HBP Chapter Thirteen: "The Secret Riddle"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Ron and Hermione feign deafness whenever Harry brings up his DE!Draco theory, but neither of them ever seems to wonder who the actual culprit is. Come on, trio, what’s happened to you? Why this uncharacteristic lack of curiosity?

* Maybe Draco’s just been covering his tracks by putting some chemical into the school water supply which reduces curiosity and overall intellectual ability. That explains why nobody ever mounts a serious investigation into the Katie Bell incident, and why all the characters are so stupid in this novel.

* Harry’s all indignant that Snape cured Katie. Yeah, curse that meanie, going around making people healthy!

* Dumbledore promises to take “all appropriate measures” to find out who might have caused Katie Bell’s accident. Obviously he doesn’t also promise to do anything about what he finds; equally obviously, nobody ever calls him out on this.

* And it’s time for a few episodes of Tom Riddle’s Schooldays again. I’m not sure why Dumbles is so sure that Merope made a conscious decision not to use magic. Even if she did go to Hogwarts, they don’t seem to teach any medical spells, so if she was dying of a disease there’s not much she’d be able to do.

* Still, don’t judge Merope too harshly; she never had Lilly’s courage, after all. Never mind that being courageous isn’t actually much of a defence against illness, or that the kind of courage needed to keep going on in a hopeless situation is different to the kind of courage needed to stand up to a homicidal maniac, making the two cases rather difficult to compare, or that Lilly’s death wasn’t actually that brave in the first place.

* Memory!Dumbledore is drawing many curious glances with his flamboyant purple suit. Actually I’m starting to believe that wizards actually know perfectly well how muggles dress, and just keep wearing really weird clothes because they can’t bear not being the centre of attention.

* Mrs. Cole is “an inconveniently sharp woman”, meaning that she actually wants to know what the strange man come to take one of her charges away is going to do with him. I suppose that when you’ve been living with wizards a while the criteria for being “sharp” tend to diminish somewhat.

* Luckily Dumbledore is able to use magic to get her to do his bidding. Phew! For a moment there I thought he might have had to actually treat that uppity muggle like a human being.

* Although I’m not sure why Dumbledore felt the need to get her drunk as well as zapping her mind. Maybe he fancied a drink isn’t allowed any alcohol while on school business, and this way he can pretend it was necessary to do his job. All in the line of duty, Prof. Dippet!

* It’s not surprising Tom never really gets on with Dumbledore. Hogwarts only has room for one bullying, manipulative psychopath.

* I wonder if JKR intended to have child abuse undertones around the incident in the cave, or whether they were just accidental, like the centaur!rape in OOTP.

* Bizarrely, Dumbledore doesn’t stop to consider whether teaching this disturbed individual dangerous magic might not be a good idea. Nor, for that matter, does anybody else. It’s no wonder the wizarding world has so many dark lords, their education policy is just so lax.

* “There was no trace of the Gaunts in Tom Riddle’s face.” No, it was all in his blood, his filthy, tainted blood.

* “Tell the truth!” yells Tom. Yeah, good luck getting that out of Professor Dumbledore.

* Thieving is not tolerated at Hogwarts during Dippet’s headship. With Dumbledore in control, Luna Lovegood will be putting up posters asking people to return her stolen items. Go figure.

* Given that Ron has to go through COS without a wand, I assume the hardship fund was discontinued sometime in Dumbledore’s reign.

* It’s strange that Dumbledore lets Tom go shopping on his own. I know the man doesn’t generally care much for students’ welfare, but he might want to stop the budding psychopath wandering into Nockturn Alley.

* Ways the later books ruin the early books # 477: Dumbledore’s seeing through Tom now looks rather less impressive, and his not telling anybody about the boy’s personality looks extremely negligent.

* Dumbledore had no idea Tom was going to grow up into a dark lord. Odd, because I imagine most muggle psychiatrists – heck, most muggles in general – would be able to tell that teaching such a child dangerous magic wasn’t going to end well.

* I suppose Dumbledore interprets the idea of “keeping an eye” on someone very narrowly, so as to exclude actually intervening if the person goes off the rails or gets into trouble. Either that or he was just lying through his teeth when he said he kept an eye on Tom.

* Tom was “highly self-sufficient, secretive, and, apparently, friendless,” and “preferred to operate alone.” So basically he was like Dumbledore Jnr., then.

* I’m not sure what it was about the mouth-organ that made Harry think it was significant in some way.

* As diverting as these Voldemort flashbacks are, I don’t see why Dumbledore couldn’t have just told Harry the information they contain. He could have got it over and done with in one or two sessions, leaving the rest of the year free for practical information, such as how to recognise and destroy horcruxes.

Comments

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Actually, Ron's going wandless has a simple explanation; the hardship fund wasn't discontinued, the Weasleys were simply too proud to apply to it.

And I always wondered why, if Dumbledore thought there was something 'troubled' about Tom Riddle, he didn't do something about it. Keep a closer eye on him, so he couldn't frame innocent, naievely-dense students for his own crimes. Maybe, even, try to do something to turn him from the Dark Side to the Light. Such as finding out what exactly life was like at the orphanage, especially for a 'freak' with no friends ....

There's at least one ongoing fanfiction that has Tom Riddle being abused at the orphanage, and shows that his 'corruption' was a gradual process, accelerated/made worse as his making of horcruxes shredded his soul/humanity. If anything like this was true in canon, it means that if Dubledore had bothered to intervene in Tom's life, he may have been able to keep him from becoming Voldemort ...

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/I’m not sure why Dumbles is so sure that Merope made a conscious decision not to use magic./

Not to mention that this is the only book where this is mentioned. Neville never loses his magic because he has poor self-esteem or because of his grandmother’s treatment of him. Harry doesn’t lose his magic either, even during all of those years of misery with the Dursleys. I get that this was probably supposed to foreshadow the reason for Tonks’ depression as well as explain why Merope didn’t just use magic to make herself better, but it still comes out of nowhere.

/Never mind that being courageous isn’t actually much of a defence against illness, or that the kind of courage needed to keep going on in a hopeless situation is different to the kind of courage needed to stand up to a homicidal maniac/

Yes, don’t judge Merope too harshly, but now let’s unfavorably compare her to Lily, whose situation was nowhere near Merope’s. Also, I don’t think that all of the thousands of women who have died in childbirth perished because they weren’t “courageous” enough.

/I’m not sure why Dumbledore felt the need to get her drunk as well as zapping her mind./

Maybe JKR based Mrs. Cole on Miss Hannigan from “Annie.”

/I wonder if JKR intended to have child abuse undertones around the incident in the cave, or whether they were just accidental/

I’ve always assumed that Tom just brain-damaged them with magic, either on purpose or by accident. Tampering with people’s memories is, after all, a common habit of his.

/Dumbledore doesn’t stop to consider whether teaching this disturbed individual dangerous magic might not be a good idea./

Yes, even after hearing Ms. Cole’s accounts of Tom’s behavior and hearing the truth from Tom’s own mouth, Dumbledore still has no problem with Tom going to school to learn magic and find out even more ways to hurt other children. Why? Does he consider it a disgrace and shame for a magical child to not be taught magic, no matter what the circumstance? Is he still hung up over Ariana and sees Tom as a do-over (i.e. Tom’s the Ariana who actually got to go to school)?

/“There was no trace of the Gaunts in Tom Riddle’s face.” No, it was all in his blood/

Yes, even though Merope married outside of her family, thus reducing the chance of her child inheriting the curse of inbreeding by half, Tom still wound up just like the uncle and grandfather that he never knew. Somehow.

/It’s strange that Dumbledore lets Tom go shopping on his own. I know the man doesn’t generally care much for students’ welfare, but he might want to stop the budding psychopath wandering into Nockturn Alley./

Not only that, but Tom is only 11 years old. Who lets their 11-year-old kid just wander off alone in a big city to shop? At least Harry had Hagrid with him. Dumbledore didn’t even bother to go with Tom or send someone else to supervise him. No, the eleven-year-old will be perfectly fine buying his own things with money that he’s never seen before in a place that he’s never visited.

/Dumbledore’s seeing through Tom now looks rather less impressive, and his not telling anybody about the boy’s personality looks extremely negligent/

Did JKR just not realize how this scene made Dumbledore look? How is it a surprise when Tom winds up being the Heir of Slytherin and Voldemort? He told Dumbledore everything that he needed to know right here!

/I imagine most muggle psychiatrists – heck, most muggles in general – would be able to tell that teaching such a child dangerous magic wasn’t going to end well./

Lucius didn’t even have to go through the Chamber of Secrets and Buckbeak plans to discredit Dumbledore. All he needed to do was write (or get Rita Skeeter to write) one long article disclosing Dumbledore’s history with Voldemort to tell the governors, “This is why you shouldn’t trust this man to guard children!”

/or he was just lying through his teeth when he said he kept an eye on Tom./

Too bad that Harry didn't call him out about the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco. "Oh, you kept a close eye on him, did you? So, why did Myrtle die?"

/I’m not sure what it was about the mouth-organ that made Harry think it was significant in some way./

Now that I think about it, the mouth-organ would have made a pretty funny Horcrux.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/And I always wondered why, if Dumbledore thought there was something 'troubled' about Tom Riddle, he didn't do something about it./

Exactly. The fact that Dumbledore was the one to visit Tom and hear his troubled history first-hand makes him look even more suspicious and culpable for doing nothing when Tom was at school. Why didn’t he tell anybody? I know that the common explanation for this is that he wanted to give Tom a second chance, but really? Second chances are one thing; precautions and common sense are another. Why didn’t he tell the other teachers so that they could also keep a close watch on Tom? What possible purpose could withholding this information serve? It’s not like he knew Tom personally or had any ties to him. He was just some creepy eleven-year-old kid that Albus just met.

/There's at least one ongoing fanfiction that has Tom Riddle being abused at the orphanage, and shows that his 'corruption' was a gradual process, accelerated/made worse as his making of horcruxes shredded his soul/humanity./

Yeah, I’ve seen a couple of fanfics with that premise. For the most part, canon seems to argue that the Horcruxes only showed Tom’s evil rather than added to it. The most that they changed was his appearance, it would seem.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Harry’s all indignant that Snape cured Katie. Yeah, curse that meanie, going around making people healthy!

Seriously? He is? I haven't read this book in awhile, but that's rather mean-spirited even for Harry.

I agree with what everyone else (and you) has said about Dumbledore's negligence re Tom. Dumbledore: creator of Dark Lords par excellence.

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

"Maybe, even, try to do something to turn him from the Dark Side to the Light."

On, no, Dumbledore wouldn't want to waste his time. Tom was born evil (Slytherin), so nothing could be done about it. There is no hope of redemption in the Potterverse.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Dumbledore promises to take “all appropriate measures” to find out who might have caused Katie Bell’s accident.

He already knows who the most likely suspect is, so this means he doesn't need to do anything to keep his word. The best kind of promise.

Bizarrely, Dumbledore doesn’t stop to consider whether teaching this disturbed individual dangerous magic might not be a good idea. Nor, for that matter, does anybody else.

Who else knew at the time how disturbed Tom was? Or is this a comment about Harry's reaction?

Thieving is not tolerated at Hogwarts during Dippet’s headship.

But for some reason Albus doesn't feel the need to warn Tom against torturing people or killing their pets.

Tom was “highly self-sufficient, secretive, and, apparently, friendless,” and “preferred to operate alone.” So basically he was like Dumbledore Jnr., then.

Did Albus see the resemblance at all? Whether to himself or to Gellert?

[oryx_leucoryx]

Did JKR just not realize how this scene made Dumbledore look? How is it a surprise when Tom winds up being the Heir of Slytherin and Voldemort? He told Dumbledore everything that he needed to know right here!

The odd thing is she could have had an easy out with very few pieces that needed moving. Since she already had Albus showing Harry memories of other people - just have some other teacher be the one who visited the orphanage. Then Albus can be the brilliant one who saw through deception. Instead he is the deceiver who hid the truth from his colleagues.

Too bad that Harry didn't call him out about the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco. "Oh, you kept a close eye on him, did you? So, why did Myrtle die?"

But Myrtle is annoying and not a Gryffindor so Harry can't be bothered on her behalf.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

If some part of him did, perhaps that's why he didn't even try to intervene. 'Tom is destined to be evil, so trying to change that is wasted effort, he has no choice; just as I had no choice, it's destiny ......'

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

"Thieving is not tolerated at Hogwarts" under Dippet? Oh, thanks for pointing out how things changed once St. Albus took control!

Besides Luna, we know of at least six occasions when school (or teacher) property was stolen without, apparently, any attempt to identify or punish the perpetrators. In several cases, the criminal makes it clear that he/they are blithely certain that the theft WOULD go uninvestigated and unpunished, even if they showed off publicly with the swag.

James Potter stole school athletic equipment (the Snitch) and publicly showed off with it. In front of (probably at least two) Prefects.

The Weasley twins stole confiscated (and tagged-as-dangerous) property from Filch's office (the Map).

The Weasley twins subsequently stole a salamander and tortured it to death in the Gryffindor common room. Percy objected, wet-blanket that he was, but didn't punish them.

Snape, on three occasions that we know of, had secured potions ingredidents stolen. In two cases, he had strong evidence at the time pointing to the culprit: Boomslang skin, twice (by Hermione--who subsequently showed up cat-faced from botched Polyjuice, and by Barty), and Gillyweed (by Dobby, but Harry used it in front of hundreds of witnesses).

See my "Discipline at Hogwarts" essay. I really think much of the problem is, a lot of laws and rules exist to keep the strongest from preying (too badly) on the weaker. From the point of view of someone strong, unscrupulous, and utterly lacking in empathy, such rules are simply onerous and unreasonable restrictions on one's freedom of action.

Once Albus, who'd always been the strongest and smartest of his generation, was in charge of the school, it probably just seemed natural to him to relax unnecessary restrictions on his students. They were still on the books, but he made sure his staff and students knew he wouldn't bother to enforce them.

If someone wants to keep hir own property, learn good enough warding spells to protect it! Why coddle weaklings and fools by punishing thieves?

[maidofkent.livejournal.com]

Although I’m not sure why Dumbledore felt the need to get her drunk as well as zapping her mind.
Maybe JKR based Mrs. Cole on Miss Hannigan from “Annie.”

The mind-zapping piece of paper was just to convince Mrs Cole about Hogwarts, because she was asking reasonable awkward questions about how Tom had managed to get a place. The lashings of gin look like Dumbledore getting Mrs Cole to open up about Tom's history and parentage. Is Dumbledore always this curious, one wonders. Given what Mrs Cole says about being just a few years younger than Merope and having just started work at the orphanage when Tom was born, she can only be in her twenties, with probably a fairly basic education. Despite this, she suspects when children under her care are being bullied and abused and tries to get expert help to deal with the perpetrator. Obviously not Hogwarts material.

Yes, even though Merope married outside of her family, thus reducing the chance of her child inheriting the curse of inbreeding by half, Tom still wound up just like the uncle and grandfather that he never knew.

Don't worry, his Muggle family were wrong'uns, too. The Riddles are described in GoF as 'rich, snobbish and rude'. Where did Tom get that charm from exactly? and fancy those Slytherins thinking blood and inheritance might be important.

wonder if JKR intended to have child abuse undertones around the incident in the cave, or whether they were just accidental/

It read that way to me.

[malic-ba.livejournal.com]

Apparently friendless? Why do we think that of Albus? (Or, actually, Tom? I thought he was smooth and charming on the surface, in his later Hogwarts years anyway?) Albus had at least one sycophant in school - his own Wormtail, who didn't turn on him at the end - even if he saved most of his charm for the staff (yes, like Tom).

True, those aren't really friends, maybe that's what it means.

(BTW, does anyone actually believe Sirius' claim that the Marauders would have died for Pettigrew? That they truly saw him as a friend? I never saw any evidence that they valued him at all. Though that could just be my negative cynical outlook.)

[malic-ba.livejournal.com]

Re: Albus - Absolutely. One more reason it's hard to believe that Dumbledore the Manipulative - to mention only part of the dystopia - wasn't deliberate. But if we are to believe the interviews, it totally wasn't. In fact, it totally doesn't exist and there's something wrong with us for thinking of it.
I don't get it.

[maidofkent.livejournal.com]

After Dumbledore tells Harry that Snape has managed to halt the spread of the curse, Harry asks, "Why him? Why not Madam Pomfrey?". Luckily Phineas Nigellus is there to say what we're all thinking. "Impertinent".

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

Apparently friendless? Why do we think that of Albus? (Or, actually, Tom? I thought he was smooth and charming on the surface, in his later Hogwarts years anyway?) Albus had at least one sycophant in school - his own Wormtail, who didn't turn on him at the end - even if he saved most of his charm for the staff (yes, like Tom).


I was mostly thinking of the way we never see or heard of Dumbledore having any close and equal relationships with people, except possibly Grindlewald (although after the interviews that seems to have been a crush rather than a friendship). His relationships seem to be of the leader-follower variety rather than normal friendships.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----Ron and Hermione feign deafness whenever Harry brings up his DE!Draco theory, but neither of them ever seems to wonder who the actual culprit is. Come on, trio, what’s happened to you? Why this uncharacteristic lack of curiosity?

In my head canon, Hermione privately agreed that Draco was up to something, but she trusted that Dumbledore and Snape were already handling the situation as best as they could. She may have even been instructed to do her best to keep Harry from interfering.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting take on it, and I could see her accepting private instructions from the headmaster to try to head Harry away from Draco. Only, if it had happened that way, you'd think Dumbledore's murder would have shattered her faith in the old man's judgment, and in DH she's the one absolutely unfalterting in her belief that Harry must do God's Revealed Will and not mess about with all that thinking/doubting crap.

I tell you, the Confidere would account for a lot of things!

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Oh, that makes sense of Albus getting her drunk--softening her up for interrogation.

And It might not have been just gin, after all, in her glass.

But afterwards, if she wonders why she was so uncharacteristically loquacious with an odd and rather disturbing stranger about one of the children in her care, she has an excuse for her unusual behavior--I was drunk!

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----And I always wondered why, if Dumbledore thought there was something 'troubled' about Tom Riddle, he didn't do something about it. Keep a closer eye on him, so he couldn't frame innocent, naievely-dense students for his own crimes. Maybe, even, try to do something to turn him from the Dark Side to the Light. Such as finding out what exactly life was like at the orphanage, especially for a 'freak' with no friends

I question how truly concerned Albus was at the time that he was dealing with a future dark lord during his first encounter with Tom Riddle. I rather suspect that this may be a case of 20/20 hindsight. Albus could look back through his early memories of Tom and say, "Ah, yes, there were warning signs," but I'm not sure if he really saw those warning signs back in 1938.

First, it appears to be unusual for young children to have significant control over their magic, and it is apparently normal for children to perform accidental magic when experiencing intense emotions. Therefore, at the time it would have been reasonable for Albus to conclude that Tom had mostly been doing accidental magic in response to being provoked rather than deliberately using his magic to hurt the other children.

Second, given the lessons of history, I imagine that it is/was conventional wisdom in the wizarding world that Muggles generally hate and fear magic and that it is simply the nature of Muggles to attack those who are magical. And Albus had had the personal experience of his sister's attack to reinforce this belief. Therefore, I think it's quite possible that, at the time, Albus assumed that any of Tom's conflicts at the orphanage were mainly the fault of the ignorant Muggles surrounding the boy. It's possible that Albus didn't initially view Tom as a budding psychopath but rather as an understandably angry child who had been bullied by the other children for being magical, much like Arianna had been.

[snapes-witch.livejournal.com]

(BTW, does anyone actually believe Sirius' claim that the Marauders would have died for Pettigrew? That they truly saw him as a friend? I never saw any evidence that they valued him at all. Though that could just be my negative cynical outlook.)

No. My thought is that the only reason they let Peter hang around with them was because he was their roomie and there was no choice if they wanted to protect Moony's secret.

Looks like I'm cynical too.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Except that we see Tom *consciously* attempt a deliberate baby-Imperio on Dumbledore himself. When it doesn't work, he is shocked, and clearly assumes that this means that Dumbles is special - implying that he's used to it working on people, because he's tried before. Dumbledore can see all of this, and isn't stupid. I don't buy that he concluded that it was all uncontrolled, accidental magic.

[malic-ba.livejournal.com]

That's a good point.
James, at least, didn't mind the blatant crawling. That would have helped too.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Also, there's the rabbit that was found hanging from the rafters. That was not done by accidental magic. (And if it was done non-magically that is as bad as if it was done by intentional magic.)

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

*Sigh* Poor Peter. The more I think of it the more I think he might have been a character I really liked--if I wasn't constantly being browbeaten with how slimy and horrible he was at every single instant (there's a reason why he's presented as a snarky only-sane-man sort in my parodies).

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

"Yes, don’t judge Merope too harshly, but now let’s unfavorably compare her to Lily, whose situation was nowhere near Merope’s. Also, I don’t think that all of the thousands of women who have died in childbirth perished because they weren’t “courageous” enough."

If anything, the decision to go through with a pregnancy that you have every reason to think will kill you is brave and self-sacrificing in and of itself. I don't know if I'd say it'd always be the best way (depending on the circumstances) but there'd be nothing cowardly about it.

[https://me.yahoo.com/a/gNLVidA.xeLuPiOU_2B_USM.HYNFjA--#b0b6b (from livejournal.com)]

I admit, as someone who always roots for the villain, I was a keen Voldemort fan ... up until this book, where it was shown to us that Tom Riddle was irredeemably evil since before he was even born.

There's at least one ongoing fanfiction that has Tom Riddle being abused at the orphanage, and shows that his 'corruption' was a gradual process, accelerated/made worse as his making of horcruxes shredded his soul/humanity.
I'm writing something along these lines too; it's far more interesting than Riddle's history as Rowling/Dumbledore tells it.

I think it's worth questioning how accurate the portrayal of Riddle in Dumbledore's memories really is. For one, as several people point out, Dumbledore has the onus of assuring Harry/the reader that he was perspicacious enough to see through Riddle right from the beginning. For two - we know that memories can be tampered with, and if the tamperer is skilled enough (in Occlumency, I would imagine), the reader/viewer won't be aware of any tampering.
Conclusion: it is all too easy for Dumbledore to rewrite history to make himself look infallible and/or his enemy look more dangerous than he actually was.