Sally's Spirit WAS Re: Shared thoughts

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 108709

Boyd:
> 
> My problem with all of this is that Tom says in CoS that he spent  
> five years looking for the Chamber. So either 1) Salazar's spirit
> was stuck in there and couldn't help in the search very much (or
> possess Tom until he entered the Chamber), or 2) Salazar's spirit  
> couldn't remember how to get into the Chamber.
> 
> Or 3), the theory that Salazar's spirit has been "wandering" is
> wrong.
> What am I missing?
> 
> --boyd

Eustace_Scrubb:
Well, that does pose a problem (or several), doesn't it? 

First, there's the timeline and what Tom Riddle's memory says in CoS.
Tom heard about the Chamber and determined to find it during his
second year (1938, according to the HP-Lexicon timeline).  Hearing a
school legend and deciding to seek it out does not indicate that he's
already possessed by Spirit!Slytherin.  It may well indicate Tom's
developing into a good target for said possession, though. (Seek and
ye shall find?)

>From the same source, though, the date for the opening of the Chamber
is 1942 (the end of Tom's fifth year, just over 50 years prior to the
start of Harry's second year).  Now since Grindelwald was defeated in
1945, one of the few actual dates given by JKR, that's a bigger
problem.  I would assume that at the time Tom enters the Chamber, the
possession proposed by Kneasy and others would have to take effect. 
This _would_ seem to cast doubt on the wandering-spirit theory, though
not necessarily on the Possessed!Tom theory...unless maybe it took 3
years to defeat Grindelwald once he'd been abandoned (or unless...and
this may well be...JKR hasn't developed the back-timeline to the
extent that HP-Lexicon and fandom have inferred).

It would have been much easier to follow had Salazar done the sensible
thing and put his essence/spirit/malice into a nice three-dimensional
object (ring, amulet, broach, any of the usual things would do) that
could slip off its host treacherously when it was ready to move on!

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb
"If you're referring to the incident with the dragon, I was barely
involved!"