Voldemort's transformation (Was: Foreshadowing? Two Places to Hide Horcruxes

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 136175

- Jen wrote: 
> I'm putting that aside for a minute because something else has me 
> wondering. It seems like Dumbledore is saying LV's appearance 
> changed due to his quest for immortality which we now know is the 
> Horcruxes. So, we first see a glint of his red eyes when he's 
> surveying the treasures at Hepzibah's house. To me that would mean 
> he's already learned how to make Horcruxes, and there's some 
> evidence that the diary and ring are already hidden. But you could 
> also argue it was simply the murders subtly changing his appearance 
> and that the Horcrux making took place during the next ten years. 
> Because we do see a very drastic change in LV's appearance when he 
> requests the job at Hogwarts.
> 
> Is it reasonable he learned to make the Horcruxes immediately after 
> that conversation with Slughorn? I'm starting to think not. Where 
> would he find out while still at Hogwarts? Did he learn everything 
> he needed to know that summer right after the murders? If so, it 
> must not be terribly complex. Or he had a mentor. 
> 
Carol responds:
I agree with you that Tom Riddle could not have created the Horcruxes
(other than the diary, which is not a true Horcrux in that it's easily
destroyed, requires interaction with another person, and was
originally intended for another purpose). The fact that Diary!Tom
isn't wearing the ring suggest to me *not* that he's already created
the ring Horcrux but that he hasn't yet killed his family. The only
murder he's committed at this time is Moaning Myrtle, who was killed
on his direction by the basilisk, which is as much his agent as his
weapon.

After framing Hagrid and creating the diary as a kind of amateur
pseudo-Horcrux, he leaves Hogwarts for the summer, kills his father
and grandparents, and comes back with the object that he intends to
make into his first real Horcrux, the ring. He does not yet know how
to do it, or even exactly what a Horcrux is, and the information
Slughorn gives him, though helpful, is not sufficient to enable him to
make one. Nor, as we know from Hermione's efforts, is this information
available at Hogwarts. So, as you say, he needed a mentor. We don't
see Tom during his seventh year at Hogwarts, but it could be that he
used the summer between his sixth and seventh years to visit
Grindelwald (surely this is the reason Grindelwald has been mentioned
in the earlier books?) and create his first real Horcrux.

Notice that when we see Riddle in the house elf Hokey's memory, his
appearance *has* changed. He is still handsome, perhaps even handsomer
than before, but his cheeks are hollow and there's that unnatural
glint of red in his eyes when he sees the cup and the locket. I
suggest that these subtle-seeming changes are the result of having
created his first genuine Horcrux. If creating one Horcrux
significantly changed a person's appearance significantly, no one
would do it. They'd be trading a normal lifespan and a human
appearance for a half-life as an immortal monster. The changes in
Riddle at this time are subtle. He is only eighteen but he looks
older, slightly sinister and slightly ill. We know he has committed at
least four murders (counting Myrtle). Almost certainly he has used his
most significant murder so far, that of his father, to create the ring
Horcrus. But he is acquiring the objects needed to create two more.

When we next see him ten years later, he is twenty-eight and ought to
look as he did when he visited Hepzibah Smith. Instead, although still
recognizable to his former Slytherin followers (Theo Nott's father
among them) and to Dumbledore, his features are blurred, his skin is
waxy, and his eyes and nose are starting to resemble those we will see
in the resurrected Voldemort in GoF. He is about halfway there, having
created the cup and locket Horcruxes. Which murders he used to create
them we don't know, but he would probably consider his grandparents'
deaths more significant than Hepzibah Smith's. Her death was only a
means to an end. He returns to Hogwarts in hopes of securing more
objects for Horcruxes, perhaps Gryffindor's sword or his own silver
plaque, but he is thwarted by Dumbledore.

He disappears again and is not seen until the year that Severus Snape
and MWPP enter Hogwarts as eleven-year-olds. By this time he has
undoubtedly committed more murders and probably created two more
Horcruxes. I think the sixth is Nagini, which would account for his
wholly snakelike appearance at the time he kills the Potters and in
the resurrected form he sees in GoF. 

Snape thought that Voldemort had possessed the snake that bit Mr.
Weasley in OoP, and he may have been right. But if Nagini is a
Horcrux, that possession is permanent. Voldemort shares a part of his
soul with her, and she with him. The snake was both Nagini and
Voldemort, wanting to bite the man in the hallway and wanting the
Prophecy that would help to destroy Harry Potter.

Carol