[HPforGrownups] Tom Riddle's backstory

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 70604

ratalman:
> Why was Tom Riddle raised in a muggle orphanage, if he had a
> witch mother?  Aren't there orphanages in the wizarding world?
> To me, it would have made more sense for him to have been
> taken in by a wizard's orphanage, or the like, unless his mother
> had already completely disavowed her magical connections.
> Did she do that?  I had always thought that Tom's father
> abandoned Tom's mother when he learned she was a witch.
> Maybe he actually stuck around long enough for Tom to be born.
> Where did she give birth?

And another question: why did she give birth in the muggle world rather than
the WW? I would have imagined that childbirth is one of the areas to which
WW healers address themselves, and as a result it would probably have been
much safer to give birth as a witch than as a muggle. And why did she die
shortly afterwards. Not uncommon for muggles at the time but why Tom's
mother?

I wouldn't have thought that Mr Riddle would have stuck around. Men rarely
did in those days, especially when (as seems to have happened) he was rich.

Where did she give birth? Possibly at home (which was normal) but also
possibly in the workhouse hospital.

I don't think there are WW orphanages - maybe that's to do with the fact
that most pureblood wizards are related - possibly it's quite rare for
someone to be orphaned and to have _no_ surviving relatives.

So who was Tom's mother related to, and where were they? Did they chuck her
out of the family line when she got involved with a muggle? Maybe there's a
cigarette burn on someone's family tapestry where she used to be!

Another problem here is how long after she gave birth did she die? It
strikes me as strange that she was able to

- tell the muggle authorities the father's name and insist that Tom should
have his father's surname - very unusual that
- tell them what his first names should be
- leave some means of telling young Tom what his ancestry was

before she died.

One possibility is that the scandal was "common gossip" among the staff at
the orphanage and it was used as another means of abuse of Tom - taunting
him with his bastardy. Though why, if the authorities knew that Riddle was
the father, they didn't pursue him for maintenance? After all, Tom's not an
orphan - his father is alive!

> And how did Tom receive his letter of acceptance to Hogwarts
> while he was living in a muggle orphanage?  I should think that
> that sort of thing would be very difficult to explain, having an owl
> making a delivery to a public institution, and would necessitate
> many muggles being let in on the secrets of the magical world.
> Wouldn't there be lots of difficult questions asked by the folks in
> charge of the orphanage?

There would have needed to be some memory work done to make the orphanage
authorities not react with surprise at the fact that he was

- going away to school
- coming back again in the holidays

but not impossible, I'm sure - possibly the same spell is used when a
child's parents would otherwise refuse to let them go.

> How did he get the money needed to attend Hogwarts?  Did his
> father provide funds for him?  Perhaps the mysterious
> gentleman who paid the gardener for tending the Riddle estate
> all those years is/was Tom's behind-the-scenes benefactor.  I've
> wondered if that could have been someone in the Malfoy family...,
> but now I'm not so sure.

I don't think that Riddle sr would have paid. If he had been willing to do
his duty as a father, Tom wouldn't have ended up in the orphanage. More
likely it's just that Hogwarts isn't a fee charging school.

Though it's also interesting to speculate as to how Tom was able to get his
robes, books, train fare to King's Cross, and so on.

Cheers

Ffred


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