[HPforGrownups] Alternate Endings (was: Hows Harry going to learn...)

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 87291


> With the Dark Lord vanquished and reduce to Vapor, once again, the
> wizard world is safe. But evil never truly goes away. Sadam (or insert
> evil dictator of choice) has fallen but another fanatical dictator
> waits in the wings to take his place.
>
> Good men and women must stay constantly vigilant lest evil creep in
> and take over while we are not looking. Complacence is the doorstep
> upon which evil treads. (I'm trying to be profound; is it working?)
>
> So, the 'right back where we started from' ending, I think is a very
> valid and possible ending for the story. The future holds a new Dark
> Lord and a new young hero, and the never ending struggle between good
> and evil continues.
>
This idea, in this (long and IMO very interesting) post gave me a thought:

What if Young Tom Riddle had been "intended" (by God, the gods, fate,
whatever controls these things) to be the "new young hero" who vanquished
the evil Grindelwald?  But, instead, he embraced the darkness and it fell to
Dumbledore to do the job, and we got stuck with Voldemort.

I mean, Young Tom had choices to make, and apparently, at some point or
points, he made the wrong choices.  Like Frodo might have if he'd managed to
claim the Ring and make it stick, or the other Great and Wise who had
chances to take it off him (I just got back from a back-to-back-to-back
showing of all three movies)---IOW, Sauron is still defeated, but a new Dark
Lord or Lady will, eventually arise.

For that matter---we know so little of Grindelwald?  Could he, had he taken
a different path, been not a Dark Overlord/evil wizard, but a hero of the
good guys?

What if Tom Riddle _hadn't_ been so embittered by his abandonment, or had
come to accept and forgive his father's actions?  (Like my theory that
_maybe_ TR's mom wasn't all that nice, and TR, Sr. found out somehow that
she had Plans for him and his family's money, plans that involved them
taking a _loooong_ dirt-nap...in a situation like that, leaving one's wife
_now_ strikes me as an excellent idea!)  As heir of Slytherin, he can
control the monster in the Chamber of Secrets---but in this
alternate-history, he uses it for good, turning it loose on Grindelwald's
followers. Even without that, he's apparently an extremely skilled and
talented wizard.

So...can we see Young Tom Riddle as a "failed Harry?"  Or is Harry going to
be "Tom Riddle, as he was meant to be?"