Book Two Discoveries!

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 111982

Bren wrote:
> 
<snip>
> I just had an amusing thought right now. How did Tom Riddle know that 
> his mother carried the blood of Salazar Slytherin? Did he discover 
> his Heir-of-Slytherin status and deduce that it must be from his 
> mother's side? Or did she tell him somehow (in a letter or 
> something)? If his mother knew about snaky blood running in her 
> veins... could this mean that Tom Riddle Sr found out about this, and 
> that is why he left her? He found out she wasn't just an ordinary, 
> harmless witch, but a potentially dark, evil witch? <snip>

Carol responds:
Regardless of whether she was good or evil, she couldn't have written
to Tom or had any influence (other than genetic inheritance) on him:
she died in childbirth, living just long enough to give him his name.
Interestingly, she named him after his Muggle father, with her
father's (given?) name as his middle name. Evidently, she didn't hold
a grudge against the husband who deserted her, which suggests that she
was a decent person. She may have given him both names as a clue to
his identity--these names are who you are: the son of Tom Riddle, the
grandson of the wizard Marvolo. I'm pretty sure that the middle name
was a clue he followed up on, possibly consulting the library or his
head of house to find out about Marvolo. He could easily have
discovered that Marvolo--and therefore he himself--was a descendant of
Salazar Slytherin. I hope we find out more about Marvolo in the next book.

As for Tom Sr., I doubt that his wife's Slytherin ancestry would have
meant anything to him. The mere fact that she was a witch was enough.
(The Riddles, if the glimpse we have of them in GoF chapter 1 is any
indication, appear to be wealthy snobs who don't want to be involved
in any kind of scandal or to be associated with "inferior" or "weird"
people. Just divorce her quietly and conceal the existence of the
child. . . .) It's (IMO) the reverse side of the Slytherin anti-Muggle
prejudice. Vernon Dursley is another version of that flip side.

Carol