[HPforGrownups] Re: Another mysterious message

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 165861


> Eggplant wrote:
>> "While Harry was sure he had never heard the name T.M. Riddle
> before, it still seemed to mean something to him, almost as though
> Riddle was a friend he'd had when he was very small, and had
> half-forgotten. <snip>"
>> (Chamber of Secrets, 233-34)
>>
>> I've read 4 Potter books since then but I still don't know what that
> was all about. A friend?!
>
> Carol responds:
> I think Harry's reaction to the name is part of the spell that's
> designed to draw the reader in to interact with Memory!Tom by writing
> in the diary. Ginny has a similar reaction, confiding her little
> girl's secrets to "dear Tom" and thinking of him as her friend. To be
> sure, Harry's reaction occurs before he has interacted with the diary,
> after simply reading the name, but I still thinks that's just part of
> the way the diary is designed, to lure the reader into writing in it
> and conversing with the seemingly charming Tom.
>
> Carol, a voice crying in the wilderness with whom nobody is likely to
> agree

Shelley follows:

Actually Carol, I think you are correct. The Diary casts a friendly spell 
over the holder, so that they aren't likely to throw the Diary out or ignore 
it as if it were insignificant. It calls to the person, like a soft spoken 
Siren. If it didn't, there is the possibility that Tom would never be able 
to steal a soul because of the many uses the diary required to make it work. 
Harry assumes this Siren song he hears is a recognition of a "old friend", 
yet he knows logically that this shouldn't be true.  I think he's not 
experienced enough as a Wizard to know what this "call" should mean, that 
this thought did not originate with him but through an external source- a 
magically enchanted item.

Shelley