[HPforGrownups] Digest Number 2468

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 50909

Tom proposes;

>>I'm leaning now towards something like this: Riddle is contacted by 
Grindelwald or one of his agents at Hogwarts while he's still at school, and 
he disappears after school in order to seek out the Dark Lord and formally 
begin training under him. Some of that ensues, until Dumbledore,  who already 
suspected Riddle of foul play re: Hagrid, realizes what is going on, and goes 
off to hunt down Grindelwald. <<

Let's fine tune this and give it some background shading. This may be 
completely out in left field, but we've got another five months before/if we 
get any new data, and there isn't anything in human nature to say that it's 
automatically *wrong*...

Along about the opening of the 20th century there is a group of wizards who 
are willing to use the Dark Arts to get what they want. Given that the 
ramifications of prejudice pereate the series we'll suppose that these are a 
cadre of die-hard pureblood fanatics who have already lost the battle, but 
refuse to be beaten. (Indeed, every time I try to postulate a workable 
history of the WW in seclusion I end up coming to the conclusion that the 
19th century was the age of the Mudblood. The fact that, by those notes of 
Rowlings, the current wizarding world is about 25% Muggle-born and 50% of 
mixed ancestry, the population numbers must have been desparately inadequate 
by the time they started searching for magical births outside the secluded WW 
in order to offset natural attrition. And that charmed quill just strikes me 
as a basically 19th century piece of technology.) They can see that their 
pureblood distinction is being eaten away and that ultimately no wizard will 
be free of Muggle "contamination" and they just cannot lie down and accept 
it. Some of these wizards probably *are* old enough to remember when the WW 
was primarily composed of purebloods and are drowning in Nostalgia for their 
golden youth. And they invoke (and quite possibly distort) the memory of 
Salazar Slytherin and his anti-Muggle-born sentiments [for which, 900 years 
earlier, he may have had strong, rational, compelling reasons] as their 
inspiration. Quite a few (although probably not all) of these old geezers 
were probably Slytherins in their school days and, well, get a lot of the old 
house boys together and somebody is bound to drag out the old moldy fig of 
the Chamber of Secrets and Slytherin's heir.

And there is still one known decendent of Salazar Slytherin left alive at the 
time. A witch, unfortunately. And one who left for the Muggle world after 
leaving school. I suspect that these factors were enough to keep the geezer 
brigade from searching her out in favor of trying to trace some more likely 
poster child for their movement. By the time it is clear that there is no 
other heir, it is too late. The witch is dead, and her son is lost in some 
Muggle orphanage (which characteristically changed the names of the children 
entrusted to them at that point of time. Particulary the names of infants). 

Somebody is high enough placed to get a look at the quill's list. The boy is 
one Tom (Thomas?) Marvolo Riddle. born in late '26 or early '27, and since 
he's on the list will be getting a Hogwarts letter for the fall term of '38. 
It's likely that it took them several years before they were resigned to 
tracing his mother (and him), or you would have expected them to send some 
plausible couple to "adopt" him out of the Muggle institution, wouldn't you? 
In any case, they didn't. Instead they either set one of their group in 
place, or won over a member of Hogwarts' staff to their cause and waited for 
young Tom to show up at school.

And when he did, they pounced. We are talking about a lone child whose early 
upbringing was probably no kinder than Harry Potter's, even if it might have 
held less personal hostility on the part of his caretakers (although if Tom 
had anything like the kind and number of magical breakthroughs that plagued 
Harry, the hostility would have developed) and possibly one that was far 
colder. Where Harry had to fend with deliberate malice on the part of the 
Dursleys, Tom would more likely have been dealt with by the cool hand of 
indiference and institutionalized dehumanization. (And, as I've pointed out 
in an earlier post, this was a child who did *not* get the advantage of an 
early grounding of 15 months as a loved, wanted child.)

What is more, this was a child who chose "greatness" and was sorted into 
Slytherin. Into Slytherin, with all the "advantages" of mixed blood, dire 
poverty and a Muggle upbringing. I really don't think that the qualities that 
are valued in Slytherin House have changed markedly since Riddle's day.

And now, suddenly, there is an adult who has taken an interest in him! Who 
seems to *like* him! Somebody who knew his *family*! Somebody who feeds him 
the story of his noble, tragic mother and her perfidious Muggle husband. 
Somebody who can indoctrinate him in the traditions of his proud Slytherin 
lineage. Someone who can coach him, and teach him, and guide his choices. So 
long as he performs well. And he does. Oh, he does.

His treatment at the hands of Muggles has given him no defenses. When it 
turns out that he is a parslemouth as well, it is read as a sign and a 
portent. He searches for Slytherin's sceret chamber as a prize to "prove" 
himself to his mentor (although he, most interestingly, does not share the 
information with him once he finds it. Had he already begun to form his own 
goals separate from those of his patrons? It seems very likely). Clearly 
Dumbledore was not the only person at Hogwarts to doubt Hagrid's part in the 
death of young Myrtle. But neither of the others were talking.

Now something else that we don't know was whether Dumbledore was also serving 
as head of Gryffandor House at the time of Hagrid's expulsion. If this is the 
case, it stands to reason that he would have *known* Hagrid. Would have known 
him very well, in fact, since you can just tell that Hagrid is the kind of 
student who is always in trouble of some kind or other. 

And where Dumbledore had simply been somewhat cooler than the average 
instructor toward Riddle prior to Hagrid's expulsion (due to a lack of 
sympathy with the staff member who had taken the boy up, perhaps? Seems 
likely. May in fact have regarded the mentor as a bad influence and held some 
reservations regarding Tom because of it) afterwards he took a more personal 
interest in the boy, himself. Enough so that we can conclude that Dumbledore, 
who was certainly on Hogwarts staff in the sprig of '43, when the Chamber was 
opened, remained on staff there at least until the end of the spring term of 
'45 merely by the fact that the Chamber remained closed due to the watch that 
Dumbledore kept on Riddle. 

Now where I depart from your theory is that I think the incident which set 
Dumbledore on the track was the masacre of the Riddle family in the summer of 
'45. Probably only a week or so after school let out. Dumbledore may or may 
not have been reading Muggle newspapers that early in his career, but it 
stands to reason that three AKs in a Muggle village would have alerted some 
Ministry department. That would certainly have spurred an investigation of 
some sort, even if only to cover up the use of magic. Frank Bryce's sighting 
of a pale, dark-haired teenage boy about the place the night of the deaths 
would have led investigating Aurors back to Hogwarts where the name Riddle 
would have made a solid connection. (This was the point of and the real 
reason for Tom's long dissapearance , imho. Murdering Muggles is somewhat 
frowned on, after all.) 

Dumbledore, however, doesn't really ascribe to the "bad seed" theory of human 
behavior. He never much cared for Riddle's mentor and his worldview, and 
started following Riddle's backtrail. Somewhere, he came across the code name 
"Grindlewald" and that may have connected with something already under 
investigation in the Ministry. Dumbledore's information helped them to crack 
the case, and it was Albus, who knew the man personally (possibly not the 
same wizard as Tom's mentor, but part of the same group) who was able to get 
close enough to come to grips with him and, when he put up a fight, to defeat 
him. 

Since it was not "Grindlewald" who had killed the Riddle family, it was 
probably some other activity which he was prosecuted for. Since the only 
thing we know of him is that he was a Dark Wizard, most probably it was 
something to do with his activities in the Dark Arts. 

Now, I do not recall any statement in canon where it is outright said that 
the Dark Arts are illegal in Britian. Some curses are unforgivable (and we do 
not even know that those are Dark curses, for that matter) some potions, and 
other substances, are highly controlled. But that the Dark Arts are *illegal* 
is assumed, but never stated, IIRC. My own suspcions on that subject are that 
they are *not* illegal, just closely regulated. (The fact that they are 
openly taught at Durmstrang suggests that they are regarded to be an 
established and formally recognized branch of wizardry.) I suspect that in 
Britian, one may need a liscence to practice them, there may be a Ministry 
board of regulations and regular inspections, and all sorts of other 
administrivia applied to the use of them, but that they are not in themselves 
unlawful. These regulations are necessary because this is a particularly 
dangerous branch of magic and is as dangerous to the caster as to its 
subjects. (And the majority of Dark wizards eventually "lose it" and become a 
hazard to their families and their neighbors unless strong precautions are 
taken and *never* relaxed.) We do not know whether the modern day view of the 
matter was already in place as early as the mid 1940s but some degree of 
legislation is bound to have been in place. I am of the oppinion that certain 
respected Dark Arts consultants are on retainer with the Ministry and called 
upon when their expertice is needed to unravel a problem. I also suspect that 
some members of the Malfoy family have always served the Ministry in this 
function. 

As to Grindlewald; he was sent to Azkaban, and as usually happens went 
barking mad there and probably either died before his term was finished, or 
was transfered to St. Mungos upon its completion. Certainly Grindlewald 
himself is not an issue any more. 

As to Grindlewald's geezers; well, it isn't illegal to believe that 
pureblooded wizards are the best. It isn't illegal to preach that belief on 
streetcorners, either. Or to indoctrinate schoolboys with the same views. 
Whatever Grindlewald had planned may not even have gone far enough to have 
been shared with his "organization". Some of the old boys undoubtedly had 
done something which got them a stint in Azkaban, or a stiff fine, or a slap 
on the wrist. Many had broken no law and were merely somewhat embarassed. (I 
suspect that Fudge's father was one of those.) There wasn't necessarily 
anything the Ministry could do about them. As far as the Ministry was 
concerned they had nipped it in the bud, and there was no further danger. 

I'm sure Dumbledore wasn't entirely convinced. And there was still the small 
matter of a fugitive paricide who had seemingly dropped off the face of the 
earth. 

In fact, Grindlewald's aims may have been very different from Riddle's. We do 
not know this. And Rowling may never tell us. 

But it is interesting to spin theories.

-JOdel