> 
> That is a bit harder to answer.  Maybe all of her family was dead.  
> I'm not sure if there even are wizard orphanages.  Maybe she wasn't 
> living as a muggle at all.  She could have been walking from home
to 
> work when she went into labor.  (I don't know if witches can 
> apparate late in pregnancy.)
> 

If her family was anything like the Black's (or Malfoy's, etc.) 
marrying a muggle would get her disowned.  We don't know how long they
were married before she told Tom Sr. that she was a witch, but
obviously she had been living as a muggle before that time.  If she
didn't have any wizarding friends, or lost them when she married a
muggle, she could have been living as a muggle until she died.  She
obviously didn't have any wizarding friends or family that could or
would, take in a baby ("dirty half-breed" to quote Mrs. Black),
otherwise Tom Jr. wouldn't have grown up in an orphanage.  We live in
an age where there are many examples of mixed marriages, but Tom Jr.
was born in an age that in the American Midwest a mixed marriage was a
German Catholic marrying a Swedish Lutheran.

> Robyn:
> > Moreover, the fact that Tom Sr abandoned her upon learning she 
> > was a witch, certainly does not suggest that "he" was an 
> > enlightened person, and non-prejudiced himself.  Why would 
> > she choose "him"?
> 
> She may not have known he was prejudice.  He may not have shown it 
> until she told him she was a witch.  (Even Seamus's mother didn't 
> tell her husband until after they were married and we have no
reason 
> to think he's prejudice so her not telling doesn't indicate she had 
> a particular reason to fear his reaction.)
>  

Replace witch with illegitimate child or any other taboo back in the
late '20s that wasn't physically apparent, and yes, stuff like that
really happened.

> Robyn:
> > I'm wondering whether there is still much to learn about the 
> > parents of T.M. Riddle.
> 
> Maybe.  But I see no reason to assume Mrs. Riddle was anything
other 
> than a witch that fell in love with a muggle.
> 
> bibphile

The only aspect that I could see that would be of interest to the
story would be her family, and only if it played into some storyline.
The facts that we do know, that Tom Jr. is the last descendent of
Slytherin, would suggest that those linkages would be unlikely and far
removed (i.e. Snape's great-great-aunt Zelda was Tom Jr.'s
grandmother).

just my random thoughts

MrNipha