JKR says no, and she's no Dobby (was: Prince of Walpurgis ...)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 104744

Ally wrote:
 
Phil, she did not say that it wasn't Riddle, she said it wasn't 
Voldemort.  How do you KNOW there isn't a difference?  We don't know 
exactly what the circumstances were for Riddle becoming Voldemort.  
In a sense, Riddle transformed himself into something different.  
Borrowing on Steve's excellent analogy, like a caterpillar becoming a
butterfly.  They are the same but different.  It's a metamorphasis.  
JKR - being the tricky one she is - could very well be looking at and
planning to show Riddle in the same way - one person who transformed
himself into another.  In that sense, she can say its not Voldemort
and it can turn out to be Riddle, and it wouldn't be inaccurate.

Carol:
And yet Voldemort in GoF uses Tom Riddle's father's bone as part of
the potion that will resurrect him: "Bone of the father, you will
restore your son!" or something like that--sorry to quote from
memory). He also says something like "Listen to me reliving family
history." Both the potion ingredient and the remark suggest that
Voldemort is still Tom Riddle despite his distorted form and new body.
Dumbledore addressing Voldemort as "Tom" in the MoM (without any
protest from Voldemort IIRC) also suggests that not only Dumbledore
and Voldemort but JKR herself regard Tom Riddle and Voldemort as the
same person. 

Certainly Tom Riddle has changed through his crimes, his
transformations, and his vaporization/restoration, but it was a
gradual change, and he called himself Lord Voldemort while he was
still releasing the basilisk but not yet guilty of his first murder
(Moaning Myrtle). Even after the murder, he was still a boy afraid of
being forced to return to the orphanage. It was also Tom Riddle Jr.,
future Head Boy at Hogwarts, who murdered his father and
grandparents--three Avada Kedavras in one day by a boy of about
seventeen. IMO that's when the transformation into Voldemort really
began, after he cast the Unforgiveable Curses that irredeemably
corrupted his soul, even though he still appeared to others as a
handsome, talented boy. The change in his appearance as he sought
immortality was more gradual. He didn't suddenly burst forth from a
cocoon to become a (marvelously ugly) butterfly. Yes, he did leave his
body when he was vaporized, but that didn't make him any more
Voldemort than he already was. Nor did the restoration to a new,
presumably identical body, constituted partly of his own father's
bone, change his identity (whatever role Harry's blood and Wormtail's
hand may play later). He still perceive himself as Tom Riddle, and
oddly, I think, allows the Death Eaters (except those who are still in
Azkaban) to become aware of his Muggle ancestry. IOW, as I see it, he
is still both Tom Riddle and Voldemort, and I think that's how JKR
sees it as well because that's how he's been presented to us. So IMO
when JKR says that the HPB isn't Voldemort, she also means that it
isn't Tom Riddle. I'm not arguing with anybody who chooses to see
otherwise; just presenting my reasons for thinking that she's not
playing mind games here.

I do agree, however, that it's high time we found out more about Tom's
mother and his grandfather Marvolo and whether there's a connection
between young Tom and Grindelwald regardless of ahow all this ties in
with the Pransome Hince--I mean, the Half Blood Prince.

Carol, who grudgingly admits that she went back to JKR's site and
found the Mark Evans excuse quite amusing on a second reading and is
ready to forgive her for being a fallible human being like the rest of
us.