Riddle's information re: magical heritage-Dumbledore's role (was Riddle's birth)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 83872

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...> 
wrote:
> 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>


Jen:  Oooh, annemehr you know I can't leave a good Dumbledore 
thought alone ;). 

Alshain said later in this thread:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/83854

"Riddle is the one who actively (and prematurely) searches for 
knowledge about his background (and how ironic would it be, to find 
out that he might have been mistaken about his father), Harry 
accepts it passively, letting it come to him. In lots of folk tales 
we get the lesson that searching for knowledge you aren't mature 
enough to accept has bad consequences (the wife of Bluebeard, for 
example)." 

Both your thought and Alshain's tie together nicely I think, and may 
very well contribute to the way Dumbledore is so guarded about the 
info he gives Harry (and also what DD allows others to divulge as we 
find out in OOTP): "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I 
suppose?...The bit about not telling Harry more than he *needs to 
know*," said Mrs. Weasley. (OOTP, hardcover US, chap. 5, p. 88)

So what if DD finds out too late, say after the Riddles are murdered 
(since he reads the Muggle newspapers), that Tom had misinformation 
or perhaps had the right information but was too young to process 
it? He would definitely see the parallels in Harry's life. In fact, 
I would even go so far as to say DD chooses the Dursleys to protect 
Harry, not only for the blood protection, but to keep Harry from 
learning of his "people" prematurely with possible devastating 
consequences. 

Dumbledore tells Harry in OOTP: "you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as 
happy nor as nourished as I would have liked, perhaps, yet alive and 
healthy. You were not a pampered prince, but as *normal a boy as I 
could have hoped for under the circumstances*. Thus far my plan was 
working well." *emphaisis mine (OOTP, US, chap. 37, p. 837). 

This indicates to me it was important for Harry not only to be 
alive, which Dumbledore states is his main priority earlier in this 
chapter, but that Harry also be *normal*, i.e, with no awareness of 
his strange beginnings, his ability to turn LV to vapor, knowing LV 
murdered his parents, no information Harry could get from the 
gossiping channels of the WW at a young and vulnerable age. He 
doesn't want another Tom Riddle on his hands, in other words, a 
bitter, manipulative, revenge-seeking adolescent who makes his 
choices from blind rage more than anything else.