Tom Riddle's Birth (Re: JKR Chat "The Crucial ...")

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 92396

Jen Reese wrote: 
Did something happen to Tom Riddle at birth that interfered with 
his attempt to kill Harry, rather than just the protection on Harry 
by Lily, Dumbledore, etc.? 

Jo Jo Binks replied:
Didn't Voldie's mum die giving birth to him. She was a witch so if 
it was a choice between the two surviving, and the mother chose 
Voldie couldn't this be another example of "ancient" protective 
magic. He said himself "I should have remembered it" or something 
along those lines (GoF). Might explain the rebounded AK not killing 
him (if that's what it was).

David:
<snipping>
I think this is a distinct possibility.  See post 31243:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/31243
where I elaborated this idea.
 
Post-OOP, we might interpret 'marking as his equal' to mean that 
Voldemort activated the mother love spell by killing Lily, thus 
giving Harry the mark of love.  The scar is then not the mark, 
though it symbolises it, since, because AK alone leaves no mark, it 
must be the interaction between the love-defence and the AK that 
creates a scar.
 
In Harry's case, Lily was attacked for Harry's sake, so it's clear 
she loved him enough for the protection to be activated.  Perhaps 
one risk of the mother love spell (if such there be) is that if the 
mother is attacked and suffers, but not for the sake of her child, 
then there is a knock-on effect on the child.  Thoughts?


Jen Reese again: 
First, thanks for the link to your post David--very compelling read. 

I think what you're saying above is Riddle's mom may have suffered 
and died, but not in an attempt to save her child, so somehow 
the 'love sacrifice' turned on Tom? 

"I don't believe anybody was born evil, you will find out more about 
the circumstances of his birth in the next book"---this basically 
says to me that Voldemort's whole transfiguration from Tom Riddle, 
orphan, to Voldemort the evil overlord, has its roots in something 
around his birth. It could be a charm-gone-wrong like David 
mentioned, or an actual curse upon Tom at birth. (That might negate 
the Choice theory somewhat). Perhaps his mom didn't even die in 
childbirth, but rejected him or even tried to kill him at birth and 
Tom survived but was 'scarred' as well, the curse 'in his very 
skin'. His AK bounced off baby Harry from the force of the love 
sacrifice in Harry's very being, and sought out the skin of the 
cursed Lord Voldemort instead.

The only thing I feel certain of is Tom Riddle doesn't know 'the 
circumstances of his birth'. He accepts Harry's answer in COS that 
Harry didn't die as a baby because of Lily's sacrifice, period. His 
story of his mom dying in childbirth sounds like what the orphanage 
told him, a well-meaning explanation possibly used frequently for 
children who were abandoned at birth.

So much to think about!