Voldemort's childhood

[Tom Wall <thomasmwall@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50881

Andrea writes:
I picture a pregnant Mrs. Riddle, abandoned by 
her husband for being magic and cast out by her 
family for consorting with a Muggle, knowing she 
was weak and there's a strong possibility she 
won't survive the birth. So she writes out a long 
letter to her unborn child, which she gives to someone
at the orphanage and insists he be given the letter 
at a certain age.
<snip> 
Either way, the letter would have also mentioned her 
own family and the legend that's been passed down 
about Slytherin's Heir.

Annemehr writes:
Alternatively, if you don't want to suppose that 
Riddle's mother feared she would not survive childbirth, 
Riddle could have found out about his mother's family 
after his arrival at Hogwarts. It would be easy to 
believe that there would be *someone* there he could 
ask about the name "Marvolo", who would remember the 
man himself (Riddle's grandfather), and could tell 
him very much. Riddle probably found out all he could 
from different people and began putting things together.

I reply:
I see the synthesis of these two to be, actually, very 
similar to Harry's own situation, and given their other
similarities, it seems to me the most likely route. 

I figure that Riddle was probably picked up at the 
orphanage by some envoy of Hogwarts after the requisite 
letters were sent. He was probably brought to the 
school, and told briefly about his background by Dippet 
or someone(s) else there.  And he had friends, too, he 
says, so it wouldn't surprise me if he somehow 
befriended someone who would have known his mother 
and/or Marvolo.

As for the letter from mother to son, I really don't 
see that as a possibility. First of all, I know that 
orphanages are VERY tight about what information 
they allow to be passed to the kids from the parents 
(for the kids' own stability - you know - rejection 
and all that being a super-sensitive subject,) and 
they DEFINITELY wouldn't allow a sealed letter to be 
passed to a kid without checking it first.  So, can 
you *imagine* the head of the orphanage opening a 
letter about wizardry and magical lineage? 

It'd be gone pronto.

Once he was told about the name Marvolo, he probably 
would have researched his own lineage as far back as 
he could.  How he stumbled on the information that he 
might be Slytherin's heir, we can only guess, but I'll 
bet that it had something to do with his ability to speak 
Parseltongue.

Then, with all of his resentment of his father (whom he
probably never met until he killed him and his grandparents
in Little Hangleton,) you can see how the festering
anger and the desire for retribution, combined with
the *possibilty* that he could be Slytherin's heir, 
would exhort him to seek out the Chamber of Secrets.

-Tom