Why didn't DD reveal Voldemort's identity?

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186881

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sistermagpie" <sistermagpie at ...> wrote:
>
> Damn Yahoomort ate my first response!!
> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> I don't think it's silly at all. In fact, I agree completely with No.Limberger.
> If Voldemort suspected that Dumbledore was investigating his past, he would
> never have hidden the Horcruxes in places important to him as scenes of his
> crimes or his happiness (Hogwarts) or his envy (Gringotts). He'd have probably
> sealed them all inside that tree in Albania where they could never be found by
> anyone but him.
> 
> Magpie:
> There's no reason Dumbledore sharing information that is known to him, that Voldemort knows is known to him, would mean that Dumbledore is investigating his past. Dumbledore doesn't need to investigate this stuff.
>
Carol responds:

Voldemort knows that Dumbledore knows where the orphanage he lived in was and knows that he stole from and otherwise abused the other children. He knows that Dumbledore knows his achievements at Hogwarts and that DD suspects him of being behind some of the "accidents" that happened to various students, including, probably, the death of Moaning Myrtle. He also knows that Dumbledore can't prove any of it. He may know that DD knows he worked for Borgin and Burkes. But that's *all* that Voldemort knows DD knows.

He does not know that Dumbledore knows his ancestry or the location of the Gaunt hovel. He does not know that Dumbledore knows he killed his father and grandparents, framed Morfin, and stole Morfin's ring. He does not know that Dumbledore knows that he stole the cup and locket, killed Hepzibah Smith, and framed Hokey for it. He does not know that Dumbledore knows he's made even one Horcrux, let alone five or six. He does not know that Dumbledore understands him and has a good idea of what some of those Horcruxes are (and later, the exact number), or has a good idea of where at least some of those Horcruxes might be hidden.

If Dumbledore revealed even the small fact of Voldemort's identity, the names of his parents and the fact that his father was a rich Muggle from Little Hangleton, Voldemort would not only suspect but *know* that Dumbledore was investigating his past. He, himself, only knew his father's name, Tom Riddle, and that his grandfather's first or last name was Marvolo. Only lengthy investigation led him to that discovery. Neither eleven-year-old Tom nor Mrs. Cole, who didn't know the name Gaunt, gave DD that information. He would have had to discover it, as Tom did, for himself. And DD would not want Voldemort to know that he was doing any such thing.

Magpie: 
> To be fair, there is a canonical explanation for why Dumbledore and Voldemort act the way they do. I just has nothing to do with a logical plan. It's psychology. Dumbledore likes keeping information for himself so he knows more than anyone else (always vaguely telling them that this keeps it safe) and Voldemort is psychologically compelled to create all his plans around Important Moments in his personal history. Both of them often act against the interests of their own goals because they can't not act this way. 

Carol responds:
That's certainly true. But psychological explanations are not the only explanations, and, surely, if Dumbledore, with his concern for the greater good, thought that the WW would be helped rather than hurt by being given this information, he would have given it. So he must have had reasons beyond his penchant for secrecy for concealing it. And one of those reasons, surely, is his own investigations--as well as his knowledge, acquired through these investigations, of Voldemort's psychology, an advantage that he certainly would not want Voldemort to know that he had.

With regard to the rest of the argument, I still see no advantage in revealing that Voldemort is a Half-Blood. By the time he's dangerous enough that the WW at large has cause to fear him, he's already gathered followers for whom his being a powerful Dark Wizard descended from Slytherin outweighs his being a Half-Blood, and the rest of the WW doesn't care what his blood status is, only that he's a dangerous psychopath and the leader of a terrorist gang.
> 


> Magpie:
> I don't see how the information that we never hear of Dumbledore telling the Order who Tom Riddle is, and that the Order all call him some form of Voldemort proves that Dumbledore told them all who he really was and it made no difference to them. It makes a difference to the people we know he told. In fact, the whole winning plan depends on knowing who he is. 

Carol responds:
I don't know of a single character other than Bellatrix, who refuses to believe it, and Voldemort himself, for whom Voldemort's blood status is important. Knowing it makes no difference in what the Order members call him. Harry, following Dumbledore, insists on saying "Voldemort," but he's not insisting on saying Tom Riddle. And the Order members still call him You Know Who rather than Tom Riddle. They're still, apparently, afraid of the Dark Wizard Voldemort. Unlike Dumbledore, they don't think of him as Tom.

Carol, snipping way too much and responding to too little because she's pressed for time