Power of names and Tigana SPOILERS WAS : Re: DH reread CH 20

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 186756

> Pippin:

>  Look at it this way, suppose I am an official with a government, a government that has anti-Semitic tendencies which I have spent most of my life working against. I suspect  some fellow  named Madison of running a Ponzi scheme, and  I can't get anyone to believe me. Now in this very hypothetical case, I think  that a lot of his investors wouldn't care to do business with a Jew -- so what you are saying is, I should tell everyone that Madison's name used to be Madoff, right?
> 
> Wouldn't my political enemies use that as  ammunition? Wouldn't they claim that my actions show  that, hey, even I must agree  that being Jewish is a legitimate reason not to trust people? 

Magpie:
I think Tom Riddle's blood would only be of secondary importance anyway. The important reason to call him Riddle, as Dumbledore and Harry both do, is to make him human and cut him down to size rather than referring to him by his scary goth name he uses to make him sound unbeatable. Not only would it work, it's imo something that should definitely be given to everyone. That line of Dumbledore's is very bizarre to me, that his "proper name" isn't You-Know-Who, but Lord Voldemort. His proper name is Tom Riddle from Little Hangledon.

If some people who were already obsessed with bloodline happened to also be turned off by his Muggle parents all the better, but there's more to Tom Riddle than his blood status. Besides which, it's the truth that Voldemort doesn't want known so why not share it? The inner circle all know it.

-m