What was LV up to *before* that night in GH? (long)

[Peggy]

No: HPFGUIDX 121578


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "littleleahstill" 
<cmjohnstone at h...> wrote:
<snip> 
> If VM's soul is lodged in a token somewhere, then I rather hope 
that 
> token is stored in a vault in Gringotts, bringing a nicely circular 
> ending to the septology ( and I can't believe there isn't more to 
say 
> about Gringotts).  
> 
> A rather gruesome token occurs to me.  Crouch Snr was transfigured 
> into a bone, and Riddle Snr's bone was used in VM's potion. Could 
VM 
> have stored his soul in his mother's bone?
> 
> Leah

Peg:

Interesting points!  I hadn't really worked on the "where" and "what" 
very hard, yet.  

My first thoughts on the token's location were the Riddle house or 
the Chamber of Secrets.  Gringotts is a *great* idea--only Quirrel 
seems to have been able to break in, and that was with LV's help.

The idea of LV using his mother's bones as a token is very 
interesting--we know so little about her (on purpose, I believe. Jo 
is sneaky).  My first ideas were a snake-shaped object or a live 
snake.  Frazer discusses the "bush soul" concept, so it's possible 
that a live animal could be the repository (Come, Nagini!  Good 
snake. Ahem.).  It would certainly make it possible for Harry to gain 
some control over such a beastie when he needs to, although he seems 
to forget his Parseltongue abilities under stress.

Lots of possibilities for both where and what.  I'd love to see more 
ideas about this!

Peg