[HPforGrownups] Re: Why didn't DD reveal Voldemort's identity?

[Marion Ros]

No: HPFGUIDX 186835

>>Alla wrote:
>><snip>
>>I do wonder why exactly Dumbledore did not scream at
>>the top of his lungs the truth of who Tom Riddle really was.
>>I am wondering if Dumbledore was so deep into his secrets
>>that he thought that this will be something the world better
>>not know, just as when he did not share his suspicions
>>about Tom with anybody while he was still in school.
>
> No.Limberger responds:
> I suspect that the reason for the secrecy was that
> Dumbledore did not want Voldemort to know how much
> Dumbledore actually knew.   Dumbledore uncovered a
> lot of information about Riddle/Voldemort.  If that were
> to become public knowledge, then it would have made it
> that much easier for Voldemort to develop defenses. It
> would also have made Voldemort do even more to
> try and cover up his past, making it that much more
> difficult to uncover more important facts about him.


Marion:

But that is silly!  What defences would Voldemort develop if Dumbledore
gave an interview like,

"Oh yes, this newfangled 'Lord Voldemort' we hear so much of these days.
Ah yes, I knew him when he was little Tom Riddle. Oh dear, yes.. such a
scrawny little boy.. Poor boy, growing up as a half-blood wizard in a
muggle orphanage must've been so difficult. Must be what caused him that
tendency to wet his bed until he was sixteen. Hah, his housemates used to
call him 'Tom Piddle' instead of Tom Riddle! Ach, children... they can be
so cruel.. What did you say? Ah, yes this Voldemort business. No, I don't
know why he feels the need to style himself as a 'lord' and give himself a
new name. There's no shame in having a muggle father, after all, and Tom
Riddle is a good name even for the brightest of wizards.. Lemon drop?"

If Dumbledore had given this interview on the Wireless and in the
newspaper back in the early seventies, Voldemort would *never* have gotten
the support he got, and what could Voldemort have done against it? Any
grandstanding, any big threatening gesture would've been met with a barely
suppressed giggle of 'Tom Piddle! Hihihihi!' and he would've been
powerless.

I thought this was the lesson one was supposed to have learned in second
year with the boggarts. Things that frighten you no longer seem half as
frightening, indeed they seem downright silly, when you've cut them down
to size and LAUGH at them.