Who Killed the Riddles?

[danajsparks]

Credit for this idea belongs fully to the fan fiction author BajaB and his short story Fair TradeIn HBP, Dumbledore claims that Tom Jr. stupefied Morfin, used Morfin's wand to kill Tom Sr. and the elder Riddles, and then modified Morfin's memories. BajaB suggests an alternative scenario where all that Tom Jr. did was physically knock Morfin out

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

That would simplify a lot! Punching is so Muggle, though. Although I'm sure young Tom would use whatever means necessary, including fists, if he had to

[oryx_leucoryx]

As Severus tells Lily, nobody cares about children's magic, what they do before they have wands. Terri proposed that the Trace is placed on wands belonging to children (so one way around it is to have the wand of an adult and keep the child's wand far enough away).

[sunnyskywalker]

It just seems like a bad policy, Secrecy-wise... if Harry had blown up Aunt Marge when he was 10, would they have known? How is that any less of a problem than him blowing up Aunt Marge a few years later? You'd think they'd still want to send around Accidental Magic Reversal and Obliviators for accidental magic done around Muggles by someone of any age. So why didn't they ever show up at Tom's orphanage, or the sea cave? If someone from the Ministry did investigate and decided no one saw enough to endanger the Statute of Secrecy (or Obliviated Billy's memory of actually seeing Tom levitate the rabbit up to the rafters or whatever he did), then Dumbledore isn't the only person who knew what kinds of things Tom was capable of and said nothing. Not that they would have any personal contact with him afterward to remind them, but still.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I agree that in 'practice' there should be problems with such a policy, but it matches canon.