Sally's Spirit WAS Re: Shared thoughts

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 108783

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Eustace_Scrubb" <dk59us at y...> wrote:
> 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).
> 

Kneasy:
How certain is this timeline?
Yes, it was 50 years since the last opening of the Chamber, but my
understanding is that CoS was set in 1995 or maybe a year or so later.

If that's wrong then the idea of Sally as an itinerant troubador of discord
is more or less up the pictures. Not that it's an essential element of the
basic hypothesis, but it would have been an additional juicy morsel to 
speculate on.

E.S.: 
> 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!
> 

Kneasy:
You're not the first to bemoan the lack of a McGuffin. It makes it much
easier to keep score and Voldy would have no trouble writing a nice, clear
Mission Statement.

Unless..... what if Harry is the McGuffin?