Who pays Frank Bryce?

[sunnyskywalker]

I somehow forgot that the omniscient narrator in the first chapter of Goblet of Fire explicitly tells us that the mysterious rich man who now owns the Riddle House pays Frank Bryce to stay on as gardener. Why bother with the gardening, if Voldemort is otherwise happy to let the house fall to ruins? Does he want Frank around just in case he needs a scapegoat again someday? Seems like he could find one easily enough without paying for decades of unappreciated gardening.

And what funds is he using, exactly? Did he open a Muggle bank account and use it to launder money from stuff he's stolen over the decades, and Frank's wages are peanuts compared to how much Voldemort has accrued by now? Or does he make one of his followers do it?

Hey, maybe that's how Lucius really made the connection between Tom Riddle and Voldemort. What Dobby overheard was Lucius telling Narcissa that he finally figured out how to look up Muggle property records and he's got this horrible suspicion all of a sudden... I was coming around to the idea that Lucius actually didn't know until Dumbledore told him, and Dobby overheard that years ago when Lucius's father-in-law Cygnus was talking about it to one of Narcissa's other relatives, the elder Rosier, while everyone was over for a house party. (Separately from the conversation about "terrible things" he overheard the summer of 1992.) Dobby would have loved knowing that, and knowing that Lucius didn't know. But Voldemort underestimating a Malfoy's practical skills once again works too.

But back to the original question: why? Is Voldemort just obsessed with having the perfect lawn?

Comments

[chantaldormand]

I can think about a few reasons for Frank's continuous employment while the house keeps rotting away. Theory 1: the Riddles had a good relationship with their gardener so with no one else to inherit the estate there was a clause in the will passing the estate onto Frank. Being a humble Englishman he kept that information from his neighbours claiming that the guy who inherited the estate is rich American who pays him to house-sit the estate. He is getting in his years and funds are drying up so by the time he is murdered he let the main house fall into disarray. Theory 2: With Tom Jr. being an unknown bastard the estate was inherited by some distant relative- probably overseas. The owner doesn't really care for the house, he keeps it for potential development value. Frank is there to make sure no squatters settle in and to pass on to the owner any information about potential buyers. Theory 3: For some bizarre reason to this day there is an ongoing courtroom drama concerning Riddles' will. Fortunately for Frank, he still gets paid because Riddles loved their gardener and wrote his employment into their will. But I also like NX74DEFIANT's idea of Albus paying Frank to watch out for Tom. But there is an issue with it: Riddles were murdered in 40's. While Albus considered Tom to be dangerous from the first meeting, I can't imagine he would just continue to pay Frank during decades of Tom's travels. Just how much money you can spend on watching out for potential danger before it becomes full-on paranoia?

[sunnyskywalker]

Yeah, that's probably too long for even Dumbledore's Byzantine planning.

"Distant relative who keeps local caretaker until he can sell the land to a developer" sounds most likely, unless the omniscient narrator lied to us about the Riddles being rude and snobbish. Or unless Frank was an illegitimate Riddle all along and they'd rather he inherit than their third cousin who lived in Canada and worked for a living! (There's not much detail on this Parliament page about the history of legitimacy law but I think he wouldn't have inherited automatically?)