Thoughts about Voldy

[urghiggi]

No: HPFGUIDX 79146

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tom Wall" <thomasmwall at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> There is also an interesting distinction to be made regarding all of 
> this `Heir' stuff, and that is this:
> An `Heir' is not the same thing as a `descendent.'
> 
> In other words, being related to Salazar Slytherin doesn't 
> automatically make you the `Heir of Slytherin' except in the loosest 
> terms of lineage. Yes, Tom Riddle's mother was descended from 
> Slytherin, and from what we know about Slytherin's Heir, the Chamber 
> of Secrets could not be found (or, supposedly, opened) by any but 
> Slytherin's true `Heir.' In other words, we are never told that 
> *she* was Slytherin's Heir, either.
> 
> In this sense, `Heir' doesn't indicate simple relation. It indicates 
> something more specific... almost a kind of quest-related-
> inheritance. After all, we know that the only way to open the 
> Chamber is through speaking Parseltongue, and it's not a foregone 
> conclusion that all of Slytherin's descendents would be able to 
> speak Parseltongue. Therefore the true 'Heir' of Salazar Slytherin's 
> noble work would have to possess this particular skill.
> 
>>

Good on ya, Tom. So do I gather that you're saying that LV IS the 'heir' as well 
as the 'descendant' of Salazar Slytherin? (Since there is that pesky interview 
by JKR confirming that 'descendant' IS what she meant to write in CoS, not 
'ancestor'?)

I sure don't see any other viable candidates out there for either honor.

urghiggi, Chgo