Owl Post
To: Neville Longbottom From: Michael Corner
[Enclosed is an article for the Quibbler, already set for the printer. There are also three wizarding photographs. The first is of a gathering of the proto-Death Eaters from their days at Hogwarts. It includes Tom Riddle in the center, with his followers arrayed around him. The second is of Lord Voldemort, a photograph from his first reign of terror. The third is a "Morphic" - that takes a closeup of the face of Tom Riddle from the first picture and morphs it into the face of HWMNBN in the second. Lastly, there is a genealogical study of Tom Riddle Senior going back seven generations.]
His Name Is Mud
by Michael Corner
So who was He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named? If one were to scour the Great Book at Hogwarts (which I have), there is no entry for Voldemort, Lord. That name was a creation, an attempt to reinvent himself and rewrite history. But history and facts cannot be changed. Though the so-called Dark Lord did his level best to erase that history, the truth is that Lord Voldemort was born with the name Tom Marvolo Riddle.
[The words TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE rearrange into I AM LORD VOLDEMORT and back again.]
So who was Tom Riddle? Where did he come from? And why did Tom work so very hard to erase that history?
Tom Riddle's mother was Merope Gaunt. The Gaunts were once a powerful and respected family, famous for being direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin. However, by the time poor Merope came into the world, the Gaunts had fallen on hard times and were practically penniless.
Tom Riddle Senior, on the other hand, comes from a very wealthy family - a Muggle family. The Riddles were a wealthy family who lived near the Gaunts, and their son Tom was considered to be one of the most handsome men in the county. Soon after Merope's graduation from Hogwarts, she and Tom married and left for parts unknown. But a short time later, Tom Riddle returned to his family, and would not speak of his marriage. Some believe that Riddle was the subject of a love potion, but that is supposition, and not fact. The fact is that months after Tom Riddle Senior returned to his family, Merope Gaunt gave birth to Tom Marvolo Riddle, and died from complications of childbirth.
Now, some would tell you that Lord Voldemort's blood, like all of his Death Eaters, was pure, because so many wizarding families place such stock in blood purity. But the fact is, if you go back seven generations the Riddle family is 100% Muggle. (And the author would go farther back, but the Muggle records were not as complete as many Wizarding records go.)
So why did Voldemort place such high value on blood purity when he himself was a half-blood? Now we leave the safe arena of fact and enter the area of supposition. Facts tell us that Tom Riddle was half-blood, and facts confirm that he sorted into Slytherin, a house that places such value on blood purity. Perhaps he reinvented himself as the hero of the pure bloods because the pure bloods were the ones with power and money - both of which the penniless orphan craved. Perhaps he cynically understood that if he wanted power in the wizarding world, he needed to make himself like those with power. Or perhaps he was simply ashamed. Nobody of his generation speaks of Tom Riddle's time at Hogwarts. But one can only assume how children of privilege would initially treat a child who came from nothing. They would have called him a "Mudblood."
(byline: Michael Corner is currently in Godric's Hollow)
PS: Nev, I didn't have time to write this up, but here is a list of nine muggleborn wizards who went on to do great things, from Quidditch stars to dragon tamers. Hermione would make it a nice, even ten. [List enclosed]