A dastardly Voldy plan - was: Re: Lockets

[carolynwhite2]

Jen:
>"Do not forget that Lord Voldemort believes that he alone knows 
about his Horcruxes." (chap. 26, p. 569, US)
<snip timeline reasoning>
The last reason I see for Voldemort hiding his Horcruxes alone, esp. 
the locket which identified him as Heir of Slytherin, is that as 
early as age 11 Riddle "was already highly self-sufficient, 
secretive, and apparently friendless...he did not want help....he 
preferred to operate alone." (chap. 13, p. 277)
>
We have incomplete information since we don't know how the other 
Horcruxes were made or where they were hidden. But it doesn't fit 
with LV's paranoid nature to randomly hand out Horcruxes. The diary 
was different because Voldemort expected to use it as both a weapon 
and a Horcrux, but I don't think his collection of 'trophies' would 
be allowed out of his hands.
>

Carolyn:
I think the timeline issue is very important in understanding what is 
going on. The problem is that we are not sure if Hx have to be 
created at the time of a murder or not. On the whole, it seems not, 
though that seems...a bit untidy, undramatic.. [has visions of Tom 
leaping around with a kind of Dark Arts butterfly net, trying to 
capture the murderee's dying gasp or whatever, and bottling it for 
later use in the Hx spell].

All we really know is that he had the ring before he left school, and 
like you, Jen, I would like to think that the murder of his father 
would be suitably symbolic and significant to create that Hx. 
However, since he asked Sluggy about Hxs **after** obtaining the 
ring, I think we are forced to conclude that it wasn't a Hx at that 
point.

Similarly, I like your idea that Moaning Myrtle (as a mudblood) would 
be suitable for the creation of a diary which housed the CoS secret. 
On the other hand, her own description of her death made it sound as 
though it was an accident that she saw the basilisk. Tom no doubt 
could hear her sobbing her eyes out in the loo, but he doesn't seem 
to have directly targeted the snake at her. She overheard a boy 
talking in Parseltongue and opened the door to tell him off, 
encountering the snake as it came up out of the sink. There is also 
the point that she came back as a ghost, which seems a bit 
inconvenient for the dedicated Hx producer. You'd want your murderee 
to stay well dead, I'd've thought. We do at least know for sure that 
Tom was 16 at this point and therefore had another year to go at 
school.

Moving on to the locket and cup, he seems to have murdered Hepzibah 
within a year or so of starting work with B&B. DD says he thinks this 
is the first murder that Tom did since his father and grandparents, 
so by this point he has more than enough murders in hand to create 
four Hx, and he could also have used the Vanishing Cabinets to move 
from B&B into Hogwarts to place the cup in the trophy room before he 
resigned his job.

[As an aside, is anyone else vaguely irritated that we seem to have 
*two* Slytherin artefacts as Hxs? Seems to spoil the symmetry of one 
from each of the founders, plus dead muggle father...and his nemesis 
Harry? Is the locket a massive red herring?].

My thinking is that the ring, the locket and the cup were all put in 
their hiding places early on, but that he kept the diary with him 
until much later. Hxs 4 and 5 were created in the interim but after 
he heard the prophecy, he saved up the Potter and/or Longbottom 
murders for Hx No.6. However, just because of the prophecy, I think 
he was mighty nervous about what might happen if he went for Harry 
and Neville and therefore put two back up plans in place. One was 
giving the diary to Lucius with only partial instructions and a 
strict injunction not to deploy it until Voldemort said so. The other 
was the Regulus affair, enabling the locket to be moved from its 
hiding place to somewhere that it could more easily take over any 
witch or wizard that found it and put it on.

>
Dungrollin:
Hmm. I'm not convinced that any of the other Horsepox could do what 
the diary did, which is why the diary was left (as a weapon) with
Lucius, and why the others (locket/ring etc) were hidden and 
protected (if poorly).
>
Kimberly:
No way he would *intentionally* create spares of himself that can act 
independantly of the original. They would basically be totally
separate entities, his equal in magic and power (I assume, or what 
would be the point?), and with the same ambitions and nastiness, and
would, therefore, set out immediately to get rid of the original. 
After all, we know he works alone, and doesn't want buddies. So 
instead of just having to deal with that annoying Potter boy, he'd 
suddenly be at war with himself, and possibly more than one of 
himself. And at varying ages, too, if the Riddle from the diary is 
any indication. I doubt he'd want to fight his younger, fitter self.
>
Lyn:
My guess is that every time LV split his soul to form a HX he also 
divided some of his power. He didn't really give it up, by he 
compartmentalized it outside of himself, still available for return 
if so needed. At the height of his powers, he had power to spare, 
sufficient to exchange a portion for immortality. The events at GH 
changed that. He now needs to regain that power, at least temporarily.
>

Carolyn:
If Lyn's explanation is true, why has he not spent the last two years 
hoovering up his lost Hairballs? There's been nothing to stop him. He 
could have retrieved at least the ring, and Hxs 4 and 5, if not the 
locket (since it's at 12GP and that's been OOP HQ since shortly after 
the rebirthing).

And by the way (Lyn), the DEs seem not to know about Hxs, at least 
according to DD: 'That was what you told me he said. 'Further than 
anybody'. And I thought I knew what that meant, though the Death 
Eaters did not.' (Ch 23, p469 UK ed).

>
Kneasy:
You stopped before coming to the punch-line.
Bella killed Reggy.
With Sirius fitted up for the Potter murders, languishing away in 
durance vile, plus having been disinherited, who then gets the loot?
Bella. Darling Bella.
>

Carolyn:
This makes a very rational sub-plot, since it is clear from Ch 2 that 
the DEs know all about the Fidelius charm that is preventing Snape 
from telling them the OOP HQ location. But you do have this odd 
situation that Bella knows she is due to inherit 12 GP, and can 
remember and know about that address and possibly even visit it, 
without being aware of it being OOP HQ. So, presumably she could have 
gone straight there after the death of Sirius and had a rummage about 
looking for the locket, which presumably would not necessarily have 
been protected by the Fidelius?

Another footnote in passing. DD had no trouble going to interview 
Morfin in Azkaban, did he? And he really is a dab hand at 
Legilimency, isn't he..all those little bottles of people's thoughts? 
So, have to ask once again, why didn't he bother to do this for 
Sirius? Would have sorted a lot of things out a lot earlier, wouldn't 
it? Or perhaps he did, and in due course we will find out what Sirius 
really knew about Reg's activities?

Carolyn