Voldemort's transformations (Was: The Summer of his 16th Year)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 157375

KJ wrote:
> 
>     I was in agreement with this for a while, and considered that 
> Voldemort might have made contact with Grindlwald prior to making
his first horcruxes.  Unfortunately, he was already showing red
flashes in his eyes in the cup and locket memory. He was working for
B&B at that time and it must have been within the first two years
after leaving school. <snip>

Carol responds:
Yes, but Grindelwald died in 1945, the same year that Tom left
Hogwarts, so Tom could have had contact with him before he died (and
before Dumbledore destroyed his one Horcrux, if that's what happened).

I agree that the red gleam in his eyes indicates that he's made at
least one Horcrux, certainly converting the diary to a Horcrux and
possibly making the ring into one as well, placing a curse on it and
hiding it in the Gaunt's hovel. Or the ring Horcrux could have been
created and hidden right before he skipped the country with the locket
and the cup, having murdered Hepzibah Smith and framed Hokey to obtain
them. Harry notes that Tom is thinner and paler when he visits
Hepzibah when he's working at B and B, the first hint that his
appearance is changing but perhaps a hint that he's only made the
first Horcrux since the change is so subtle. But the red eyes make it
clear that he's made either one or two at that point, perhaps two or
three years after the death of Grindelwald--the time frame isn't
perfectly clear.

Ten years later, when he shows up to apply for the DADA position, he's
barely recognizable, primarily because his features are blurred, a
sign that he's made at least four Horcruxes (the diary, the ring, the
cup, and the locket) and that he's losing what humanity (or make that
"humanness") he ever had--his human appearance and identity along with
his name and the parts of his soul that he's encased in Horcruxes.
(The narrator's remark that he was not yet "as snakelike" as he would
later become *may* be Harry's perception based on hindsight--he knows
what the future Voldemort will look like. I still think that Nagini as
Horcrux could affect his appearance, but only if she became a Horcrux
before GH.)

By the time of Godric's Hollow, he must have made at least one more
Horcrux because he's fully snakelike (note his appearance in the back
of Quirrell's head and the lack of surprise at his appearance on the
part of the Death Eaters in GoF). I believe that he had made not only
his Ravenclaw Horcrux (the tiara in the RoR?) but the sixth Horcrux,
Nagini, at this point, perhaps because he'd given up on finding a
Gryffindor object to complete his collection, but the argument that he
became snakelike as he lost his humanity is also feasible. (I'm not
going to go into that here, as people seem to think that
Nagini!Horcrux is inconsistent with their Harry!Horcrux theory,
whereas it's actually possible that both could be true. As for me,
I'll take the list of remaining Horcruxes that Harry recites near the
end of HBP as canonical for now: "the locket, the cup, the snake,
something from Gryffindor or Ravenclaw," to quote from memory.)

To return to the time frame, there's a gap of about fifteen years
between the DADA visit and LV's return to England around the time that
Severus Snape and MWPP started attending Hogwarts, at which time DD
tells us in Cos, I believe, that LV was changed beyond recognition. I
think that LV made either one or two Horcruxes in that time but was
still waiting to create the last one until he had a suitable object.
Godric's Hollow occurred eleven years later, when SS/MWPP were
twenty-two. At that point, he probably intended, as DD said, to make
his last Horcrux with Harry's death, but it's not clear what he would
have used to contain that last soul bit. Maybe he still had hopes of
killing Dumbledore and stealing the Sword of Gryffindor. After all, if
he'd killed Harry, "the one with the power" to defeat him, he'd be
invincible--or so he would believe.

Carol, wondering if LV would then devote his attention to making his
body immortal to match his soul