This may be kind of a silly question, but is it reasonable to assume that Tom Marvolo Riddle was a virgin?

 

We're never told either way, but I think it would be safe to assume he never deigned to connect with anyone in that way. His ego would have been too inflated, and he had such a negative opinion of his mother . . .

This is not to say he wouldn't have used sexual attraction as a weapon or to his advantage, as with Hepzibah and Bellatrix.

 

So you know how 'Harry' is such a common name? What would be an equally common girl's name in 1980 UK?

 

According to a statistic of most popular baby names in England and Wales in 10 year intervals the most common girl's name in 1984 was Sarah.

 

To add to this, here's the full listing of the top 100 UK baby names in 1984.

Take note that Harry is not in the top 100.

 

Huh. Thanks. It doesn't really matter that Harry isn't the most common name. I just needed an exceedingly plain sounding name for a fem!Harry.

 

I agree with afrojack about Riddle. He seems himself as a demi-god going into full godhood, so it's hard to believe he would do something so, well, "primitive", as I think that's how he sees sex and everything not magical. But then, Kanye West is married and all, so everything is possible.

 

Kanye's self-deification is actually based on and more along the lines of what you'd find in the Bible about identifying the followers of god with god, their lives being 'in the hand of God.'

Voldemort vehemently rejects such notions, locating godhood firmly and solely within his own person, seeing even other magical beings as ultimately inferior to himself. Kanye has a much more inclusive and accessible notion of godhood.

Much closer to Dumbledore than Voldemort, and consequentially one that allows him to love and desire connections with others. Unlike Riddle.

 

On that topic (Riddle and personal connections) we were just chatting about Crouch Jr. in IRC. Looking back, he seems to have been greatly underestimated by the fandom. The guy is supremely competent -- maybe even the most talented of the Death Eaters, including Snape. There's also evidence that he and Voldemort had a relationship that might even have approximated affection. Or at least, respect.

- Voldemort told Crouch Jr. that he had a Muggle father. Something that Bellatrix doesn't know/accept.
- Voldemort, at the meeting of the Death Eaters in GoF, refers several times to Crouch as his most loyal servant.
- Crouch Jr. refers to Voldemort as a father figure.
- Crouch Jr. was able to confound the Goblet of Fire, which we're told is pretyy advanced magic.
- Crouch Jr. was able to overcome Mad-Eye Moody at his own house, which is probably filled with traps and protections.
- He was able to fool Dumbledore for a year, right under his nose.

Voldemort's greatest servant indeed. Harry is fucking lucky the guy didn't survive. Can anyone think of anything else to add to the list?

 

His hatred for escaped Death Eaters would lend credence to that, and the subject of his rather considerable skills has been mentioned. Of particular interest is his desire to know whether Riddle forgave those who escaped, in addition the the notion that he will be 'closer than a son' after he kills Harry. He thought Riddle wanted him to kill Harry for him, which would be wrong.

From the American version, he seems to know only that they 'both had very disappointing fathers' they were named after, that both had the pleasure of killing, but I don't know if that's enough to say he knew the man was a Muggle.

But other than Voldemort coming to get him after Wormtail finds him, which could have been a logically calculated move based on Crouch's devotion, there's nothing to suggest Voldemort had any particular attachment to him.

For all we know, Voldemort told him enough to manipulate him just as he had manipulated others, and no more. Crouch's ideas of paternal affection might have been a projection of his own desires, utilized by Riddle to make a useful servant of him, in much the same way that he indulged Bellatrix's infatuation just enough for her to be satisfied with the illusory reflection of her own feelings.

But yes, Fudge's only good move might have been taking him out of play. And maybe not underestimated so much as ignored.

 

The British version has the same wording. I think it's a reasonable conclusion that Crouch knew Voldemort's father was a Muggle from the statement -- in fact, doubting it seems overly incredulous.

If Voldemort did indeed confide his history to Crouch it would seem to imply a closeness beyond normal. Of course that doesn't rule out manipulation -- Voldemort was likely highly aware of what he was doing -- but even so, it's a remarkable amount of personal detail for Voldemort to tell anyone, even if the act of telling results in a new follower.

 

Do we know how old Crouch Jr. was when he was sentenced to Azkaban? I keep thinking 19 but I don't know if there's any canon justification - he definitely seemed young in the Penseive scene, though. Combine his young age, time in Azkaban, and time under the Imperius curse, and I'm left agreeing with you guys.

 

Well, if there was one thing Riddle respected in anyone else it was power, which we know Crouch Jr. would have had to have to do what he did. In that sense, combined with what you suggest of Riddle's willingness to divulge normally hidden information, it might be that he was grooming him for something similar and opposed to the job Dumbledore had Snape doing. Voldemort knew Snape was skilled, but he never seemed to see him as a protege the way Albus did. This may have had something to do with Snape's absence from the resurrection, but in any case, Crouch does seem to have been at least as skilled as Snape, if not more so, and his skillset (acting, stealth, etc) did seem particularly useful for spying.

 

Not to mention his close connection to the then Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Edit: If he was indeed around 19 at the time of his arrest then that's another person of around the same age as Snape, Lily, James, Sirius and Remus who is remarkably talented. What the hell were they putting in the pumpkin juice at Hogwarts in the 70s?

 

Was it mentioned in canon whether or not Jr. was half blood? from what I got out of the book many of the more cunning witches/wizards had muggle decent.

 

Wait . . . Karkaroff outs him as a Death Eater, right? Before that, he tries to out Snape too, but Albus vouches for him as a spy during the war, which had passed because Crouch Jr was brought in for torturing the Longbottoms. That would seem to indicate an older Snape, or at least a few years older than Crouch.

 

I've always figured that rather than the preceding generations being uncommonly talented, Harry's generation is just really dropping the ball. Hermione is the only character I can think of offhand who exhibits anything close to intellectual curiosity, and, unsurprisingly, she's the best in her generation at magic (other than Harry's mostly under-presented natural talent for DADA).

Considering that Harry and Ron put as little effort as possible into their school work and still manage to more or less keep up with the curriculum and get into their desired NEWT classes, I feel that the canon characters are fully capable of matching the accomplishments of the older generations, but lack the drive or will to do so.

 

To be fair to Harry, taking down Voldemort was a reasonable accomplishment.

 

This is true, but it was more Dumbledore's accomplishment than Harry's. Not to slight Harry's courage, but he was basically just steering down roads that Dumbledore paved for him.

 

Being in a brutal civil war meant that they had to already doing beyond the impossible just to survive, and that counts both sides. So motivation is checked, coupled with them being trained by those who survived an euopean" war" (that's how imagine Grindenwald rise was like), I think it also explains some. After Voldemort's first fall the impression we get is of passivity, "softness" is too strong, but it's clise.

Since it was a Civil War I think the damage was too big and personal to the english magical people to mantain an agressive stance, unlike what probably happened after Grindenwald downfall.