Grindlewald and Horcruxes

[Sharon]

No: HPFGUIDX 134678

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Claire" <cfitzsimmons at k...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, digger <altered.earth at n...> 
> wrote:
> > I've long suspected the Tom Riddle went off seeking Grindlewald 
> when he 
> > left Hogwarts. It now seems that although Slughorn gave Riddle 
> general 
> > information about Horcruxes, he could not (would not?) give him 
> the 
> > specific spell needed to encase the ripped soul fragment in an 
> object.
> > 
> > So where do you suppose Tom obtained this knowledge? Where better 
> to 
> > seek it than from the most famous Dark Wizard of the age, 
> Grindlewald?
> > 
> > My first prediction (hope) for book seven, is that we will learn 
> more 
> > about Grindlewald's meetings with Tom Riddle.
> > 
> > digger
> > 
> > 
> Claire:
> I agree with you, digger.  When I first ready about Grindlewald in 
> SS/PS, I thought there was more to him than just a mention on the 
> back of a chocolate frog card.  In JKR's interview with mugglenet 
> and The Leaky Cauldron, she says it was no coincidence that 
> Grindlewald died in 1945(although she leads one to believe it 
> paralleled Muggle world events at the time).  She says she can't 
> answer whether Grindlewald is important in 7, which usually means 
he 
> will be, in JKR-speak.


In my opinion, though, there's no way that Tom Riddle would ever have 
found Grindelwald.  According to the timeline JKR has herself set up, 
by the time Tom Riddle killed his father and grandparents, the second 
world war was already finished or very nearly so.  There's a couple 
of reasons for this.  One, because we are told that the Riddles were 
killed "fifty years ago" from the start of GoF, which most of us 
believe to be 1994.  That sets the date as 1944 - give or take a few 
years if we're willing to believe that "50 years" has been rounded 
one way or the other.

As well, Frank Bryce is described as having had a "hard war".  His 
war is definitely WW2 - he's only 77 years old when he is killed.  
The war must be over or nearly so for this reasoning to be accepted 
by the villagers.  I'm actually inclined to say that it should have 
occured after the war was finished - and until HBP was released, 
that's the theory I was going with.  Frank bears no external scars or 
obvious reasons why he would have been demobbed earlier than 1945 or 
46 - and most soldiers were not demobbed immediately upon the 
conclusion of the war.  
 
Following that line of thought, Tom was described as being around 
sixteen years old in the memory that Harry and DD observed in the 
Pensieve.  That means that the memory occured either between his 
fifth and sixth years, or between his sixth and seventh.  At the very 
earliest, Tom would not have left school until June of 1945.  I think 
it more likely that he would have started his sixth year of Hogwarts 
following the death of his father - therefore, he didn't leave until 
June of 1946.

According to the Chocolate Frog cards, Grindelwald was defeated in 
1945.  JKR has said that the Grindelwald War and WW2 mirrored each 
other - I suspect that Grindelwald fell around the same time that 
Hitler committed suicide, which was in May.  Therefore, Grindelwald 
would have fallen before Tom ever left Hogwarts.

Now, I will grant you two things:  Tom may have found Grindelwald 
before he left Hogwarts, during his summers; and also that as we only 
know that Grindelwald had fallen and not actually been killed, that 
Tom may have located him after his defeat.  

But I am very suspicious of Tom actually locating Grindelwald at 
either time.  In the first case, there's a WAR going on.  How is a 
seventeen year old kid (even of Tom's abilities) going to find the 
most wanted man in the Wizarding world?  And even if Grindelwald had 
been defeated before Tom went looking for him - wouldn't he be under 
lock and key, and therefore much more difficult for Tom to reach?

--azriona