Who needs Harry? (was: GoF CH 27-29 Post DH look/ Snape and Harry redux)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182305


> Betsy Hp:
> Any wizard of any salt could figure out all of the above, just as
Dumbledore did, by questioning those in Tom Riddle's past.  If Riddle
collected things, he'd have kept on collecting and his dormmates 
would have recalled such behavior, for example.  The Gaunts' are a 
matter of government record, what with their tangling with the law 
and all.  And anyone at all familiar with the history of Hogwarts 
should know about the Founders and their special items.
> 
> Or, they could capture Voldemort and find out from the man himself.  

Carol responds:

You can't just capture Voldemort or they would have done so after he
reappeared at the end of OoP.

And the people whose memories Dumbledore collected back when he was
only exploring Tom's past and his murders (DD wouldn't have suspected
Horcruxes until he was Tom's altered appearance at the DADA interview,
at which point he might have started putting everything together--just
a hunch since Tom hadn't "died" and returned or been vaporized) were
long dead.

That includes Hokey, Morfin Gaunt, Bob Ogden, and Caractacus Burke.
Needless to say, Hepzibah Smith, whom DD saw through Hokey's memory,
was also dead, as were Merope, Marvolo, and Tom Sr. And, of course,
the memories of young Tom at the orphanage and older Tom applying for
the DADA position were DD's own.

The only person who contributed a memory used in the training sessions
in HBP besides DD who was still alive was Slughorn.

Dumbledore interviewed everyone he could think of who would know
anything about Tom Riddle. No one who knew him at school (and wasn't a
Death Eater or aready dead) was willing to talk. They were all too
afraid even to speak his name. His dormmates were Death Eaters. They
wouldn't talk about LV's school days!

I think you're underestimating Dumbledore's effots, not to mention his
skill at Legilimency, without which he could never have obtained
Hokey's or Morfin's memories.

I don't think that anyone but DD was aware of LV's tendency to collect
"trophies." Certainly, no one else ever saw saw the mouth organ, the
thimble, and whatever the other trinket was, and even if they did,
they'd have no reason to suspect that he had taken to collecting items
belonging to the Founders.

Think about it, Betsy. Did we Muggles anticipate anything of the sort
before HBP? I didn't. And I don't see why the Gaunts being a matter of
public record would make any difference. By the time Tom encountered
Morfin (and framed him for the murder), Merope and Marvolo were
already dead, and Morfin rather rapidly became even more of a nut case
than he was originally. What was he supposed to say? "After that boy
what looked like that Muggle what ran off with my sister came by, I
lost Marvolo's ring?" Fat lot of help that would be to anyone but
Dumbledore, who saw the ring in the memory he extracted from Morfin
and knew better than Tom Riddle did what it was.

Carol, not sure that Betsy is even serious in her suggestions and
sensing some disillusionment with Dumbledore :-)