Sharing names - Heritage

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 98736

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
> Geoff:
> > > "'You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name 
for
> > > ever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin 
> > > himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, 
> > > common, Muggle who abandoned me even before I was born, just 
> > > because he found out his /wife/ was a witch? (my emphasis)'"
> > > 
> > > Tom Riddle to Harry (COS UK edition p.231)"
> 
> Wanda: 
> > I stand corrected.  Well, in that case, it was illogical writing 
on 
> > Rowling's part.  <snip>  A wife has power, a mistress has none.  
> > And there's no reason for the state to take care of an "orphan" 
if 
> > he has a legal father or other relatives to do so, so Tom could 
not 
> > have ended up in an orphanage the way she describes.
> > 
> 
> 
> SSSusan:
> I disagree.  There are ways that a child can end up in the care of 
> the state even if he/she has a biological parent still alive.  Tom 
> Sr. might have refused to care for the child, he might have abused 
> him, or might even have claimed that the child wasn't his--that 
Tom's 
> mother had had an affair.  (Who would be there to deny it?  Do they 
> do blood tests in the WW?)  Tom Jr. might well have been put into 
the 
> only place where he could receive care:  an orphanage.  

Geoff:
The quote I gave above was one I wrote last October as part of  
message 83700. Might I suggest that folks following today's thread go 
back to message 83683 (the one preceding the one I quoted) - thread 
title "Re: No sex please, we're British" which was the point in the 
thread where Tom Riddle's mother entered the debate and follow it 
through into a thread "Tommy Riddle's birth". There's a lot of 
discussion there on this matter - rather too much to start cutting 
and pasting but probably of interest to those involved here.