No Sex, Please, We're British

[grannybat84112]

No: HPFGUIDX 83744

Geoff corrected me:
	
> >--it's always bothered me that Tom 
> > Riddle's mother died in the Muggle world.... Why didn't
> > she return to the Magical world after being rejected by her 
> > child's father? She was a witch. She shouldn't have had to put up 
> > with the fate of a "fallen woman...."
> >
> > Unless the Magical world's attitude toward out-of-wedlock births  
> > is even more archaic and vicious than the Muggle world's.

> Perhaps I should point out that your argument is not upheld by 
> evidence in canon:
> 
> "'You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name for 
> ever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin  
> himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, 
> common, Muggle  who abandoned me even before I was born, just 
> because he found out his /wife/ was a witch? (my emphasis)'"
> 
> Tom Riddle to Harry  (COS UK edition p.231)

Blast. That's what I get for theorizing on the one book I don't have 
in my possession right now. Thank you for catching that so quickly.

All right, I'll leave the fate of unwed mothers in the Magical world 
to fanfic until JKR gives me reason to take it up again. The question 
remains: Why didn't Tom Riddle's mother return to the Magical world 
before giving birth?

Did she not even try? Did she try and was rejected? Was she 
physically unable to go back? 

I still maintain that Rowling hasn't disclosed all the circumstances 
surrounding Tom Riddle's mother for a reason–and these details will 
prove important in the defeat of Voldemort.

Just as important: How did Tom Riddle learn the story about his 
mother's death? He was a newborn, not likely to retain any coherent 
memory of his birth. The dying mother could have told the attending 
midwife(?) about her baby's middle name, and the midwife could have 
passed on that explanation years later (how very Dickens)–but I 
seriously doubt Mrs. Riddle would have explained to a Muggle nurse 
just why her husband had abandoned her.

Tom Riddle had to learn his family history from a specific source. 
I'm betting that source had its own agenda in telling Tom about his 
family history.

Grannybat