The Time Room

[zumbetti83]

No: HPFGUIDX 68097

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Eric Oppen" <oppen at m...> 
wrote:
> Ever since I saw what happened to that DE in the Time Room in the 
DoM, I've
> had a theory of my own about one possible fate for Lord V-mort.  
Basically,
> it involves him being shoved bodily into one of those devices that 
turned
> the DE's head into a baby's head, and coming out of it as a baby.
> 
> Then Harry has a chance to see to it that his worst enemy gets a 
second,
> better chance at life, without a Muggle orphanage, the knowledge 
that his
> father rejected him and his mother (and WHAT monster told him 
that?  What a
> thing to tell a little kid, even if it is true!) and the other 
things that
> turned handsome, popular Tom Riddle into "Lord Voldemort."  Faced 
with a
> different life, being raised by loving surrogate parents, 
this "Tom Riddle"
> could become a real asset to the Wizarding world.
> 
> Shoving Dudley's head into the device, though...well, he _already_ 
acts
> incredibly babyish, so who'd notice the difference?


This  brings up the very interesting question of nature versus 
nurture.  Do you really believe that Tom Riddle would get to start 
over as a normal kid and not have the ambition and all the other 
things that made him different from another kid who might have been 
in the same situation.  Would you also deny him the truth about his 
past, or subject him to the guilt that might follow the knowledge of 
the truth?  What effects would this knowledge have on a child who 
has no idea about his sordid past?  

I think your idea is exciting and I want to think about similar 
alternatives to killing him outright, making his a wasted life.  But 
I think we have seen, at least with the bird in the time capsule (as 
with Fawkes) that the bird grows into an identical model of its last 
life.  This is the first post that I have responded too, precisely 
because I think the idea is so beautiful, elegant and simple, until 
you consider how the new life of Tom Riddle will react with his old 
one.  I think that you are right though, about the time room having 
a huge role in the next books.

Emily