Comments on: The Heir of Slytherin

By: rtozier

rtozier — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:23:00 +0000

Jeremy, that’s true, but we’re probably talking two thousand years of descent between Harry/Voldemort and the Peverells, their most recent common ancestor. That’s not a great reason for H&V to look alike – I’m more inclined to believe it’s either a coincidence or a consequence of the Horcrux. Good thinking though. :)

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:58:21 +0000

Tom Riddle to Harry Potter: We even look something alike.

Because they are related through the Peverells.

By: May

May — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:34:08 +0000

Re: Something to Remember. Indeed, John! Having Riddle pour his soul into Ginny because she trusted the diary so much made me remember something – Hermione saying that you cannot grow too attached with a Horcrux or else you’re in dead trouble. Lucky Harry is brave enough to go after Ginny and save her. :)

I was also wondering how come the Riddle that came out of the diary hadn’t been wearing the ring he stole – the same one he made into a Horcrux.

And then there’s the fact that as a sixteen-year old boy, Riddle had already turned the diary into a Horcrux – which means that he had already succeeded in killing someone (Murder is required to split part of your soul). I wonder if it was the murder of Myrtle which allowed him to turn the diary into a Horcrux…

Re: Something You May Not Have Noticed: Nice commentary on Ron! It’s simply a proof that his character is growing more and more. :)

By: HentaiTenshi

HentaiTenshi — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:27:23 +0000

Wow, thank you John (is it ok if I call you by your first name?) You have just redeemed Ron in my mind. Ron was always a character that really annoyed me after book 4 and in book 7 I’d completely written him off. And now that I’ve been going through fanfiction like crazy Fanon “Ron the Deatheater!Stories” have been warping my mind. That one observation that you made in the beginning though really does prove Ron’s true character when you think about it. lol. Thank you.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:16:04 +0000

* whoops, they actually changed his name into “Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder” to make this work with the Latin words.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:15:01 +0000

Oh, and another thing. It’s quite interesting what big problems one single line in this chapter was to the translators, since Tom Riddle’s name had to become “I am Lord Voldemort” when the letters were moved around. In my Swedish edition they were never really able to make it work since the literal translation of “I am” would be “Jag är” in Swedish.
Instead, the name of Tom Riddle is in the Swedish books changed into Tom Dolder, and the “I am”-phrase into Latin: “Ego sum Lord Voldemort”. And they threw in a line where Riddle is saying “that means “I am” in Latin, as you know”.
“Dolder” is a name that they took from the word “dold” which in translation would be “hidden” – to try and keep the mysterious ring of “Riddle”, I presume. I can only imagine all the time the translators around the world spent trying to make this work :P

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:35:24 +0000

Thanks for that John. I thought he was just making it up but it did make me stop and think. I think you’re right, students can’t know much about them. It just goes to show the prejudices that exist.

By: John Kearns

John Kearns — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:11:51 +0000

Amy, here’s a Rowling quote that references the werewolf cubs, from an online chat back in 2000:

blaise_42 asks: In Chamber of Secrets, Hagrid is supposed to have raised werewolf cubs under his bed. Are these the same kind of werewolves as Professor Lupin?
jkrowling_bn: no… Riddle was telling lies about Hagrid, just slandering him

So it seems to me that they’re just made up – somebody else recently pointed out in another chapter that students can’t know much about werewolves as a rule, or Draco wouldn’t have been so scared of the forest being “full of” them when he did his detention there.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:24:11 +0000

I’ve also been confused by the clone-Voldemort thing, if there would have been two of them or something, but I’ve always figured something along the lines of that Voldemort in Albania had some kind of connection to the Horcruxes, and once the diary Horcrux became stronger, that was where he was the most alive and the place where he put his energy, if that’s possible. I figured he would think coming back as sixteen year old Tom Riddle would be better than not coming back at all, and this was an attempt to regain a physical body, as he wants to in GoF. But, it seems JKR’s quote in “The Final Word” contradicts this theory, so I should probably just shut up.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:17:56 +0000

Riddle mentions that Hagrid was “trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed”. Was this just something he said to represent what Hagrid got up to or was it true? If it was true how can there be werewolf cubs? Didn’t Lupin mention that Teddy was the first child of a werewolf? If they did have kids they would be children and not cubs. The only time they would be cubs would be if they were conceived during the full moon between two werewolves. Knowing what happens during the full moon I would say they would be more likely to fight than do anything else. It’s probably just a throwaway line but JKR must have know she was going to write about Lupin in the next book so she must have had ideas about werewolves and rules surrounding them.