Tom Riddle - Riddle murders

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 105592

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Wanda Sherratt" 
<wsherratt3338 at r...> wrote:

Wanda:
> I assume me must have been about 16, because the story of the 
Riddles
> uses the same term used to describe the original Chamber of Secrets
> incident: "fifty years ago".  I don't take that quite as literally 
as
> some do, who reason that if Tom Riddle was a 15-year old student 50
> years before Book 3, then he must have been 16 years old when the
> incidents described in Book 4 took place, because it's one year 
later
> in the series.  I take "fifty years ago" to be a bit of a vague
> indication of time; in normal parlance, it could mean somewhere
> between 48 and 53 years in the past.  

Geoff:
Couple of pieces of canon:

'There was a knock on the office door.
"Enter", said the old wizard in a feeble voice.
A boy of about sixteen entered, taking off his pointed hat. A silver 
Prefect's badge was glinting on his chest. He was much taller than 
Harry but he, too, had jet-black hair.
"Ah, Riddle," said the Headmaster.'
(COS "The Very Secret Diary" p.181 UK edition)

'Every version of the tale, however, started in the same place:
fifty years before, at daybreak on a fine summer's morning.....'
(GOF "THe Riddle House" p.7 UK edition)

The implication in COS has always been that the events are indeed 50 
years on whereas, I agree, GOF may be a bit more flexible although 
the phrase "about fifty years ago" might have been used instead...

The COS incident is in the middle of Harry's Second Year and so is 
early in 1993 and his GOF dream/vision is in the late summer break 
before his Fourth Year, in 1994, which suggest that TR was maybe 17 
at the time so whether he was "of age" could be marginal.