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

[nx74defiant]

Good question. If Voldemort owns or wants the property why a muggle caretaker? Why not just hide it magically?

Could Dumbledore being paying for it to watch for Voldemort return?

[sunnyskywalker]

Ooh, that could work. "Set something up and watch it forever" does sound like his style.

And hey, maybe this could answer another question: why Rowling thinks James was rich enough not to have to work for a living but Harry isn't. It's hard to imagine what James would spend that much money on, but if Dumbledore dipped into Harry's vault for ten years to cover Frank's salary because other sources dried up or he wanted to rotate between them or something, well, that might explain it. (She isn't super clear about Harry's finances in the books besides "piles of gold," but Harry thinks at one point that he'll have to keep his spending in check to get through school, so it can't be that big a pile by the time he gains access if even he vaguely thinks, "Hm, not exactly endless, is it...")

Harry's Vault

[nx74defiant]

The only information we get in the books is the one visit.
Piles of gold - from the view of an 11 year old. So what is to a small child a large pile, how would an adult see it?
Harry has never had an allowance, the Dursley's don't give him spending money. His school shopping trip is probably his first experience with managing his own money.

Re: Harry's Vault

[sunnyskywalker]

Oh yeah, it is definitely vague in the books. There was just this one weird interview where Rowling said something about how James wouldn't have had to work for a living but Harry will. I'll have to track that down. It makes you wonder whether this was one of those ghost plots she meant to write but cut. Because that is weirdly specific. How could James have gone through that much money in three years? Was that part of the whole "what the Potters did was super-important" angle that she ended up not really putting in the books after all?

There was this weird bit in one of the books where Harry reflects that the Dursleys hadn't given him pocket money since he was about six. Which is also weird. Why did they ever give him an allowance in the first place? Were they less bad in earlier years, and degenerated over time? Maybe they thought his magic really was accidental when he was that young, but blamed him by the time he was nine or so because Petunia said Lily could control it by that age so Harry must be doing it on purpose now? So many questions.

[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?)

Re: Harry's Vault

[oryx_leucoryx]

Harry accesses his vault again at the beginning of COS, and it visibly has a lot more money than the Weasley vault, that gets emptied entirely in order to pay for the expenses of 5 kids (and whatever other shopping the adults were planning). In POA he lives for several weeks at the Leaky Cauldron in addition to buying his school supplies (though a significant part of his nutrition those days was in the form of free ice cream). In GOF Molly does his shopping for him with his money and finds it OK to buy him nice dress robes (though I wouldn't trust Molly's business sense). In OOTP again Molly does the shopping. In HBP Bill gets Harry's money for his shopping, and at this point Harry's vault also includes whatever was left in Sirius' (was it the entire Black inheritance or just what was left of the money Sirius had inherited from his uncle?).

Oh, in GOF he doesn't notice when the leprechaun gold in his pocket disappears, implying he was carrying a lot of pocket money.

Re: Harry's Vault

[sunnyskywalker]

The money might last longer if Harry's expenses stayed at the same level as when he's in school, but they probably won't, even given that he's now inherited a house and won't have to pay rent or a mortgage. We don't know how much food usually costs wizards, though it might be on the low side since it can be magically extended somewhat. He'll probably need more clothing than three sets of plain black robes every couple of years, especially if he needs separate work and not-work wardrobes. There might be an annual fee for Floo Network connection in addition to the Floo powder itself. And so on. Those three kids will incur more costs. And he has no experience budgeting, so at least for the first few years out of school, he'll probably buy expensive Quidditch equipment and a fabulous honeymoon and whatever strikes his fancy in Diagon Alley without a thought, and maybe regret it later. So I could see it running down faster than he expects. But how quickly depends on exactly how much he has, and what his actual expenses will be, what investment opportunities are available, etc.

We do know that the Lestrange vault is crammed floor to ceiling with gold coins, goblins, armor, a skull with a crown, etc., while Harry has "heaps" and "mounds" of coins (and apparently nothing else). I would guess that the Lestranges don't need to work for a living. But we don't know exactly how great the difference is between Harry's mounds and Lestranges' stacks to the ceilings, or how that translates into years' worth of living expenses (plus the whole investments and dividends question).

Sirius doesn't seem to have had any trouble inheriting the house, but it might have been possible for his family to will the money away separately--or they might have spent it, for that matter. Maybe Arcturus needed expensive medical care in his last years, or had an expensive recreational potions habit. I'm not sure whether we can make any guesses about personal vs. family vault based on the vault locations. Sirius (or the Black family's) vault is deeper than the Potter family vault, I think, but maybe all that means is that they paid for a higher-security vault.