Voldemort's Father LIED About the Love Potion (His True Origins) - Harry Potter Theory 

He also never claimed anything about a love potion. That was one of Dumbledore’s guesses.

@@CJDM310 Very true, but DD's guesses were usually right...as written by the author. I suppose she could write it any way she wanted. LOL.

Muggles have stories about witches with potions. It's not like he doesn't have any idea whatsoever.

He was both, I mean this would be the exact way that Buldeo would behave in the second half of "The Jungle Book", Novel, except Buldeo was a total Coward and Tom Riddle Sr. Was just downright selfish, if more so than Buldeo, and both literary figures happen to be the leading men in their own respective communities from completely separate universes, and both are ordinary humans except one was on the rich side while the other is on the lower second class side and both eventually got themselves killed for whatever wrong they did to an orphan child; T.R:. T. M. Riddle] Buldeo: Mowgli.

Hmm, I think she didnt have enough money to get the ingredients for a love potion. I also think that she probably seemed "ugly" due to her being so downtrodden. When she suddenly wasnt abused anymore, maybe she decided to clean herself up a bit, probably emulating the woman Voldemorts father was with. Thus she suddenly may have been more attractive. She may have known some simple spells for this Voldemorts father probably knew she was into him. Another theory I had is: We also dont know if these two hadnt met already as kids for example and secretly played together at times, thus maybe knowing one another. Akin to Snape and Lilly. But then her brother may have found out, and jealous as he was, told on her. She then was forbidden from seeing or playing with him again. Then, once the father and brother werent around Voldemorts father stopped by to see how she was. As one would do, in a situation like that. Maybe he was feeling a bit rebellious cause maybe he also was forbidden from going to see her or play with her. Its possible. Lets not forget the brother was known to cause havoc as well. So they rekindled their relationship after the brother and father were in jail. Then when they spend time together he may have overlooked everything that would've been obvious to others. Like glaring character flaws, or her being uneducated etc. They pursued each other, still going off feelings they may have had since they were kids, but forbidden. After she quickly fell preggo he wanted to do the right thing and get married; which probably got him kicked out from his own family. They decided to make it a go, and moved away, only for his father to realize that without his families money life is hard. They probably then started to have problems, as many couples do, especially when money becomes an issue, and broke up. If this was how things went Voldemorts father may have discovered that they were incompatible as a couple. I am sure that he didnt have the same living standards anymore, living with her, that he was accustomed to. He left her and returned to his family. Who probably only welcomed him back, by having to promise that he will never have any contact with her. Leaving her broken hearted, preggo and poor. Since, her family was known to be "odd", they just said their son got hoodwinked by her. Events like this happen often, and are much more realistic than thinking there was anything more than that involved. It would also explain her brother's glee. Lets not forget, Voldemorts father seems to not have remarried after he left Voldemorts mother, as he was with his parents at their house, when Voldemort returned and murdered them. According to the story, he was supposed to be very attractive, (albeit arrogant) so it seems odd that he wouldn't have found a new wife and built a new life with said new wife. Voldemorts father obviously remained single. Maybe he hoped she would return with their child to her childhood home, as he had done. Wondering why she never came back. Being forbidden to look for her, he probably had no idea what had happened until Voldemort showed up. Maybe that is why they had such shocked faces when they died. Anyways that is how I always have imagined how that story went.

Well found! I think the same also applies to the effect of deathly hallows. The allmighty wand that leaves you when you lose - and even switches to the hand of your victor, the stone of return that only brings people back in an intangible form and the invisibility cloak under which you are still visible in ways other than sight

Perhaps THE truest and most powerful magic. Love and music are two of the things more important to Dumbledore than magic. (I suspect that Dumbledore has a tin ear. Ref: book one, during the beginning of term feast.)

Forgot, what does amortentia do?

JKR said that the love potion was symbolic and is not the reason Voldemort was evil.

Rowling already dismissed it. It is a hoax that if you are conceived using love potion you cannot love. Some crazy fans thought of this, then Rowling herself said "hogwash", but a lot of people still believe the madness. The whole story is about that in life and regarding love YOU HAVE A CHOICE. Saying that Voldemort was incapable of understanding love because of his conception, not because of his traumas and his choices in life is basically saying you do not understand anything that 7 books were trying to tell you.

Agreed

Voldemort inheriting all those evil trait from his father makes way more sense.

I'm going to disagree with you on a point; I think JK wanted readers to buy Dumbledore's versions, because that is the only one he could theorize. I also think that Dumbledore himself only knew of Tom Sr' life from that single memory from Bob Ogden. I suspect she gave us that version to let us (the readers) ask questions like this video has. After all, Dumbledore himself admits he could be woefully wrong as Humphrey Belcher who thought the time was ripe for a cheese cauldron.

The love potion wasn't the problem; it was the fact that no one ever loved him and that he came from a loveless union. JKR said that if Merope had survived and Tom had known a mother's love, things would have gone very differently.

I think the story also said she was abused by her dad and brother also making Merope desperate to get away

@@char-leewiebe7199 And the only way she could see in her blinkered mindset was "marriage to someone well-off". She apparently didn't know enough about either the magical or Muggle world to be aware of other possibilities.

Probably. That’s the one thing that didn’t make sense when I was younger. Tom Riddle clearly wasn’t fond of the Gaunts and He and his family had a bad reputation. So he didn’t seem like the type to accept drinks from strangers, let alone those who came from a family he isn’t fond of. Additionally he already had a girlfriend and they seemed to be going steady rather than just a fling since it was described how they would hang out and ride together on different days.

The guy was a Chad. For all we know, he saw her crazy male siblings were no longer around and decided to pay her a visit. Especially if she'd managed to doll herself up a bit. Chads are like that. She would have just been another side chick to him.

@@MavenWalsh Ah yes. Only ever being with one girl in his whole entire life. (Merope doesn’t count as he was spelled) What a Chad/womanizer. But then again, I have seen a lot of Fanfictions where JP and/or Sirius are Womanizers despite how the former was only ever interested in Lily and the latter never showed any interest in a relationship, the only evidence being one picture and even then, it was only put there to spite his parents.

@@kendraroth1276 Really? Because I read that Tom had many suitors/admirers with one finally becoming his fiancé due to her having the right type of social status. And if you've read ANYTHING about James only being interested in Lily, it's clearly fanon/head canon. Rowling herself said James only started crushing on Lily in their 4th year, AFTER she'd begun to flower into a beautiful young woman. Even then, they didn't even begin dating until they were in their 7th year. So, you're telling me that a rich, handsome jock like James would have been a celibate virgin until the age of 17, even though he would have had nearly every girl in the school fawning over him? The same thing applies to Sirius. I could have sworn someone said Sirius once alluded to James being a sort of cad. But seriously, two hot, popular jocks ignoring girls all throughout their 7 years of schooling? Where did people come up with that ridiculous head canon? They would have had to have been gay or something. Or did you fall for that fanon/head Conon which said James had been in love with Lily since day one?

@@MavenWalsh Where is said that Tom Riddle had many suitors? The 4th book literally described how almost everyone didn’t like him because of his terrible reputation. (No wonder he never got together with anyone else, his former girlfriend was probably the only one who ever gave him the time of day. ) As for James and Sirius. It doesn’t matter how old they were. Your idea of them having girlfriends, crushes or flings is pure headcanon. Within canon, there is nothing that suggests that JP ever liked another girl. Same thing with Sirius. We actually see Sirius avoiding girls like the plague. (First one had an apparent crush on him, which he didn’t notice and again when JP was looking at Lily.) The only line that hints of Sirius being in any relationships is Remus being jealous that Sirius always got the women, but even then, it was jealousy induced and Sirius clearly wasn’t interested in Tonks. Is it really that difficult to believe that none of the males had more than one love interest? Harry himself only had 2 crushes. Ron only ever liked Hermione, he was just using Lavender to make Hermione jealous and have experience with kissing after finding out that Hermione and Krum kissed. (If Ron and Ginny never had that fight, Ron would have gone his entire Hogwarts years without kissing anyone. ) Snape was only ever interested in Lily. Draco was only ever with 1 girl while at Hogwarts, Same with Percy.

💯

Mind you, this was 1926 rural England. It was highly religious and maybe he felt that he had to marry her to save face then left her without anyone knowing.

@caesumisrude Also merope is described as being very unattractive so it doesn’t make sense that a vain narcissist would want to be with her. If she didn’t use a love potion then she must’ve used a method to change her appearance.

In the book, the in-breeding is blamed for their wall-eyes and mental instability. Dumbledore thinks it was the abuse that made Merope clumsy with magic, not a lack of knowledge or stupidity.

@@liamscott1905 Or Tom Riddle took advantage of her due to the fact that she WASN'T society, and therefore didn't have the same restrictions that many women of the time period had. It would be easier to manipulate her into sleeping with him, because as far as many were concerned, she could sink no lower. All it would take is a little fake kindness, and she would hand him the moon if she could.

@@liamscott1905 ...or the Imperius Curse. I find it a lot easier to believe that she could've performed that Curse than that she could've made a love potion.

Exactly. Dumbledore even implied she could've used magic to save herself, but no longer saw any reason to live.

So then why didn't she get an abortion? They were illegal, but still available in back alleys. In fact, if you're going to assume that she knew how to brew Amortentia, she surely could have brewed an abortion potion. Or cast an Avada Kedavra at her own abdomen. Or if she was planning to die anyway, just commit suicide while pregnant. No, it seems to me that she was devoted to her unborn child. She just died in childbirth, as many other women have through history, especially impoverished ones. Think: If everyone in the Wizarding World could magically heal themselves of any and all ailments, there wouldn't need to be any healers, would they?

@@astrinymris9953 abortion seems like a very muggle thing to do. Wizards are much less population than muggles so they usually take great care in reproduction. In all 7 books i never heard talk of wizard orphanages. Children usually go to the godfather like ted tonks for food & shelter when they are not at hogwarts. Wizards tend to look out for eachother. Merope loved tom riddle sr. and her last act in her grief of his abandonment was to name his child after him and she even wished he would look like him and not like her. She also had no godfather for her child and im sure the ministry finding out she date raped a muggle and is now pregnant with his baby would not end well. She kept the pregnancy a secret even from her brother and father. Voldemort was a special case, since wizards tend to keep in touch with one another. (there being only 28 pure blood families left, the population can’t be big) the gaunts kept to themselves and were hermits in their home as they regarded themselves as descendants of salazar and peverell’s and noble blood (even royal).

One thing we do not know is what Marope was able to do once her abusive father and brother were out of the picture. Cleaning up and a fresh set of clothes, and a new hair style to cover up the lazy eye and who knows?

Yeah I think that it is totally plausible that Tom Riddle senior was the older version of his son. I think the theory is plausible. And like someone else said, I think what Merope would have instinctively known about… Because on some level most women do know about it… Is cleaning herself up and tidying herself up and tidying the house. Often when women are unattractive or something like that we might do things to attract a man that we can control like tidying the house and making ourselves clean and presentable as possible in order to compensate for getting the short end of the stick when it comes to looks.

Or she stole it? It's been shown to be for sale in multiple forms in the books. Maybe that's why she stopped dosing him: she was unable to steal more eventually, and it got out of his system before she could get more and drug him again?

The "she's not attractive enough for a man to force himself onto her" is just removed from reality and a rather common "argument" for perpetrators to conceal their actions themselves. Men who want to take advantage of women's bodies mostly don't care about looks. They care about if they can get what they want out of it. It is, however, a widely used cover story by types of these men, if they are found out. We have seen this type of arguing by perpetrators time and time again, just think Trump saying stuff like "her looking like that? I think not". Also, Tom Sr. could have felt it was his duty to marry her when he found out his actions resulted in a pregnancy. It was common for perpetrators to marry their victims. It was even common in higher classes that people were forced to marry when they were found in embrace or other circumstances, no matter if by free will or forced. It was seen as dutiful to marry/provide e.g. in the 19th century and even after that. Merope and Tom Sr. might have gotten married because of the pregnancy, then she might have felt save enough to reveal her biggest secret of being a witch, which made him flee duty at last and accuse her of bewitching him.

@@steffikrose Now THAT Is a solid take on this theory. The video itself didn't convince me, but this is a plausible idea.

3...hot chocolate, wine and coffee

Actually, humans have five. 1: Hot Chocolate. 2: Coffee. 3: Alcohol. 4: Water, aka Liquid Death. 5: Carbonated drinks.

Water>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

@@newhybrid101 I forgot about that one.

​@ColtonRMagby (siiiiiiiiggggggghhh) you forgot Pepsi. It's ok, we all make mistakes. I forgive you. (powers up my Fusion Cannon) THIS time....

Inbreeding could easily have played into this as well.

Dumbledore did not guess a potion. He stated it was a potion. He only guessed that she stopped giving it to him

Would the evidence have STILL been around for ALL these years?

@fatimaallawati947 Dumbledore stated that magic leaves traces, so even if there's no physical evidence, a highly powerful witch or wizard could still tell innately where magic was used. For example, the same way various magic governments could tell the unforgivable curses, underage magic, etc. is being used. And in the case of Dumbledore, we're talking about a wizard who, in Harry 2nd year, pretty much sensed that Harry and Ron were in Hagrid's Hut hiding under the Invisibility Cloak, which is no ordinary cloak.

[Backwards]: AFTER he abandoned her, she got desperate & attempted to brew a love potion (the workings alone would leave a "trace" for Dumbledore to detect, regardless of their effectiveness).

But Marvolo and Morphin also used magic. I don’t think what they sense is as specific as you are thinking. Remember when Harry was on trial for fighting the death eaters? During the trial it was said that the rule stating kids cannot do magic outside of Hogwarts, meant that they could only detect it only if it was done in a place where magic usually doesn’t happen. It’s another way muggle-born wizards and witches were hampered. The Weasley kids could get away with it because Molly and Arthur were always doing magic. Same with Draco.

@MissAmy2913 I think you're describing the Trace. But we're talking about a grown witch using a powerful potion, not underage magic.

the difference would be; Morphin made it a public display, making it clear magic was used. whatever Merope did was likely something she kept more quiet about

Because 1. Merope did it in a more secretive way. 2. Being a potion, even if wizard kids with the trace on were around, it wouldn’t cause any alerts. 3. Tom Riddle himself didn’t even know what happened and nobody would have believed him.

Well, ministroy of magic has a long history of doing such things. Sirius Black's case is another example.

1) I don't remember how old Merope was, but I don't think she was underage at the time she 'roofied voldy's dad. 2) She probably didn't perform magic in front of him, so no statute of secrecy violation 3) it's not even known if she made the love potion, or merely....procured it from someone else. (slughorn comes to mind, but i prefer the theory he merely taught her how to make it. and add that to his guilt for creating the monster voldemort became)

never said she was uneducated in fact dumbledore says he knew her well and she was a WIZARD OF SOME SKILL she went to hogwarts hence why dumbledore knew so much about her and her family

That's what I think. Merope Gaunt would bring almost nothing to the table as far as a marriage goes, and I don't think Riddle Sr would have touched her with a barge pole.

And why did he dump his pretty fiancée to run off with a poor and homely woman?

The conquest. I speak from experience given my father left before I was born as well, that deadbeat dads don't make the best or even logically sound decisions. Otherwise, they wouldn't be deadbeat dads.

Simple slumming is a thing and merope would have been easy prey for a handsome young man.

Never underestimate an narcissistic egomaniac, my dude. I had a kid with a beautiful man, and the only reason the relationship stopped working out was because I got smarter and stopped letting him control me. He still got our son, because he had money and family and I had nothing. I'm not a looker. I'm like a 4, at best. If I open my mouth to speak, I lose points. It happens.

​@@craxd1What if she dumped her instead? And he used Merope just as a bounce? It's also possible that Tom Riddle sr. was a womanizer. Very typical for a handsome dude from a rich, nobel family. That opens up another possibility. That Tom Riddle sr. just took advantage of Merope while she was alone due to Morphine and Marvolo's arrest. But he was caught red handed, leading to break up with his fiancee. Another possibility is that, he actually never had a break up with his fiancee. He took advantage of Merope, but just left her for his fiancee.

I've debated whether it's psychopathy or malignant narcissism. Both are close to the same, the worst of the lot, and both are hereditary.

I've thought this myself. I also wondered if malnutrition during the pregnancy added to it. Or perhaps she tried to make a potion to help her out in some way, such as she caught a cold and did the potion incorrectly, that could have also added to the hereditary aspect for V to turn out the way he did. Pure speculation of course.

Nah, evil is made, not born.

@@YellowBear-kx1ffpsychopaths aren’t necessarily evil.

Psychopaths aren't "evil" they simply don't feel emotions. Empathy is an emotion so being "good" and "evil" is something they don't have the mental capacity to understand. Breaking a vase and killing someone have the same affect in their brain, they literally can't discern between the two. So yes they are absolutely dangerous and need to be monitored for life but thwy aren't just evil people with malicious intent. Also most every case of psychopathy is from brain damage or lack of development before birth. But it can also be caused by a normal person experiencing brain trauma. There are multiple cases of normal people having brain trauma that became psychopaths after.

Are you threatening me?

The Gaunts presumably owned the land their house was on. Marrying her allowed him to claim title to it. When he returned to his parents' house, he was foiled because her brother had returned. He couldn't remarry until he knew she and her brother were both dead, making Tom Riddle, senior, the heir to the property. British law frowns on bigamy. Unfortunately, we in the States recently got a crash course on the witch hunter Sir Matthew Hale's writings, including that everything a wife owns belongs to her husband to do with as he wishes.

3 sides to every story... Side A, Side B, and the truth.

There's a 4th option as well. Just as it doesn't make much sense that she would be able to create the potion, it also wouldn't really make much sense that his decision to take advantage of her would include him deciding to marry a poor unattractive woman over his attractive fiance. Neither make sense as the sole villain. Now perhaps, as you say, it could be explained as them both playing a part in taking advantage of on another, but I'm not so sure. What if there was no underhandedness at all? What if they actually had something of a fairy tale romance: where through untold circumstances he actually did legitimately fall in love with her, and marries her. What happens when a magical person marries a muggle? Well, eventually they reveal the truth to their spouse, right? And what would Tom Riddle Sr. think when he finds out that his unlikely wife was in fact a witch? What's more likely: that he, arrogant as he was, would actually fall in love with someone like her; or that she had bewitched him in some way? And so he abandons her, refusing to believe that his feelings had been real. I know this goes fully against the idea that Voldemort was the product of loveless magic, or that he was the product of villainy of any sort. But it almost seems just as tragic that he was conceived of love, but because of his father's mistrust of magic, he was denied the chance to experience that love.

I like that 4th scenario. Also instead of a love potion maybe she just performed a spell to help with her appearance. That could be the way she reveals to Tom Sr. that she’s a witch by showing him her true self. Then he is too freaked out and loses his trust in her, which makes him blame it all on magic.

Same!

Perhaps it was never a real wedding. How would poor isolated Merope know if it was a real, official wedding or just a mockery of one? I doubt she had any experience of what a real wedding required or what a marriage certificate looked like, stuck at home with her brother and dad all the while, no extended family, no friends. What a dreadful life...

I have no doubt he did that.

Maybe she used a polyjuice potion

Hope you enjoyed it!

BINGO!

I’m fairly sure the Gaunts were home schooled so I doubt it.

@@bestever74 Exactly, how would they meet?

@@bestever74 dumbledore knew too many facts about the family Merope went to hogwarts

Love it! Tom Sr. is described as worse than his "snobbish and rude" parents, while we see no "onscreen" evidence of malice in Merope. One would expect Tom M. Riddle to be more emotional, reactive, and impulsive if his evil came from his mother's side, seeing Morfin and Marvolo's tempers. But he's very cool-natured, especially before he became Voldemort. That lines right up with his paternal grandparents' temperaments.

That is not how oscurables work. She had a wand and was allowed to perform magic.

no he said he "knew her well"

wasnt sepucaltion as he was HER headmaster

His speculations are canonicaly almost alwaysbcorrect and JK used that to convey canon facts without stating it as the god-like narrator, which would have changed the waybshe usualy writes her books.

Wow, thanks!

Same here; I always had sympathy for Merope. To hear someone exonerating her puts all the pieces into place.

Good thoughts