A new Voldemort/Harry Theory based on a challenge post. on HPFF

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 159140

Eddie wrote:
> The diary is a Horcrux created (and presumably protected) by
> Riddle/Voldemort when he was only 16.  I would expect that the
older, more expert Riddle/Voldemort would create later Horcruxes with
more better protections.
> 
> This, of course, presumes that the protections are created at the
same time as the Horcruxes, and there is no canon for that or for much
of what we speculate on in this forum.

Carol responds:
Although tom placed the memory of himself in the daiary when he was
sixteen, it's original purpose was apparently the one Voldemort told
Lucius Malfoy about--continuing Salazar Slytherin's "noble work" by
releasing the monster in the Chamber of secrets and killing
"Mudbloods." Tom clearly didn't know how to create a Horcrux when he
talked to Slughorn in his sixth year, *after* he'd killed his father
and grandparents.

I doubt that he created any Horcruxes while he was still at Hogwarts.
He had apparently done so by the time he visited Hepzibah Smith a few
years later (Harry notes a few changes in his appearance and, IIRC,
he's no longer wearing the ring. But definitively state that he made
any Horcruxes at sixteen, or even eighteen. Possibly he learned what
he wanted to know by visiting Grindelwald before his death in 1945, or
maybe he found the needed information in books owned by Borgin and Burke.

As for the protections on the diary, I don't think they're weak
because he was young so much as because the diary is designed to be
interactive. It must be read to be used. Quite probably, it could have
been burned as well as stabbed. The ring was protected more fiercely,
hidden and then cursed so that anyone who destroyed it would suffer
horribly and probably die. The protections on the locket were
admittedly more elaborate and cunning, but perhaps the locket was
rehidden by Bellatrix accompanied by Kreacher (who, IMO, was Regulus's
source of information--he'f be magically bound to tell Regulus what he
knew).

As for the protections being created at the same time as the
Horcruxes, it makes sense that the protective curse on the ring was
placed on it from the beginning, but I suspect that elaborate
protections like the green potion (poisoned memory?) and the Inferi
came about after Voldemort heard the Prophecy and started fearing for
the safety of his precious Horcruxes. The diary, however, was another
matter. He still wanted it to be available for use against Mudbloods
at some point, so he only gave it to Lucius Malfoy rather than hiding
it. The other Horcruxes serve the sole purpose of encasing his soul
bits and would have been more carefully protected.

Carol, just speculating but sure that Tom created no Horcruxes at sixteen