Merope's Death (WAS:: Tom Riddle - placed in danger as a child?

[Debbie]

No: HPFGUIDX 137753

Jen Reese wrote:
> But this scene points out something that bothered me a little bit 
> when Dumbledore and Harry talk about Merope's death. Dumbledore 
> says: "Merope refused to raise her wand even to save her own life" 
> and Harry responds: "She wouldn't even stay alive for her own 
son?" 
> (Chap. 13, p. 262, US). 
> 
> We know magic can't keep someone from dying, so what did they mean 
> exactly? It was very vague why she died, and in fact sounded more 
> like a broken heart than a physical problem! But I guess maybe DD 
is 
> saying that if something happened at the delivery, say Merope was 
> losing a lot of blood, she could have used magic to intervene and 
> instead chose not to? And Harry's comment sounds almost like the 
boy 
> Tom Riddle--"she wouldn't stay alive for her son?" like she could 
> have intervened with magic and stopped herself from dying. 
> Confusing. 

We've been debating Merope's death -- albeit in a knowledge vacuum --
for years.  What I see in the story we've now been given, though, is 
*depression.*  Dumbledore tells Harry in ch. 13 that "it is also 
possible that her unrequited love and the attendant despair sapped 
her of her powers."  Not to mention her own family's utter rejection 
of her; however abusive they may have been, they were her family and 
their rejection of her may still have hurt.  Her one attempt to use 
magic to better herself was a failure; she was alone and destitute, 
and perhaps she felt she had nothing to offer her child.

She also had been wandering about in a bitter cold snowstorm 
and "staggered" up the steps.  It's very possible she was already 
quite ill, and too depressed to do anything about it -- if in fact 
she knew the appropriate magic, what with her lovely upbringing.

I like this explanation much better than that old sappy standby, the 
broken heart, and I think the evidence supports it.

Debbie
noting somewhat surprisingly that this is her first post-HBP post -- 
blame that vacation