HBP MUST have appeared in COS

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 103741

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ariana" <ariana at a...> wrote:
> > Ally:
> >
> > I think the HBP is definitely Tom Riddle, a half blood like 
Harry.
> > JKR said she almost used the title for COS, and COS was heavily
> > focused on Tom Riddle (as opposed to V).
> 
> But she also said that CoS, as published, bore no relation to the 
HBP
> anymore. Which makes it extremely unlikely that it's Tom Riddle, 
since
> Riddle *is* the focus of CoS. I really don't think she's playing 
games about
> it *not* being Riddle/Voldemort.
> 
I think she meant that "HBP" was no good as a TITLE anymore, once 
she'd finished Book 2.  Sure, Tom Riddle is in it and he's 
important, but there's almost no background provided.  If she'd 
called Book 2 "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", wouldn't 
everyone be thinking what a stupid title that was?  Because 
everything that would explain it was left out.  I think she figured 
there was still lots of time to fill in the outline of Tom Riddle's 
life, and there was no sense overloading Book 2 with it.  Tom works 
quite well as a villain just as he is, we don't really need to know 
much about his life and background.  I don't believe that the HBP 
was a totally different character who was written out of CoS; she's 
been planning these books for years, and I don't think she'd have 
completely reorganized the project just to move a character from one 
book to another.  I think she'd originally planned to put in a lot 
more about Tom's early life (and it wouldn't have been out of place, 
since we're meeting him in the book as a teenager), then decided to 
keep it for later on.

Wanda