Tommy Riddle's birth (was Re: No Sex, Please, We're British)

[quigonginger]

No: HPFGUIDX 83780

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> I'm thinking aloud on my feet. Tom's mother died in childbirth. 
That 
> is a good deal less common than it was in, say up to Edwardian 
times 
> as Riddle would have been born round about 1926. Tom tells us that 
> his father abandoned her when he discovered the WW connection, 
which 
> implies at that time she was already pregnant.
> 
> OK. As Grannybat has suggested, was she physically unable to go 
back? 
> Had she been estranged from her family because she had married a 
> Muggle? The Riddles were presumably living as Muggles. Perhaps the 
> mother had a bad pregnancy and was ill? 

Now Ginger:  I've noticed in this thread (and ones like it) we've 
overlooked one little detail:  Mrs. Riddle probably didn't plan to 
die.  Tom the Muggle left her to go home to his parents.  She would  
still have the house or flat or whereever they were living.  I think 
it's highly likely that being a decendant of Slytherin, her people 
were ticked that she went and married a Muggle, so she may not have 
wanted to go back.  She may well have had the notion that the baby 
would fix it all.  Her husband would see his son and her parents 
would see their grandson, and all would be well with the world.  Hey, 
sometimes it actually works, especially with disgruntled parents.

Geoff said:
> Tom must have found out the details about his parents afterwards, 
> because we are told in GOF that his father had been living with his 
> parents at the Riddle house in Little Hangleton when TR was a 
> teenager. I am assuming that he was the "teenage boy, a stranger, 
> dark-haired and pale" (GOF p.9 UK edition). It must also have been 
> round about the time of the COS incident because we are old that 
the 
> mysterious deaths occurred half a century ago before Voldemort 
> reoccupied it in 1992. 

Ginger again:  This is the part that interests me:  When did little 
Tommy find out the details?  I agree that she was most likely 
attended by a midwife (I think it was Grannybat who said that), and 
that the midwife told the orphanage people, who told Tommy the 
details of his birth and naming.  

But who told him about his mother being abandoned due to being a 
witch?  Who told him about Slytherin's heir and the whole CoS thing? 
Things that make you go hmmmmmmmm, where's the ibuprofin?

Back to Geoff: 
> This opens up several cans of worms. I am surprised that the Muggle 
> orphanage allowed him to attend Hogwarts when he got his letter. 

Ginger (anyone feel like they're watching a tennis match?):
I would guess that whoever was Guardian of the Quill at the time had 
a plan for cases such as this.  Probably it involved telling the 
orphanage that an anonymous benefactor routinely gave scholarships 
for underprivilaged children, and that Tom had been chosen.  They 
probably have a cover that Muggle parents use anyway.  

In any case, orphanages generally run on short budgets.  One less 
mouth to feed is one good thing, and a child getting a good (and 
free) education is another.  I think they wished him well and helped 
him pack.  Perhaps the orphanage administrator was in on the real 
story and took him to Diagon Alley. Or it could have been a volunteer 
wizard.  Toss a coin. 

Geoff:
How did he manage to trace his father in a time when information 
about 
> true parents was usually held secret? 

Ginger:
Um, perhaps by his name?  And the story that went with it?
Not meaning to be saucy, but that did hit me right away ;)

Ginger, grabbing the ibuprofin (which might be a good name for a band)