Merope's Death

ericoppen oppen at mycns.net
Fri Aug 19 22:03:02 UTC 2005


No: HPFGUIDX 138124

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> Eric Oppen asked:
> "How long was she able to keep filling TR, Sr. up with love 
potions? 
> If her idyll had lasted a while, it could well be that her rotten
> father and/or brother had gotten back out of Azkaban...and once they
> were out, the first thing they'd do would be to track down their
> escaped slave."
> 
> (snip)
> 
> "We know that Muggles can't diagnose the Avada Kedavra curse
> correctly.  If Merope was already weak and ill (and, probably,
> suffering from severe post-partum depression and emotional anguish)
> all it would have taken would be for either Marvolo or Morfin to 
slip
> into the room where she was and cast a quick A-K."
> 
> Del replies:
> Interesting idea, though I disagree on some details.
> 
> 1. It can't be Morfin, because of the timeline. We know that Morfin
> got 3 years in Azkaban, while Marvolo got only 6 months. We know 
that
> by the time Marvolo got back, he found an inch of dust in his house,
> so Merope had eloped with Tom Riddle for at least a couple of months
> already. And finally we know that Merope had Tom Jr about a year 
after
> the marriage. So by that time, Morfin was still in Azkaban, but not
> Marvolo. (All factual details come from the chapter "The House of 
Gaunt")

Okay, so noted.  I don't have my copy in front of me at the moment.  


> 
> 2. It can't be an AK, because the Ministry would have known. They
> can't say who performed a curse, but they do know when, where and on
> whom a curse has been performed. For example, they didn't know for
> sure that it was Morfin who had jinxed Tom Sr, but they knew when 
and
> where the jinx had been performed, and on whom, which is how they
> deducted who had done it. So if an AK had been performed in a Muggle
> orphanage, the MoM would have known, and DD would know that Merope 
had
> been so murdered.

You forgot completely about the events at the Riddle House, seventeen 
years later.  That was at least _three_ AKs, performed by an underage 
wizard, and probably other magic as well (i.e. an "Alohomora" to get 
in, "Petrificus Totalus" to hold his victims in place, and a few well-
placed "Crucios" wouldn't surprise me) and the Ministry never 
twigged.  Dumbledore suspected, but couldn't prove anything.  

This would be seventeen years previously, in an area where no wizards 
or witches are considered likely to be.  The MoM is not infallible 
(rather like saying that the Pacific Ocean's rather large and wet) 
and at this time, wouldn't have had any reason to suspect or expect 
anything untoward.  


> 
> 3. I can't imagine that Marvolo would have left the newborn Tom 
alive,
> if he'd killed Merope.

While I have had no first-hand experience with such things, I have 
long been under the impression that newborns are often whisked away 
from their mothers right after birth, to be weighed, checked over, 
and so on...and that this was far more widely-done in the past than 
it is now, and would be particularly characteristic of "charity" 
operations such as Merope seems to have used.  Young TR might just 
not have been around.  Or...even someone as low as Marvolo Gaunt 
could have found that, at seventh and last, he didn't have it in him 
to kill a newborn baby.  Sort of like my theory about why Harry & Co. 
survived their rumble with the DEs...many or even most of the DEs 
might have been unable to bring themselves to kill "children," 
particularly since many of them had kids at Hogwarts of about the 
same age.  This wouldn't apply to Lovely Bella, of course, but she's 
nucking futz, a raving fanatic, and childless.  

> 
> But there are other possibilities, namely poison or a slower curse. 
It
> is possible that Marvolo, not wanting to go back to Azkaban so soon,
> chose a more anonymous way of killing Merope. It is even possible 
that
> the curse was on the locket Merope had, a curse that was supposed to
> slowly and painfully kill any rightful owner of the Slytherin 
heirloom
> that would sell it outside of the family - it does sound like the 
kind
> of thing the Gaunts would do.
> 
This is also possible...I hadn't thought of that.  Administering the 
poison, or the slower curse, might have been a problem, but once 
that's overcome, Bob's your uncle!  


> Moreover, this curse/poison possibility would enhance the amazing 
and
> very consistent contrast between Lily/Harry and Merope/Tom. Lily 
left
> a love protection in Harry's blood. Could it be that Tom was born 
to a
> cursed mother? This would make him a cursed baby, which would help
> explain why he was so weird and scary right from the beginning 
(note:
> psychology and genetics are enough to explain Tom's abnormal 
behaviour
> even as a baby, but that doesn't preclude the possibility of a 
magical
> curse on top of it).

This is an excellent point.  I tend to ascribe TR's unique ways to 
the streak of insanity his mother's family showed, but a curse would 
also explain a great deal.  

> 
> So I do think that you might be on to something that would explain
> both Merope's untimely death and Tom's "inborn" evilness. A slow
> poison could even explain why Merope made all the strange choices 
she
> seems to have made: stop feeding Love Potion to Tom Sr, not use 
magic
> to help herself, and why she looked so destitute when she sold the 
locket.

True enough, although having been abandoned by the man she (thought 
she) loved, pregnant and penniless, in 1920s London, could account 
for that.  I do not see Merope as having anything like enough 
knowledge of how the Muggle world worked to be able to get herself 
help easily, and she certainly wouldn't have been let off the leash 
enough to know the ropes for the Wizard world, either.  

> 
> JMO,
> 
> Del







More information about the HPforGrownups archive