[HPforGrownups] Re: Voldemort's name

[Kagome Shikon Seeker]

No: HPFGUIDX 81994

Geoff Bannister wrote:

Towards the end of COS, Dumbledore explains to the Weasleys that very
few people know that Lord Voldemort was once Tom Riddle and had been
at Hogwarts. Therefore, those brave enough not to say "You Know Who"
or whatever presumably only know the title LV.

********

I think it's true.  DD knows that LV was Tom Riddle, but he comments that
few do.  Why he never told anyone is beyond me, unless he felt it would give
the DE's too much power to have that information - but presumably they know
or figure it out, since LV ends up using his father's bone for his
resurrection spell.  Therefore the only ones being still kept in the dark
are the 'good guys', which is foolishness on DD's part.  (Knowledge being
power, and all that.)

When DD encounters LV at the end of OoP, he calls him "Tom".  I thought that
was interesting; I thought it equally interesting that the only two people
around were Harry - who already knew the information - and Bellatrix, who
was pinned by a statue trying to kill her, so presumably was too busy to
worry about such a triviality.  But as it's unlikely that DD and LV have had
direct face-to-face contact in the past (or probably one of them would be
dead now), DD's slip up may not have occurred before that instance.
(Assuming it was a slip up, which it may not have been.)