(The Lack of) Horcrux-Hunting

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Back in my essay “The Keeper of the Keys,” I argued that Dumbledore didn’t start hunting Riddle’s Horcruxes until about 1995 because it took him until after Harry’s report of Tom’s boasts in the graveyard to realize that Tom had more Horcruxes than just Harry.

But there’s an even more fundamental problem. Why wasn’t Dumbledore hunting for Tom’s (presumably singular) Horcrux in, say, 1948? Or at least, after Tom’s return from the continent as “Lord Voldemort,” master of the Death Eaters?



I mean, you have a monster who likes to kill and who covets personal immortality—why wouldn’t he make a Horcrux? Or rather, why would Dumbledore assume that he had not?

What follows is, of course, pure speculation.

Tom Riddle made up a name for himself that indicated his interest in immortality (or more precisely, his fear of death) back when he was in his teens. At the same age, he showed a taste for grandiosity and an interest in wizarding legends. (He billed himself, after all, as the Heir of Slytherin when he killed Myrtle.)

Tom showed up wearing an ancient ring engraved with the symbol of the Deathly Hallows about the same time Morfinn Gaunt, admitted murderer of one Tom Riddle and his parents, complained of losing his family’s heirloom ring.

A Muggle killing by a previously-convicted Muggle-hexer (the last scion of a degenerate, impoverished family) would hardly rate front page coverage in the Prophet, and it’s wildly unlikely the tiny article reporting the sordid little crime would bother to list anything as insignificant as the Muggle victims’ names. And no one outside Hogwarts knew young Tom Marvolo Riddle’s name anyhow; he had no intention, ever, of becoming famous under that sobriquet.

But the victims’ names must surely have been mentioned at Morfinn’s trial and in his files. (Um, surely they must? Although Bob Ogden’s official paperwork, seventeen years earlier, referred to Morfin’s victim only as “said Muggle.” Maybe Muggles’ names are rarely recorded. When a this-universe human is arrested for cruelty to an animal, after all, the animal is not necessarily named—just the species given and offense against it noted.)

Was Albus Dumbledore already on the Wizengamot then? He’d already been asked at least once to stand for Minister of Magic, so I think he must have been. And how many other Hogwarts staff and students could say the same?

If he saw the names, Dumbledore might have guessed at once some version of what really happened.

He might, however, have misinterpreted young Tom’s motive.

One of the results of Tom’s crime spree was the theft of his uncle’s ring. Set with a black stone, not a gem, engraved with the symbol of the Deathly Hallows, and claimed by Gaunt family legend to date back to the Peverells.

Or if Albus didn’t learn at the time about Tom’s other crimes and just thought Tom came by his newest trophy through simple theft, Albus might still have misinterpreted Tom’s motive.

Remind me, what was it that Albus and Gellert were hell-bent on finding when THEY were sixteen?

Albus might have jumped to the conclusion that Tom sought to master death the same way he and Gellert had: by finding and uniting the Deathly Hallows. And have been smugly confident that even though Tom might possibly have gained one of them, he’d never attain at least one of the other two. Since Albus happened to know where it was, and to believe that young Tom could not defeat the Deathstick’s master (neither Gellert nor later, Albus). Tom’s inexplicable-to-other-teachers decision to go work at a mere shop (which happened to trade in antiquities and Dark objects) would then make perfect sense to Albus, and so would Tom’s sudden decision to decamp to the continent, where the Deathstick had last been seen…. But by then it wasn’t there any more.

If Albus had also had the overweening vanity to imagine that his attempt to purge Hogwarts of information about Horcruxes had actually prevented Tom from finding out about that means of trying to cheat death, he might have believed young Tom’s aspirations to immortality doomed to ultimate failure. (Tom was not, after all, of the spiritual purity even to think about creating a Philosopher’s Stone.) So Albus might not have worried much about them (while still worrying, perhaps, about Tom’s other known interests).

In which case, Albus probably went for years smugly thinking that the problem posed to the WW by the newest Dark Lord was fundamentally temporary. (Which would, of course, somewhat mitigate Albus’s culpability in allowing Tom to become Lord Voldemort.) And so on Halloween 1981, the discovery that Tom’s body had been destroyed without effecting Tom’s actual death must have come as a considerable shock to Albus.

No wonder Albus never even considered that Tom must have created at least one Horcrux before the Harrycrux. It was an overwhelming blow to Albus’s vanity to learn that Tom had made ANY.

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Very interesting! Tom worked in Knockturn Alley, not that far from Diagon Alley, where Ollivander had his store. Albus could easily imagine Tom going over during his lunch break or whatever and persuading Ollivander to tell him what he knew about the Deathstick. And that certainly would send Tom to the continent.

But even if he had an excuse not to seek Tom's Horcrux(es) back then, he didn't have an excuse not to ensure that Tom was prosecuted for the murders he committed under his original name. Albus dropped the Riddles case when Morfin died and similarly dropped the investigation of Mrs Smith's death.

As for Muggles' names not being recorded - still, wouldn't a case of killing 3 Muggles at once be of some personal interest to Dumbles? Wouldn't it ring a bell? Or perhaps such an association would cause him to stick his head deeper in the sand?

And no one outside Hogwarts knew young Tom Marvolo Riddle’s name anyhow; he had no intention, ever, of becoming famous under that sobriquet.

He still used that name until his disappearance. Hepzibah addressed him as Tom.

[oryx_leucoryx]

OK, so Albus thinks Tom was after the other hallows. And maybe his use of inferi confirmed that he was making use of the resurrection stone (Albus thinks that's what Gellert intended to do with it). But at some point Severus turned his coat and brought stories about Tom's claims to immortality (of sorts). Shouldn't that have alerted Albus to the possibility of a Horcrux? Or did Albus avoid searching the Gaunt hovel while Tom was around fearing he might trip some alarm?

[oryx_leucoryx]

This gives Albus an additional reason to discourage Dippet from hiring Tom a s a teacher - keep him away from the Elder Wand.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Terri, when Tom started wearing the ring the Deathstick was still in Gellert's hands. (And we have reason to think Albus was aware of this for a while, considering he was in touch with Ollivander by 1938.) So when did Albus figure out the ring wasn't just a Quester's piece of jewelry but the real Resurrection Stone? Did he not fear Tom would join forces with Gellert? Did he perhaps encourage Tom's individualism to keep that from happening? Does this have anything to do with the timing of the Albus/Gellert confrontation? After all if Tom has the Stone then Gellert can't be Master of Death. And Albus went to meet Gellert just around the time Tom was leaving school, free to go in pursuit of the Elder Wand. So it seems Albus realized Tom had the Stone in Tom's 7th year, though of course Tom may have come by it earlier.

[oryx_leucoryx]

There may still be a hole in Albus' thinking in this scenario: If he thought Tom left for Europe to seek the Elder Wand, wouldn't he expect him to catch up with Gregorovich at some point? Gregorovich was in the open, making and selling wands until his retirement sometime in the 1980s, when Viktor bought his wand. I doubt Albus expected Gregorovich to be able to keep the story of what became of the wand from Tom. Yet Tom remained on the continent for 10 years and then ...

Hmm. Maybe Albus thought Tom returned because he figured out where the wand was? And the first thing he does is make an appointment with Albus? And after that avoid Albus... Maybe Albus thought Tom was avoiding him because he didn't dare face the master of the Elder Wand again? And if it took all the way to their confrontation at the Ministry for Albus to realize Tom wasn't (yet) seeking Hallows or even aware that he had one of them in his own possession - I'm not sure how this goes, but there seems to be a connection somewhere.