CHAPDISC: DH 22, The Deathly Hallows

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183206

Laura Lynn Walsh wrote:
<snip>
> Why does it follow that Voldemort could not have known that
Marvolo's ring was a Hallow.  In fact, that would make it seem more
LIKELY to me.  Voldemort loved trophies and he thought he was the only
one who knew about this one.  Why couldn't he just make it into a
horcrux and bury it until he finds the rest of them?

Carol responds:
If Voldemort knew about the Deathly Hallows, which would make him the
Master of Death if he had all three together, he'd have set out in
pursuit of them rather than splitting his precious soul into seven
pieces. If you have the Hallows, you (theoretically) don't need
Horcruxes. But Voldemort doesn't even know about the Elder Wand until
he forces Ollivander to tell him about it--and Ollivander, we find out
later, knows nothing about the other Hallows and has never even heard
the term "Deathly Hallows." It appears to be very esoteric knowledge,
known only to a very few (DD, Grindelwald, and, of all people,
Xenophilius Lovegood among them).

laura: 
> It seems more likely to me that the reason Harry can know that
Voldemort doesn't know about the Hallows is that, if he knew and if he
suspected that the ring was one of the Hallows, and since he also
knows that Harry has an invisibility cloak, it would make VM more
interested in capturing Harry's cloak, in case it is the right one,
rather than killing Harry.  None of the DEs chasing Harry ever mention
trying to steal the cloak.

Carol responds:
True. I'm sure that Harry and JKR thought the same thing, but took it
for granted. 

At any rate, Harry knows that LV didn't know about the Elder Wand
until Ollivander told him. He knows, as you point out, that LV has
never shown the slightest interest in his Invisibility Cloak. He knows
that LV turned the Resurrection Stone into a Horcrux, risking the
destruction of any other powers it possessed in so doing. He knows
that LV continued making Horcruxes, using objects associated with
Hogwarts or his own heritage when possible rather than seeking out the
Elder Wand and the cloak. He later seeks the wand, not as one of the
three Hallows, which he clearly doesn't know about, but, as Harry
deduces, to make himself invincible.

Carol, noting that all of Harry's brilliant deductions lead him to the
wrong conclusion (that he should seek the Hallows rather than the
Horcruxes) and again reminded of Snape