FW: Tom Riddle - placed in danger as a child?

[Beth Currie]

No: HPFGUIDX 137673

Big apologies - I accidentally hit send before I finished this email!

I noticed on a re-read this interesting comment from when DD goes to the
orphanage to visit the young TR:
 
"My mother can't have been magic, or she wouldn't have died" said Riddle,
more to himself than Dumbledore.
 
(chapter 13 "The Secret Riddle, page 257 UK edition)
 
At this point, TR has only just been told by DD that he is a wizard.  Until
then, he did not understand why he was able to do the things he did - in
fact he was worried that DD had come to take him to an asylum.  He knows
nothing as yet of the wizarding world.  So, how did he know that wizards and
witches have longer lifespans, and are more resilient, than muggles?  The
only explanation for this comment, that I can see, is that he himself had
been in danger or had his life threatened at some point in his young life,
and had survived without really understanding how.
 
So this leads to all sorts of interesting speculation.  Maybe one of the
children he bullied fought back but was unable to harm Tom.  Maybe one of
the staff at the orphanage was cruel and tried to hurt him, but was unable
to.  Is it possible that Marvolo, when he was released from Azkhaban and
discovered Merope's marriage to Tom Senior, found out that there was a child
from this marriage and went after him with the intention of killing him?  In
any event, I bet this conversation with DD was the point at which TR started
to think about immortality and how it could be achieved.
 
Not sure if this adds anything to the plot, but I thought it was
interesting.  Comments and speculation most welcome :-)
 
Beth 
 


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