[HPforGrownups] Tom Riddle's mother - an important question...

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 68864

Cindy wrote:

> I'll just get straight to the question, and if anyone has any theories
> or answers about this, I'll be glad to hear them!
> Tom Riddle is the heir of Slytherin because his mother was a direct
> descendant of Salazar Slytherin - so the original Slytherin's blood
> was running through her veins, and is now in Tom Riddle...
> That means that Tom Ridddle's mother would have been in Slytherin
> house at her time in Hogwarts, assuming that she went to Hogwarts.

I don't think we can assume that.  Ancestry isn't the only
criterion the Sorting Hat uses, surely.  Since Tom never knew his
mother, and =we= don't know much about her except that she
married a muggle (see below), there's no way of telling whether
she was a Slytherin-type person, even if she was Salazar's
descendant.  Cf. Sirius Black, who certainly would have had lots
of Slytherins in his family tree, but who (the betting is) Sorted
into Gryffindor.

> Where did Salazar migrate to when he left Hogwarts castle? Somewhere
> near Durmstrang, perhaps - I don't know... Anyway, the question is:
> Why did Tom Riddle's mother marry a muggle?! She must have known
> something about her family tree and bloodline (as all purebloods are
> interrelated and seem to take great pride in knowing where they come
> from - tapestry in ootp).

Maybe she was a rebel, like Andromeda Black Tonks.  Maybe it was
hormones.  People marry for lots of different reasons, and some
of them only =seem= to make sense at the time.  :)

Then of course there's the school of thought that says her
supposed "marriage" to Tom Riddle Sr. was a polite fiction....


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>