Source of LV's evil nau

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 113721


Duffypoo wrote:
>>I don't see that his father abandoned TR at all, except in TR's 
mind. Divorce/separation isn't ususally about the kids but about the 
adults in the situation. Did Riddle, Sr. even know his wife was 
pregnant or had she just told him she was a witch? Did she even know 
that she was pregnant, at the time of the magical revelation? That's 
the real question, especially since we have noidea where she lived 
from the time Riddle, Sr left her, until TMR was born and
he was placed in an orphanage LV says "and she died giving birth to 
me, leaving me to be raised in a Muggle orphanage." TMR only assumes 
he was abandoned because he has no father in the picture. Riddle, Sr 
may never have known a baby was on the way/born, until TR, at 18 or 
so, walked into the house in Little Hangleton. Do you think TMR was 
going to listen to Dad, at that point, say 'I didn't abandon you, I 
didn't even know she was pregnant. I left because she lied to me!' <<

Leah;
After COS, I wondered if we would learn more about both Harry's and 
LV's parents and it was my thought that Harry would learn and have to 
make an adjustment to some unpalatable fact about Lily, and we would 
also learn that Tom Riddle senior was not the bad guy of his son's 
imagination, but had, for example, thrown his mother out not because 
she was a witch per se, but because of the type of magic she was 
associated with- she was the heiress of Slytherin.  Harry's coping 
with and acceptance of this new information would make him a stronger 
and better person, whereas the fact that, as Tom Riddle, LV missed 
out on finding out the truth about his parents, contributed to making 
him what he is.

Of course, I was off track with Lily, and I can see now that idea 
wouldn't have fitted in, but we did have Snape's worst memory, which 
of course has meant some serious thinking for Harry. However, I have 
also discounted my 'LV's bad mother' theory since reading 
GOF:  'Nobody wasted their breath pretending to be very sad about the 
Riddles, for they had been most unpopular.  Elderly Mr and Mrs Riddle 
had been rich, snobbish and rude, and their grown-up son, Tom, had 
been even more so'.  It looks as if, with the Riddles, what you see 
(and LV imagines) is what you get.

At first, I was a bit disappointed in that- it seemed to make LV's 
behaviour more explicable and possibly genetic, removing that all 
important choice.  But, arguably, LV's mother was treated badly, just 
as Harry's father treated some others badly, and it is the way Harry 
and LV choose to deal with that information, and the part it plays in 
their lives that matters- the fact that your mum got a raw deal 
needn't mean becoming an evil overlord.

Leah