[HPforGrownups] Re: Vauxhall Road and the Elixir of Life ( was The Diary (just where did V get

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 87022

On 13 Dec 2003 at 7:37, Geoff Bannister wrote:

> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
> wrote:
> 
> Geoff:
> > > Which raises the additional point of how Tom got hold of a 
> > diary from Vauxhall Road in 1942.
> 
> 
> Pippin:
> > He might have been working there. Although children were 
> > moved out of London, many teens found their way back. There 
> > was a deperate labor shortage in the factories  and orphans 
> > were routinely put to work at Tom's age in any case. Though I 
> > prefer to think of Tom skiving off his job and dealing in the black 
> > market.
> 
> Geoff:
> I think it unlikely in '42. He was at Hogwarts. He couldn't have had 
> a weekend job during term time and I can't wee the orphanage letting 
> him out to that sort of set up during the holidays.

A paid job, maybe not... although I wouldn't rule it out 
completely. At 15 (as he would have been around 1942) the orphanage 
authorities might have been concerned about his employment 
prospects - remember they wouldn't have wanted him to wind up 
unemployable when he was an adult and in Britain at that time, a 
lot of boys that age would have already been starting on their 
future careers - as apprentices for example. The concern in Tom's 
case might have been less because he was at a boarding school 
(presumably as far as the authorities were concerned a normal 
boarding school) but if he expressed interest in working during his 
holidays and was able to show them a job, I suspect he'd have been 
allowed to do it. Yes, they probably wouldn't have let him do 
anything incredibly dangerous - but a delivery boy, something like 
that - quite plausible.

An alternative - he could have been a boy scout (or something 
similar) - though Voldemort as a scout is an amusing idea to him. 
Boy scouts were volunteers during the war and were used quite 
extensively for a lot of things.

A lot of people might be surprised at the age some people were 
doing very dangerous things during World War II.

"By the end of the World War 2 more than 60,000 Scouts had been 
awarded the National Service Badge for their work at home. They had 
worked as First Aid orderlies, signallers, telephonists, Air Raid 
Precaution (ARP) messengers, stretcher-bearers, Coast Watch, Home 
Guard instructors and Rest Centre assistants. They had made 
camouflage nets, helped evacuate thousands of younger children from 
bombed city centres, harvested millions of tonnes of food and 
animal fodder, chopped wood on a massive scale (around 600,000 
hours), and salvaged glass, metal and rubber for re-use.

However, it was the service performed by Scouts during air raids 
and the Blitz on London that showed outstanding courage and 
application of the words of the Scout Promise and Law. 80 young 
Scouts were given Scouting gallantry medals, and in London, 
Coventry and Liverpool the Silver Cross (Scouting) was awarded to 
entire Troops."

Children of Tom Riddle's age *were* allowed to do dangerous work in 
World War II. It did happen. 

So I don't think he would have been particularly stopped from working.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia