Dumbledore's memory collection (Was: CoS chapters 17-18 post DH look)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 181380

Mike wrote:
<snip>
> When do you all think Dumbledore started collecting those memories
of Voldemort that he showed Harry in HBP? 
> 
> I always thought DD started a good while ago. I'm thinking during 
Voldemort's first reign of terror. Though the oldest memory, Bob 
Ogden's, happened around 1925 and dear old Bob could have still been
alive in 1992, after the Diary Horcrux. 
> 
> But I had the feeling that Bob, Hokey and Morfin had died long
before 1992. If that's right, it means DD must have gotten lucky to
collect the memories that told him what 3 of the Horcruxes were, since
he collected them before he knew LV had Horcruxes, plural. Or,
Dumbledore actually suspected multiple Hocruxes before the Diary.

Carol responds:
Let's think first about what Dumbledore knew about Tom Riddle that
might lead him to think in terms of multiple Horcruxes (especially
given his penchant for putting memories in the Pensieve to examine
their connections, as he did in GoF).

First, he knew that Tom, even as a child, collected trophies related
to his crimes. He knew that Tom had opened the Chamber of Secrets and
was responsible for Myrtle's death. He knew that Tom was descended
from Salazar Slytherin. He knew that Tom considered Hogwarts his home.
At some point, he learned that Tom had talked with Slughorn about
Horcruxes (though, of course, he didn't have the complete memory).

Dumbledore, unlike most Half-Blood or Pure-Blood Wizards, read the
Muggle newspapers, so he knew that the Riddles, one of them, not
coincidentally, named Tom had been murdered. He knew that Morfin Gaunt
had been charged with the crime, but he suspected that the dark-haired
teenage boy that the caretaker Frank Bryce claimed to have seen was
Tom Riddle, who hated his Muggle heritage and had killed before, so he
apparently went to investigate. This would have been, of course,
before any Horcruxes had been created. Dumbledore would have acquired
the memories from Bob Ogden and Morfin Gaunt at this time in an
attempt to clear Morfin's name, but Morfin died before the evidence
could be presented at a new trial. 

Tom returned to Hogwarts with no one but Dumbledore suspecting him of
any crimes and then went to work at Borgin and Burkes. When Hepzibah
Smith was murdered, Dumbledore again went to work collecting memories,
this time in an attempt to get Hokey acquitted, but again, the victim
that Tom had framed died before DDD could have the evidence reexamined.

At this point, if not before, DD must have noticed a connection
between the murders. While the Riddles had been killed for revenge,
Tom had, magpielike, taken Morfin Gaunt's ring (proof of his
Pure-Blood connection to the Peverells) as a trophy, just as he had
taken the mouth organ and other items from his childhood victims. He
had also expressed interest--make that greed--at Morfin's reference to
Salazar Slytherin's locket, which Merope had "stolen." Lo and behold,
that very locket was one of the items for which Hepzibah Smith had
been murdered. At that point, DD would have gone to Borgin to get his
memory of the young pregnant woman selling the locket for ten galleons.

So DD, who had originally (according to my theory) begun obtaining
memories to link Tom Riddle to two seemingly unconnected murders, sees
him collecting valuable objects (which he wants badly enough to kill
for, in the one case) related to Hogwarts and/or his own Pure-Blood
heritage. The question is what Tom, who fled into parts unknown after
killing Hepzibah, would have wanted with those objects. Something more
than collecting them, perhaps? DD would also have seen the slight
alteration in Tom's appearance in the Hepzibah memory, in particular,
the red eyes gleaming with something worse than greed. And he would
have noted the blurring of Tom's features when he next saw him, come
ten years later, when he came to apply for the DADA position.

Even before Voldemort returned a second time, even more changed
(noseless and snakelike), DD might already have suspected that the
changes in his appearance resulted from multiple Horcruxes, and he
would already have known or suspected what three of those Horcruxes
were: the ring, the locket, and the cup. He might at that time have
obtained the altered memory from Slughorn, who was still teaching at
Hogwarts.

When Voldemort was vaporized at Godric's Hollow, DD must have known
that he was right. He had to have created at least one Horcrux, and
both the stolen objects and the drastic alterations in Voldemort's
appearance indicated that he had made more than one. The diary in CoS,
a previously unsuspected Voldemort artifact, confirmed DD's theory.
Not only had he made a Horcrux, but he had to have made more than one.
The question was, how many. Were there more than four? Had he obtained
a Ravenclaw artifact to go with the Slytherin and Hufflepuff objects?
That, I think, is why DD considered Slughorn's memory so important. He
had already not only confirmed his theory but identified four of the
objects, one of which Harry had destroyed. But he had to know how many
more there were. And, meanwhile, he was searching out possible
locations, including the Gaunt's house and the cave (with disastrous
consequences for himself in both cases).

It's not clear exactly when DD obtained the Hokey and Morfin memories,
but I think it was shortly after the murders were committed and the
victims were framed. DD would have considered time to be of the
essence. But Hokey was very old and died shortly after he obtained the
memory, and Morfin, who had already spent three years in Azkaban, was
so upset by the theft of the ring that he was no doubt easy prey for
the Dementors. he, too, seems to have lasted only a short time in
prison. At any rate, DD visited him "in the last weeks of his life, by
which time I was attempting to discover as much as I could about
Voldemort's past" HBP Am. ed. 368). He attempted to "secure Morfin's
release from Azkaban," but too late. Morfin died before the Ministry
could make up its collective mind. Hokey, too, was dying by the time
DD traced her (which couldn't have taken much time). And since he
already knew that Morfin's memory had been tampered with when he
obtained Hokey's, suspecting the same tactic, I think that Morfin must
have died before Hepzibah Smith, some time between Tom's seventeenth
and twenty-second birthdays, roughly speaking, and Hokey very shortly
after Hepzibah. So, IMO, all of the relevant memories, with the
possible exception of Slughorn's altered one, were apparently obtained
many years before CoS (including, of course, DD's own memories of
conversations with Tom Riddle). 

Carol, wondering where DD went on his excursions away from Hogwarts in
HBP, aside from his search for the cave, considering that the memories
had all been obtained much earlier