[HPforGrownups] Re: Speculation on Tom Riddle's origins

[Lissa B]

No: HPFGUIDX 57382

> <Large snip of theory of Harry and Ginny being Riddle's parents>

Rosebeth wrote:
> First we know, from PA, that people who time travel can kill there
> past or future selves.  I'm at work without the books so I can't site
> chapter.  So, if you can kill yourself you should be able to kill
> your father.

Lissa replied:
Honestly, I think there's a chance Voldemort would have succeeded in
killing himself--and Harry--if Voldemort had not been under the magical
influence of so many immortality-granting spells & potions.  I suspect
these were powerful enough to protect Voldemort just enough to spare
Harry and to keep the Dark Lord himself in existence in a sort of
limbo.  At the same time, I'm not sure--please correct me if I'm
wrong--it is canonically possible in Rowling's Potterverse to kill your
father during time travel.  Hermione notes that you can kill your past
or future self, but she doesn't say you can kill your parents.  That's
one of those classic time-traveling paradoxes.  Different authors, no
doubt, would take different stances on it.  If I'm missing a passage or
ignoring something JKR said, please let me know.  I'm genuinely
interested in this.

Rosebeth wrote:
> Additionally. If we assume that everything you said in your post is
> true, then it raises some rather large questions.  Who took Riddle
> back to the past and why?  And why would Harry and Ginny allow this?

Lissa replied:
I really have to apologize for not fully explaining my theory, but I was
trying to keep my post short.  I don't believe anyone took Riddle back
to 1927.  I think Ginny, for whatever reason, goes back to 1926 already
pregnant with Harry's child and gives birth to him there.  Whether she's
turned a bit evil and knows what she's doing or whether she's suffering
from memory-alteration, I have no idea.  In any case, I believe she
either genuinely falls in love with Riddle Sr and marries him or dupes
him into marrying her.  Then she dies giving birth to Tom Marvolo
Riddle.


Rosebeth wrote:
> We know that Harry has spent his whole life wanting a family of his
> own, who will treat him diffently then his aunt and uncle.  PS/SS the
> opening chapters where he discribes dreams of a distant relation
> coming and taking him away and of course, the mirror.

Lissa replied:
If my theory ends up true, I think it will be one of the hardest tests
Harry will face.  Yes he does yearn for family.  I really don't think he
will be able to kill his own son.  I think it will be up to someone else
to step in and do the job.


Rosebeth wrote:
> Why would
> Harry allow his own son to be taken away from him?  If you assume
> that Harry is dead when this decision is made then why take Tom back
> in time and not allow the Weasley's (Tom's biologoical family) to
> raise him in the present? Unless, Harry isn't dead, but rather Tom is
> kidnapped.  But then this brings me back to my first question.  Who
> would take him and why?

Lissa replied:
I don't think Harry would allow someone to take away his son if he knew
one existed.  I don't think Harry would necessarily know if Ginny had
just recently become pregnant and then was swept into the past.  Even if
he did know she was pregnant, if she simply disappeared he might assume
she'd been killed by one of his enemies.  Giving Ginny the benefit of
the doubt in a best-case-scenario, I think she headed back to the past
to help Harry somehow--perhaps even hoping to kill the young Tom Marvolo
Riddle before he could cause such heartache and destruction--but her
memories were altered.  In a darker scenario, Ginny could deliberately
have taken on a role in Voldemort's agenda and knows the part she must
play.  I have no evidence to point toward Ginny's state of mind. 
Well... no, I'll take that back.  I am intrigued by "Marvolo".  I think
it's significant somehow, but all my attempts to unravel its meaning
have lead nowhere reasonable.

I wish I knew.  Then again, I may be way off base with all this
speculation anyway.

Cheers,
Lissa