The Riddle House

[Kimberly]

No: HPFGUIDX 170911

 Pat said:
"The wealthy man who owned the Riddle House these days neither 
lived there nor put it to any use..."

I'm wondering who this "wealthy man" is. Who would have a reason 
to keep the house all these years? Perhaps Dumbledore? Maybe 
Lucius Malfoy? Will the house come into play? Is there a horcrux 
hidden there?

Just something that popped into my head while reading. If this 
has been covered, would someone point me in the right direction?

Pat


Kimberly here:
I've always leaned toward the idea that it was Dumbledore that 
owned the house. Certainly he did say he found out about Frank's 
murder from the paper but that was his ONLY source of what 
happened. He didn't say he exclusively found out about it from 
the newspaper. He may not have wanted to divulge the information 
of him owning the house to Harry at the time of GoF so he withheld 
that from him. Dumbledore seems to do a lot of withholding 
information for Harry's own good.

GoF says that the villagers thought the wealthy man that owned it 
had it for "tax reasons". Are we aware of Dumbledore's financial 
position? I don't recall. A bit of timeline regarding the Riddle 
House.

-Frank Bryce came back from the war and began working for the 
Riddles.
-The Riddles are murdered.
-Frank stays on to care for the house while the "next" and then 
the "next" family came and went.   (canon says "neither stayed 
long")
-A wealthy man buys the house, keeps Frank on and continues to 
pay him while not living there or putting it to any use
-50 years later Voldemort finds his way back there and murders 
Frank.

We see later in the series that Dumbledore hires on Dobby as well 
as Winky. It always seemed that he took them on not because there 
was a shortage of elf-staff at Hogwarts but more for their sake. 
Dobby and Winky had no other prospects. Keeping Frank Bryce all 
those years for Frank's sake, because it's the only job he's had 
since the war, he's old, physically ailing, and probably unable 
to find work elsewhere at this point, seems to me something that 
Dumbledore would do.

I wonder what happened to The Riddle House after GoF? Maybe 
Dumbledore did own it? Perhaps he'll bequeath it to Harry and 
we'll revisit it?
 
As for a Horcrux being there, he could have deposited one there 
during GoF, not necesssarily created one but just left one there 
that had been made prior. Not sure about that last bit though.

Kimberly, who has always been interested in the ownership, etc. 
of The Riddle House and hopes this isn't something that goes 
unanswered by JKR