The Riddle House Riddle

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 49778

Who owns the Riddle House?

Short Answer; Voldemort does.

>From the summary given in the opening chapter of GoF it is clear that the 
house changed hands any number of times after the murders took place there. 
At that time Tom Riddle was a youngster who still had his fortune to make  
and there wasn't really much of anything that he could have done about the 
house, even if it had occured to him to want to.

25 years later he launched his career as a Dark Lord and over the next 11 
years gathered a great many followers and much influence -- and probably a 
good deal of money as well.

A couple of possible hints we have are: 

1. The house has belonged to its absent "rich owner" and has stood unoccupied 
for some time. (at least 13 years, perhaps?)

2. Voldemort *knew* that the house was unoccupied and available for his use 
without contacting *any* of his followers upon his return to England.

3. Tom Riddle was raised in the Muggle world and knows something of how such 
things are managed in it.

I propose the theory that, at some point in his first rise to power, 
Voldemort decided, upon whatever whim, to add his grandfather's house to his 
holdings. He may have dropped by to take a look at the old place and found 
that it was vacant and available (What other DE would have had any reason to 
do this?). It might have seemed like a "sign" or like an an appropriate thing 
to do. That the only witness to his crime was still employed on the site 
might even have seemed a bonus, since that way he knew exactly where the man 
(who was certainly no threat to *him*) was and could keep track of him 
without the slightest bit of effort merely by keeping him on the payroll. 

It's possible that he confided in the transaction with one of his high 
ranking followers, but I actually think that he set this up through Muggle 
channels, set up an independent account and an executor to see that Bryce was 
paid, and the taxes were taken care of, and kept the information to himself. 
(If any of the DEs had known of it I suspect that they'd have taken the place 
apart looking for clues after his disapearance, and that does not seem to be 
the case.)

-JOdel