Do you think there is more to Voldie's story?

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 97707

> Del replies :
> Nope. I think the lack of love and the rough circumstances made 
him 
> hard, resentful and ambitious. And I think it's his *power* that 
> corrupted him in the end. Because he was so powerful, he could do 
> almost anything he wanted to satisfy his resentment and ambition. 
> And the more he did bad things, the more he eroded his conscience, 
> his sense of right and wrong. That's how he slowly turned 
completely 
> evil. If someone had been strong enough to break him, to force him 
> to stop and think, maybe he could have seen the error of his ways. 
> But apparently this never happened. Or it was already too late 
when 
> it did. Maybe DD did break him, but because he didn't dare doing 
it 
> as soon as he saw the need to (when Tom was 11 ?), he did it too 
> late, when Tom's conscience had already been eroded too much.

Jen: Or Dumbledore didn't intervene, deeply regrets it, and that was 
the impetus for him to invest so much in Harry's magical and ethical 
development. 

Good description of the process TR went through to evolve into LV, 
Del!

Del:
> I know it contradicts what JKR said about nodody being born evil, 
> but I can't see how she reconciles that with the fact that Tom was 
> obviously so deeply evil and corrupted by the age of 15. 15 is 
> simply too young an age to have *chosen* to be so evil and 
corrupted.

Jen: I was intrigued to hear JKR mention the "mysterious 
circumstances surrounding TR's birth" that contributed to his evil 
development. I can't imagine what happened, but there must be 
something besides the deprivation & loss of his childhood.