The Riddles' Murders (WAS: The only one he ever feared?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 117361


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Debbie" <elfundeb at c...> wrote:
> 
> Katrina wrote:
> > 
> > > <snip> What LV fears about DD is what he knows.  I've heard it 
> > postulated that when TR dropped "off the radar screen" after he 
> > finished at Hogwarts, it was because of the triple AK murder in 
> > Little Hangleton.  The ministry had to know about this: ...
> > 
 
> Kim:
>  
> > It also hadn't occurred to me that the MoM would have been on the 
> > look-out for the murderer of the 3 "Muggle" Riddles.  Tom Jr. was 
> > spotted in the vicinity, wasn't he, but was unknown to the Muggles
> > in  the area, though you're right -- not to the "all-seeing eye" 
> > of the  MoM.  

> Debbie:
> 
> I don't believe that Tom Riddle disappeared *because* he was fleeing 
> the scene of his parents' murders.  Rather, he decided to leave to 
> seek out what Dumbledore calls "the very worst of our kind" who 
> could instruct him in the Dark Arts, but before he left he stopped 
> off in Little Hangleton for the revenge murder of his parents.  
> ...edited...

bboyminn:

Unless I read it wrong, I think Tom murdered his parents in the summer
between his 6th and 7th year at Hogwarts. Since he came back to
school, it doesn't seem like anyone made any connnection to Tom and
the death of the Riddles.

Once he graduated, he sought out the Dark Arts as a source of power
that other, weaker, people were unwilling to tap. Note Voldemort's
philosophy, there is no good and evil, only power and those to weak to
seek it. I think Tom was in the process of transforming himself into
Voldemort, the self-proclaimed most power wizard in the world,
champion of the pureblood cause, and the next supreme evil overlord of
the universe. A wizard so powerful and ruthless that all would fear to
speak his name.

I often wondered if Tom collected the inheritance on his parents
estate, and used that money to finance his transformation?


> Debbie Continues:
>
> ...edited...
> 
> And we, as readers, learn about the murders from JKR herself, as GoF 
> begins with an omniscient narrator relating the story.  Notably, the 
> police investigation ceased only because they concluded they lacked 
> evidence of murder (the coroner could not identify a cause of death) 
> and not because they no longer believed Frank Bryce had killed them.
> 
> The only argument that supports the notion that the MoM must have 
> known about it is that if the Improper Use of Magic Office employs 
> countrywide surveillance, Mafalda Hopkirk's predecessor should have 
> picked up on it.  But I doubt they keep track of very much, or they 
> would've noticed Mundungus Fletcher disapparating at 4 Privet Drive 
> at the beginning of OOP.
> 
> Debbie

bboyminn:

I don't think this was a murder that was on the Ministries radar
screens. The Ministry may have somehow detected the presents of magic
that night, but at least one witch was known to have lived in that
town, so the present or occurance of magic would be relatively common.

Admittedly, we don't know if any witches or wizards besides Tom mother
ever lived in the area, but is seems that they are spread all over the
country, so it's possible. But again, magic is happening all over the
country as wizards travel around, it's only if the magic is done in
the presents of muggles that it becomes a problem.

I don't think we can us Harry and Privet Drive as an illustration to
mirror magical monitoring in the rest of the world. Harry has always
been very closely watched. Through his whole life at Privet Drive
there was always the possiblility that rogue Death Eaters might attack
him, and if Voldemort ever returned certainly he would want to settle
that old score between himself and Harry. So, Privet Drive is watched
with an exceptional degree of scrutiny.

Yes, yes... I know that there are protections in place at Privet Drive
to protect Harry, but we don't know to what degree the DE's know about
those protections. I think the only thing that prevented a DE attack
was that most of the DE's went back to normal lives claiming they were
bewitched. They would be more interested in saving their own hides
than in avenging Voldemort. Obviously, Bellatrix and company are the
exception to this. They did attack the Longbottoms, but with the
intention of finding Voldemort and bringing him back, not with
avenging his vanquishing.

In the Little Hangleton incident, finding three mysteriously dead
bodies would not be a breach of that Statue of Secrecy. Only if Tom
was caught in the act of casting a spell by muggles would the Statue
come into play.

Just a few thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn (was bboy_mn)