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

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 83808


> > Ginger again:  
<snip>
> > 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?
> > 
> 
> Jen (reaching for the ibuprofen as we speak):
> 
> Ginger, that is a great question. Er, no, I don't have an 
> answer...just speculation with a (very) little canon to back it up.
> 
> Did Tom learn his magical history at Hogwarts? If the name Marvolo 
> came from the Mom's side (as many have speculated) maybe their 
> lineage was in "Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century" (SS, 
> chap.12, p.197)  or "Hogwarts a History", and he was able to piece 
> together some of his magical history, the part about descending from 
> Salazar Slytherin

Annemehr:
I don't think it's too difficult to come up with how Tom *might* have
been able to trace his lineage back to Salazar Slytherin.  Jen comes
closest to my idea -- that he began learning about himself at
Hogwarts.  Marvolo and his daughter (Tom's mother) presumably both
went to Hogwarts, and there were bound to be people there who had
known them personally when Tom arrived.  Perhaps they had *all* been
in Slytherin, and Tom's head of house was able to tell him many
things?  He would certainly be able to tell him much recent family
history.  

There could also have been ancient documents in the family Gringott's
vault or at the (now empty?) family home.  Even if there *was* an
empty family home, I don't think an under-age Tom would have been
allowed to go live in it, but there's no reason someone from the WW
couldn't have taken him there at some point to see what was his.  I'm
not envisioning a handwritten note from Salazar himself detailing how
to get into the Chamber of Secrets, but just enough for a very
intelligent boy to make some headway with. You want details, you make
'em up! <g> 

As for how Tom found out about why his father had come to abandon him,
well, people do talk, so there would be any number of possible sources
for this information at Hogwarts.  Picture gossip sessions at the
Leaky Cauldron, the Three Broomsticks, or the Hogs Head about old
Marvolo's daughter who went and married a Muggle right out of school,
got herself (!) pregnant, and then the bum deserted her when he found
out what she was.  Then, her family either dead or estranged, she
drops out of sight before she has Tom and dies.  Tom goes to the
orphanage, and the "family history" lies dormant in many minds until
he shows up at Hogwarts and people hear the name "Marvolo" again.

Jen: 
> The thing I keep coming back to is (grannybat and Geoff were 
> discussing this in up-thread), where was the magical family during 
> this time?  Sure Tom is "half-blood", but he's still magical and 
> descended from Salazar Slytherin--wouldn't that make up for the 
> Muggle dad somewhat? 
> 
> **Speculation** I'm thinking the magical family never knew of Tom, 
> Jr.'s birth or his acceptance into Hogwarts. Or they rejected him 
> anyway.

Annemehr:

Either one would work.  Also, if Tom is the last descendant, there may
have been no family left by then -- Marvolo and his wife may have
alreay died.  Granted, if that's the case, they may have died young
for Wizards (or at least Tom's grandmother did), but it's possible. 
Meaning, that Marvolo may have married a much younger woman in his old
age, and she died in childbirth or something (bad genes, eh?), and he
died before Tom was born.  That would explain why *he* at least let
Slytherin's heir go to a Muggle orphanage (if he even knew about being
a descendent of ol' SS).

Lots of things are possible.  Voldemort seems to be much more
inquisitive and persistent than Harry.  *He* probably wanted to find
out what he could about *his* family, and maybe there was a nice,
sympathetic Head of Slytherin House right there to start him off, tell
him all about Marvolo et al.

And maybe a Transfiguration Teacher named Albus Dumbledore saw what
happens when you give too much heavy information to a young,
impressionable boy and vowed never to make *that* mistake, should the
situation ever arise again.  <beg>

Annemehr
speculating happily