The only one he ever feared?

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 117158


Kim wrote:
> 
> I'd been thinking about that lately, about why so few people would 
> know that Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemort are one and the same
person.  
> Dumbledore knows, and Olivander knows, and Harry knows, as well as 
> who else...?  How about Lucius Malfoy?  Tom Riddle also told some
of 
> his cohorts at Hogwarts when he was there 50 years ago, didn't he?  
> Anyway I guess I'm puzzled as to why Dumbledore of all people would 
> have kept this knowledge to himself for so many years.  Olivander's 
> motives for keeping it secret I can't determine, but Dumbledore's?  
> Wouldn't it be useful for others, especially those on the Good
Side, 
> to know Voldemort's personal history?  I bet Eustace and some of
you 
> other smart posters out there have some ideas about this...
> 
> Kim,
> who's been in the mood for asking questions lately and hope that 
> doesn't make her seem like too much of a lazybones :-)

Now Eustace_Scrubb:
Another excellent question!  And I hope some of the _really_ smart
posters have better explanations than me!

Mr. Ollivander is an interesting and obscure character...I have a
sense that he doesn't share much of what he knows.  I wonder if he
isn't bound in some way to share secrets only with those who are
personally connected to them, in sort of the same way only those
mentioned in a prophecy can pick up an orb in the Department of
Mysteries. 

But why _should_ Dumbledore keep the Voldemort/Tom Riddle connection
secret?  And _when_ did Dumbledore make the connection himself?  All
we really know is that this probably happened sometime after about
1970 (when Voldemort declared himself) and before the spring of 1993
when he tells Harry and the Weasleys...and Lockhart who probably
didn't retain it of course. [Dates roughly based on the HP_Lexicon
timelines but I didn't re-check my memory of them.]

Perhaps Dumbledore figured this out _after_ Godric's Hollow...with LV
gone perhaps he saw no purpose in publicizing it at that time.  Once
the DEs were rounded up and shipped off to Azkaban or killed, it seems
likely the Wizarding World wouldn't have cared much.  Perhaps there
was something about the aftermath of Godric's Hollow that jogged
Dumbledore's memory--suddenly being responsible for a little
dark-haired orphan did it.

But I don't really know, so these are really just musings...

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb
"If you're referring to the incident with the dragon, I was barely
involved."