Timeline Speculations

[GKJPO]

No: HPFGUIDX 56841

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "xmezumiiru" <xmezumiiru at y...>
wrote:
<snip very interesting timeline analysis>
> 
> So I ask again, what was Voldemort doing in the 26 year gap? Where 
> would Riddle have gone to gain that knowledge of the Dark Arts? What 
> was so special about 1970 that he started then and not before? Was he 
> waiting for a special group of people to come into power, or leave 
> power? Perhaps he was for the government that presided over 
> Grindelwald's time to leave, as this would be the relative time the 
> last would. 
> 
> Another idea is that if (big if) the Marauders' and Snape's parents 
> were the original Death Eater, and their parents were the followers 
> of Grindelwald, perhaps familial obligations are not so far fetched 
> in the making of the Death Eater and hence the ultimate bias against 
> Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and others in Slytherin in H. Potter's 
> generation is not as childish as first appears.
> 
> Any thoughts or comments?
> 

The canon to support this is in CS in the following: 

Chap 17 from Tom Riddle:
"...It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate
friends only, of course..."

Chap 18 from Dumbledore:
"Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle.
 I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts.  He disappeared
after leaving the school...traveled far and wid...sand so deeply into
the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of ourkind, underwent so
many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as
Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable..."

My conjecture:  There is no rule that the first Death Eaters were from
Hogwarts.  It is possible that he went out and got some thugs to be
part of his crew.  After that was established, he then decided to
recruit from Hogwarts to get more, smarter people to help spread his
message.  On the other hand, we don't know what happened to his "most
intimate friends".  We can only assume that those friends were from
Slytherin, but we don't know if they were close enough to travel with
him around the world or if they were only around to encourage their
kids to join LV.  I would guess that if the DE Generation parents were
the first generation of DEs, then wouldn't they be too busy wreaking
havoc to have children?  I am probably wrong, but it seems that all
the children of the DE generation were born after the fall of LV.

Kristen