Malfoy's Goal in CoS...Harry's explanation to Tom

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 78700

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_reader2003" 
<carolynwhite2 at a...> wrote:
> Yes, I've read your post, and it is an interesting idea that he 
only 
> knows what has happened through what Ginny etc may have told him, 
but 
> the 'odd red gleam in his hungry eyes' ? I thought this 
description 
> was a real giveaway. I think his eyes only got this creepy after 
he 
> left school and sunk himself in the dark arts ? I still think the 
> Diary was one of his long-term ploys to avoid death, and it so 
nearly 
> succeeds ! I agree that Malfoy almost certainly would not have 
wanted 
> him to reappear though.

I took that exchange with Harry also to be a sign that Diary!Tom is 
a *continuation* of Voldemort, not just an amber-preserved earlier 
version.  His question to Harry is not in the nature of trying to 
fill in blanks in the story that Ginny couldn't tell him.  It's more 
trying to find the answer to a puzzle that no one can figure out.  
It sounds like this is something that Voldemort has agonized over 
all these years, and can find no answer, despite his great knowledge 
and abilities.  So he's asking the only other person who might 
know.  And frankly, I still don't think that we have the real 
answer.  Harry tells him what he can, and Tom/Voldemort appears to 
accept it, but it sounds rather weak.  It's not the sort of "Of 
course!!  Now it's all clear!" reaction I'd expect of a final puzzle 
piece falling into place; more of an "Ah. I see.  Well, I guess that 
must be it, then..."  It sounds tentative to me, and I think we're 
going to find that there's more to the story than Harry has guessed.

Wanda