Voldemort killed personally?

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 157145

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tamara" <buffyeton at ...> wrote:
>
> Who has Voldemort killed personally and do we know why for each 
one?
>
Leah:

Long reply to a short but interesting question.  I was trying to 
work this one out the other day, and see if the deaths correlated 
with the horcruxes or supposed horcruxes and also which of the 
personal victims could be said to have been murdered, as  against, 
for example, killed in battle.    I got to:  Tom Riddle Snr; Riddle 
grandfather; Riddle grandmother; Lily Potter; Frank Byrce, as the 
people we can say with some certainty that VM killed with a personal 
AK.  That's five.

We are told by Sirius in OOTP that VM killed an Order member by the 
name of Dorcas Meadows personally.  We know nothing else about the 
intriguing Dorcas and I'm surprised that she doesn't seem to crop up 
in discussions.  We also know from this conversation between Harry 
and Sirius that (according to Sirius anyway) VM does not often kill 
in person but leaves that to his DEs. Anyway, Dorcas makes six.

There are other deaths which I would call associated with VM. These 
are: Moaning Myrtle; Hepzibah Smith; James Potter; Bertha Jorkins; 
Cedric Diggory. As to Myrtle, while VM was obviously responsible for 
the presence of the basilisk, Myrtle's death does appear not to have 
been intended or directed by him- manslaughter rather than murder.  
Hepzibah appears to have been poisoned by the innocent agency of her 
house-elf; I would term this a personal killing/murder by VM, 
particularly as it would have been logical to have made the cup 
horcrux with her death.  James was certainly killed personally by 
VM, but this was a fight, and I wonder if it can therefore be 
strictly described as murder.  VM says of Bertha in GOF, 'I disposed 
of her'. It's not clear whether she succumbed to the attacks on her 
memory or was AK'd.  Cedric Diggory was killed on VM's orders ("Kill 
the spare") by Wormtail. So I would say yes to Hepzibah, Frank,  and 
James (but James' death might not be classified as murder), no to 
Myrtle and Cedric and possible to Bertha.  So I get to nine personal 
killings, possibly ten.

In HBP, Fudge tells the Prime Minister that it is believed that VM 
killed Amelia Bones personally; if true, this would take his total 
to 10/11: Tom Riddle Snr, Riddle grandfather, Riddle grandmother, 
Hepzibah Smith, Dorcas Meadows (all pre-Godric's Hollow),James 
Potter, Lily Potter (Godric's Hollow), Frank 
Byrce,  ?Bertha Jorkins, ?Amelia Bones (post the return).   If RAB 
(Regulus?) died as a result of the locket removal, would this count 
as murder? Sirius thinks he was killed by DEs. 

I then tried to link the deaths with horcruxes.  We are told by 
Slughorn that  murder is necessary to split the soul in order to 
form a horcrux.   We have  the diary, ring and locket horcruxes.  
These are objects which link VM with Slytherin.  The diary reveals 
that he is the Heir, while the ring and locket are Slytherin/Gaunt 
heirlooms.  It seems logical to me both symbolically and in terms of 
timing that VM would use the murders of his despised muggle 
ancestors to make these horcruxes.   Then there is the cup horcrux.  
The logical assumption as already said is that this was made with 
the murder of Hepzibah Smith. We don't have a death for the 
Ravenclaw horcrux, so I nominate the mysterious Dorcas for that as 
the timing fits in.
   
That takes VM to Godric's Hollow with five murders and five 
horcruxes. If the death of James in battle with VM ("your father 
died like a man") is not murder, then one murder only occurs at 
Godric's Hollow, and it is possible that  an accidental horcrux 
(Harry's scar) was made with his mother's death- debatable I know, 
but it makes sense of the prophecy to me.  

This leaves VapourMort one horcrux short of immortality as far as 
he's concerned, hence DD's view that on VM's return he makes Nagini 
a horcrux, with Frank's death.  Again, some problems with this..  
Interestingly, as VM has not made a deliberate horcrux with the 
death of Lily, one would have thought his Vapoursoul would have been 
already split into two- why use an insignificant muggle when the 
mother of the Chosen One has already contributed.  This would 
suggest to me that either the accidental horcrux theory is correct 
and VM no longer has Lily's murder to work with, (and hasn't worked 
out why) or intriguingly, DD was wrong, and Nagini was horcruxed 
with Lily's death.  

However, on his return to `human' form, VM is outraged to learn that 
the diary horcrux has been destroyed. Shucks, one down again.  If we 
assume he has `used' Lily and Frank and that he did not murder 
Bertha personally, he needs another death- is this the purpose of 
Amelia's murder- has he made another horcrux?   

If we take the three Riddles, Hepzibah, Dorcas and Frank as murders  
and put James and Bertha in the no pile, then VM has  split his soul 
six times,  leaving himself with a seventh soul bit.  But if we 
include Lily's death that is seven splits.  If we include Amelia 
that is eight splits, leaving VM with a ninth soul bit- another 
interesting number. 

Leah