The only one he ever feared? / TR's past

[Kelsey Dangelo]

No: HPFGUIDX 117368


Kim had written: How did TR find out that he was the
last heir of Slytherin? His father didn't tell him.
Did his mother know and leave some sort of message for
him before she died? <SNIP> Lately (like the last few
days) I've been spending time conjecturing to myself
on the details of TR's birth and childhood, the days
before he came to Hogwarts to study as a wizard. How
was he informed that he was eligible to study there?
He was in a Muggle orphanage, wasn't he? Who, in a
Muggle orphanage, would have received the owl mail
from Hogwarts and given it to him? Then I started
thinking about his confrontation with his father and
grandparents at the house in Little Hangleton when he
was 16: How did he know who these people were if he'd
never met them before? What did he say to them before
he AK'd them? Or did he just sneak up on them and go
"kabam!"? Am I missing something? 

Kelsey here:
Hi, Kim! I completely share your fascination with
young Tom Riddle (I guess he fascinates me as the most
human-view we get of Voldemort, and his frightening
parallels with our dear Harry).

I'm also very interested in Tom's mother, and so want
to learn more about her. For your first question ("how
did Tom know his mother was the heir of Slytherin?"),
it could simply be that her name was Sally Slytherin.
That might be a clue to Tom's heritage. If not, he may
have released some magic (a door or a certain Chamber
of Secrets) upon arriving at Hogwarts, alerting him to
his heritage. Tom is considered very intelligent, but
I suspect that (unlike oblivious!Harry) he wasn't
content to sit back and know nothing about his
parentage and past. Since he's so obsessed with
"blood" status, I bet he hit the genealogical
archives.

As for finding his dad, he might have just thumbed
through the local Muggle-telephone book, since he knew
his father's name. I'm not sure how many Tom Marvolo
Riddles bought the farm before he hit on the right
family, but it could have worked :)

I really like how you bring up how very chilling it is
that a 16-year-old kid (who resembles Harry) went into
the house of his father and grandparents and just
zapped them. They all died with looks of fright on
their faces, so I bet he may have put on a bit of a
show for them.

One of the great pleasures of reading is that we can
never know the tone of voice of a character or how
exactly they meant something. I got this impression
that TR is angry at his mother for giving him his
Muggle-father's name, but I could "hear" a hint of
anger on her behalf because she loved a Muggle who
snubbed and left her. I just feel like he carried out
revenge on his father for abandoning his mother and
him. I get an impression that Ms. Slytherin didn't
marry Mr. Riddle, but that he abandoned his witch
girlfriend when she was pregnant, and that she never
got over her love for Mr. Riddle, and named her son
after him. I have this feeling/theory that she was
(despite her Slytherin heritage) good and met a tragic
end, leaving her son to be bitter, angry, and evil.

Kelsey, who would love to read a romantic-tragedy
entitled "The Heir of Slytherin and The Muggle Snob"



		
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