What if...? - My last minute theory

[ronnie]

No: HPFGUIDX 172110

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sneeboy2" <sneeboy2 at ...> wrote:
> I've always thought it sounds like a child being tortured or 
horribly
> punished somehow. I figured at first it had something to do with
> whatever Riddle did to those other orphans in the cave. Perhaps the
> drinker has to relive their experience. It's a mystery, though, what
> the child is being made to do and what he or she has done "wrong."

ronnie:

Wow!That's brilliant sneeboy2! I always thought it might be something 
very private to DD (either a great fear, a terrible memory, or 
something to cause the specific drinker of the potion great 
suffering). But that's a real cool thought, even if it would turn out 
to be wrong.
I also thought that the potion DD was drinking at the cave might be 
connected to the Draught of the Living Death mentioned at the 
beginning of the book.Was this ever discussed?

sneeboy2 also wrote:

> Still it would offer some explanation as to why he's so evil. We're
> told that he fears death, but not everyone who fears death is evil.
> There must be some other psychological explanation, unless JKR wants
> us to believe that some people are just born evil. Sort of a
> conservative point of view and unlike her, IMO. 

ronnie:
Harry is good because his mother (and father) loved him. LV is evil 
(or has no love in him) because his mother & father didn't love him, 
even enough to live (in merope case). LV is described as non 
affectionate even as a baby. It's not because of something that 
happened later in his childhood.