Do the DEs know that Voldemort is Tom Riddle? (Was: Snape as a Spy. . .)

[yolandacarroll]

No: HPFGUIDX 86570

> Yolanda wrote:
> > So some of the higher-up, older Deatheaters should 
> > know that Voldemort was Tom Riddle.  I also think 
> > that at least some of them knew he was a half-blood.  
> > Tom was in Slytherin surrounded by pure-bloods and 
> > half-bloods who'd grown up in the WW, however Tom 
> > had grown up around muggles.  Even if Tom knew he 
> > was a wizard before receiving his Hogwarts letter, 
> > he would not know details about the WW. Tom's 
> > ignorance of the WW would have stood out, so at 
> > least some of his classmates, and thus some of his 
> > first DEs, would have known his half-blood status.  
> 
> 
> Carol wrote:
> Unfortunately for us, Voldemort is so much older than the other
> characters except for Hagrid, McGonagall, Dumbledore and possibly 
the
> older Weasleys, none of whom became Death Eaters, that we really 
have
> no way of testing this theory. None of the current batch of Death
> Eaters, as far as we know, is of Tom's own generation (in their
> sixties or thereabouts). The oldest we know of is Avery, who was 
49 in
> GoF IIRC. 
<snip>

I (Yolanda) wrote:
If older deatheaters persuaded their children to join, 
then they may or may not have passed on the knowledge 
that Voldemort was a half-blood.  It wouldn't have to 
be their own children either, it could be a younger 
deatheaters that you had close relationships with.  
We don't know for sure that this did or did not happen.

The fact is that some of the older deatheaters knew.  
Considering how other secrets get out in the WW, there 
is a possibility that at least some of the current 
deatheaters, beside Malfoy, know that Voldemort is 
a half-blood.

<snip>
Carol wrote:
> Also, I very much doubt that Young Tom let his lack of knowledge 
stand
> out. Unlike Harry, he would not have asked questions, and he would
> have kept his eyes and ears open, especially once he realized the
> contempt in which most Slytherins held muggle-borns. He later 
became a
> Prefect, which suggests that he was something of a leader of the
> Slytherins he knew.
<snip>

I (Yolanda) wrote:
I agree.  I didn't put this in my earlier post, 
because I thought it would make it a bit long.  
My theory was that at first, Tom would have been 
eager and inquisitive about learning magic and 
learning about the WW.  He would soon learn to 
hide his half-blood status, but that first year 
he'd let something slip.

Since Slytherins are so purity-conscious and many 
of them are related to and know of each other, some 
of his classmates would have asked him about his 
family, because they wouldn't recognize his last 
name which came from his muggle father.  In the 
beginning, at least, he would have let his muggleborn 
status slip, but then once he understood the politics 
of Slytherin house and the WW, which wouldn't take 
a smart kid like Riddle long to figure out, he'd hide 
his half-blood status.

Carol wrote:
> What we need to test this theory are some Slytherins in their 
sixties.
> Lucius Malfoy would do nicely; so, probably, would Snape's. But we
> don't know what became of either of them. Sirius Black's parents 
let
> their younger son join the Death Eaters, a move I'm sure they would
> have discouraged if they suspected him of being a half-blood.
> 
> So for now, I'm assuming that Tom got away with his unspoken lie 
as he
> later got away with murder.

I think you meant to put "Lucius Malfoy's parents 
would do nicely".  I understood it though.  Seeing 
older deatheaters would help, however I'm afraid 
that Voldemort's half-blood status was a secret 
within the deatheaters.  Only his "most intimate 
friends" at Hogwarts knew, so we're talking about 
a small group.  The question is how may of them 
dared tell other, possibly younger, deatheaters 
Voldemort's secret.  I think this number will be
small, but I also think that at least one or two
of them shared Voldemort's secret.

Yolanda