yellow eyes // Muggleborn DE // Snake Immortality // Beloved TMR

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 110304

Andromeda wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/110253 :

<< Seems unlikely to be a basilisk in disguise. :) >>

LOL.

Magda wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/110271 :

<<  Saraquel wrote:
<<< (JKR) says: 'Muggle-borns are not allowed to be DEs EXCEPT IN 
RARE CIRCUMSTANCES.' (my capitals) Hmmm, so who is the muggle-born
DE??? >>> 
VOLDEMORT, of course! >>

Do you mean that TMR's mother wasn't a witch, so he isn't a
half-blood? Or she was a Muggle-born witch? How old Salazar would have
rolled over in his grave (if he had one) to learn that his last
descendents were Muggles! 

Naama wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/110260 :

<< So, compared to the phoenix, the snake would symbolise immortality
achieved through fake dying or cheating death >> 

It is very clever and relevant how you distinguish between snake
immortality and phoenix immortality. There wasn't a clear distinction
until you drew one. Snakes sometimes symbolise immortality by not
dying, by instead getting young again after being old. Snakes other
times symbolize re-incarnation, which involves just as much real dying
as the phoenix does. 

<< Voldemort's snake like features are closely related to his
immortality >> 

I've always assumed that Voldemort's snake-like appearance (scaly,
hairless, eyelidless, etc) resulted from one of his attempts (a
successful or unsuccessful attempt) to magic himself immortal,
possibly because that spell included snake vemon and/or sacrificed
snakes because of the famous symbolism of snakes for immortality.
(I've also always assumed that his snake-man body has no sexual organs
and no sexual desire.) 

However, I've also always assumed that Parselmouth was something he
was born with. How does that work? Only people born with Parselmouth
can achieve fake immortality by magic? People who are born with
Parselmouth really ARE inherently evil, as wizarding stereotypes
assume, dispite all the talk about 'choices'? 

Brenda M wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/110288 :

<< What about romantic interest? [Tom Marvolo Riddle was a very
good-looking, exemporary, brilliant, Head Boy at Hogwarts. Didn't any
girl show interest? I know I would have. >> 

Probably lots of girls were interested in him. He could have returned
the interest by just using them without feeling any affection for
them, without feeling anything for them but the usual scorn he felt
for just about everyone. "Using" usually understood in this context as
using them for his own physical pleasure, but I can think of much
worse usages, as such if he took money from them, he tried out
dangerous spells on them, he framed them for his own crimes ...

I agree with those who wrote that anyone who *never* loved *anyone*
was born with a serious mental illness. I suppose we'll find out how
JKR views it.