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

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 182311

> > >>Carol:
> > I don't think that anyone but DD was aware of LV's tendency 
to      
> > collect "trophies."
> > <snip>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I suspect that as per canon, you're right. Little Tom Riddle 
magpied 
> in his orphanage but managed to stop upon reaching Hogwarts.  Until 
> that Founder fetish hit of course.  The problem is, that's not how 
> human beings behave.  So we have some unnatural behavior for the 
sake 
> of the script.  It's JKR forcing a round peg into a square hole in 
> order to keep all of the information under Dumbledore's hat.
> 
> In a more realistic or organic telling, his dormmates (and the 
> various prefects) should have seen similar behavior.  Seven years 
> living in such close quarters, Tom Riddle's box of goodies should 
> have been noticed.  Not remarked on, necessarily (unless he stole 
> stuff like he did in the orphange) but something for a canny 
> detective to learn about. 

Magpie:
I can't help but get into the "What if crack Muggle minds were 
working on this?" sitaution, so I'd also throw out that as with 
everything else, Voldemort's fetish for collecting was not the only 
route even here. Every one of the Horcruxes were objects that Tom 
Riddle got for himself, and so each one represented a path to see 
what he was doing. If you know that Tom Riddle was involved with 
Hepzibah Smith (which was information that could be known), and that 
she died in this bizarre murder by a house elf--which is unheard of--
and that her cup disappeared, that right there would get you 
wondering whether he didn't take it. You'd also notice his father 
died the way he did, and so did those Gaunts, who were his mother's 
family, and they made no secret of who they were and what objects 
they had...and hey, what happened to those things?

There's also Voldemort's obsession with Hogwarts that leads to the 
objects, or with his own ancestry, which leads to Slytherin.

Or there's also what he did with those objects after they got them. 
Every aspect of creating a Horcrux could leave a trace of what you 
were doing. The one moment where Harry uses deductive reasoning is 
just watching Bellatrix's reaction to the sword and her vault at the 
bank. Lucius was also given an object he was supposed to keep safe. 
That's opening some roads for spy networks or double agents to talk 
about certain objects Voldemort wants to keep safe. (DEs very flawed 
as helpers--the two DEs we know were entrusted with Horcruxes didn't 
do good jobs with them at all. Lucius was willing to use his object 
for his own protection and Bellatrix could barely contain the fact 
that she was entrusted with keeping something safe from Voldemort.)

Also, I agree with Betsy about what we Muggles could and couldn't 
have imagined--as she says, we're only able to deal with the 
information we have. We didn't know Horcruxes existed, but Wizards do 
because magic is part of their world. It's surprising nobody else 
made Horcruxes, to be honest. But the information was there for the 
taking. There was no information in the one library at Hogwarts, but 
even Hermione was able to just look the things up in books once she 
figured out who had taken them all out. Then there seemed to be a 
pretty clear list of things that could destroy them including 
basilisk venom (and why wouldn't that be obtainable on the black 
market along with other stuff that's dangerous to get like dragon's 
blood and giant spider poison?) and fiend fire (that dumb 17-year-
olds can make) or whatever other things exist. 

And that's going the route of assuming you have to kill him rather 
than considering taking away his power in other ways--Dumbledore's 
careful guarding of Tom Riddle's underwhelming origins being an 
example where he seems to be helping him weild superstitious power 
over the population. 

-m