Dunno. If you can make horcruxes accidentally, why couldn't the soul-fragment have broken off during Lily's murder? I'm not saying that it happened that way, but it doesn't seem like an entirely unreasonable conclusion for Dumbledore to come to.
Of course, it would still be mind-bogglingly stupid for Riddle to confront his prophecied nemesis before creating a horcrux to protect himself, and even Riddle wasn't that stupid. Not *quite* that stupid. It'd be stupid to count on him being that stupid, anyway.
Maybe Dumbledore thought that Harry had to find the horcrux, in order to fulfill the prophecy. Or that Harry would need to see the destruction of a horcrux in order to believe that he, Harry, needed to die to kill Riddle. Dumbledore *might* have known about the locket for a while, or the ring (without knowing exactly what it was).
...Now I'm wondering if Dumbledore might have originally planned for Harry to die in getting the locket, or something, with Dumbledore surviving to destroy it and (perhaps) be the one to kill
"If you can make horcruxes accidentally, why couldn't the soul-fragment have broken off during Lily's murder? I'm not saying that it happened that way, but it doesn't seem like an entirely unreasonable conclusion for Dumbledore to come to."
I may be making this up, but I was under the impression that Voldemort's sould only split because it was already so damaged after making the previous ones. IOW, if Voldemort didn't have any other Horcruxes, his soul wouldn't have broken apart like that and he'd have been killed properly. Although OTOH Voldemort is allegedly the only person to make that many Horcruxes, so I could understand DD not knowing that.
Dunno. If you can make horcruxes accidentally, why couldn't the soul-fragment have broken off during Lily's murder? I'm not saying that it happened that way, but it doesn't seem like an entirely unreasonable conclusion for Dumbledore to come to.
If this were the case, any mass-murderer would spontaneously create a Horcrux at the moment of death. Unless that's the case (in which case one of the people in the Malfoys' cellar should have become Wormtail's Horcrux), we can probably assume that it's creating Horcruxes rather than simply committing murder that destabilises the soul in that way.
That's certainly a reasonable point about mass murderers, and it wouldn't have to happen only at the point of death. So, the Harrycrux was only possible because Riddle *did* intend to make a horcrux, even though at the time of casting the spell he hadn't yet detached a fragment of his soul to use? It's contrived, but this *is* the Potterverse.
I guess Dumbledore "shouldn't" have automatically concluded that Voldemort would've already had a horcrux because no one had ever created more than one. According to that reasoning, if Harry had become a horcrux, then Voldemort was therefore stupid enough to try to create his first horcrux with his nemesis' death.
Except that then Voldemort's survival can't be explained, and there's not only the Harrycrux, but Severus' Dark Mark to support that.
So, yes, Dumbledore should have come to the conclusion that there was more than one horcrux. His failure to act on that knowledge doesn't make a *lot* of sense, but there could be an explanation, possibly along the lines of the ones I suggested
Is it possible Albus arrived at the mistaken conclusion that Tom tried to make his one Horcrux with James' death, but made some mistake in the process? This mistake then left his soul in a detachable state, so that when he was hit by his AK soon after creating 2 fresh rips in his soul a fragment detached and entered Harry?
But that leaves the question what would cause Albus to believe so. Because logically, if the prophecy caused Tom to fear for his life to the point of wanting a Horcrux as 'insurance' why wait so long? Especially as we know of at least one person Tom killed himself between hearing the prophecy and the Godric's Hollow attack - Order member Dorcas Meadows.
So either something caused Albus to believe Tom only learned about Horcruxes shortly before Godric's Hollow or there was very clear evidence at the crime scene that suggested attempted Horcrux-making - and Albus fell in love with his theory to the point he was not willing to look further.
Perhaps once Albus saw the diary and realized Tom already had a Horcrux then perhaps he may have retconned his interpretation of Godric's Hollow as a failed attempt to make a Horcrux with Harry's death. (So as to free the diary to be used in its other function - as a weapon?)
Oh! I commented about something like this in one of your essays. :)
I've been speculating that DD didn't know that Tom had been making horcruxes. And he didn't know right away that Vapormort was still lurking around. All he knew was that there was a piece of Tom's soul lodged in Harry's scar. What if he thought that the soul bit in Harry was all that was left of Voldemort to deal with?
Voldemort could still "return" one day if the soul bit was able to possess Harry.
I rather suspect that this consideration may have had something to do with Albus's pussyfooting about Harry in the first two books. He waved the mirror of Erised in front of him to find out what Harry wanted. And there were indications of suspicions that Harry was concealing something when "Enemies of the Heir, Beware" started being written on the walls of the castle.
I am still of the opinion that the Serpensotia incident at the dueling club was because Albus wanted to know whether Harry might be a Parselmouth. Snape exceeded his orders that time. I suspect that Albus had not intended that the matter be resolved quite so *publicly*.
Yes! I think Albus was regularly testing Harry to see how "active" the soul bit was. In CoS, he knew that Harry had a piece of Tom lodged his scar, so Harry was the obvious suspect
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Of course, it would still be mind-bogglingly stupid for Riddle to confront his prophecied nemesis before creating a horcrux to protect himself, and even Riddle wasn't that stupid. Not *quite* that stupid. It'd be stupid to count on him being that stupid, anyway.
Maybe Dumbledore thought that Harry had to find the horcrux, in order to fulfill the prophecy. Or that Harry would need to see the destruction of a horcrux in order to believe that he, Harry, needed to die to kill Riddle. Dumbledore *might* have known about the locket for a while, or the ring (without knowing exactly what it was).
...Now I'm wondering if Dumbledore might have originally planned for Harry to die in getting the locket, or something, with Dumbledore surviving to destroy it and (perhaps) be the one to kill
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I may be making this up, but I was under the impression that Voldemort's sould only split because it was already so damaged after making the previous ones. IOW, if Voldemort didn't have any other Horcruxes, his soul wouldn't have broken apart like that and he'd have been killed properly. Although OTOH Voldemort is allegedly the only person to make that many Horcruxes, so I could understand DD not knowing that.
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If this were the case, any mass-murderer would spontaneously create a Horcrux at the moment of death. Unless that's the case (in which case one of the people in the Malfoys' cellar should have become Wormtail's Horcrux), we can probably assume that it's creating Horcruxes rather than simply committing murder that destabilises the soul in that way.
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I guess Dumbledore "shouldn't" have automatically concluded that Voldemort would've already had a horcrux because no one had ever created more than one. According to that reasoning, if Harry had become a horcrux, then Voldemort was therefore stupid enough to try to create his first horcrux with his nemesis' death.
Except that then Voldemort's survival can't be explained, and there's not only the Harrycrux, but Severus' Dark Mark to support that.
So, yes, Dumbledore should have come to the conclusion that there was more than one horcrux. His failure to act on that knowledge doesn't make a *lot* of sense, but there could be an explanation, possibly along the lines of the ones I suggested
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But that leaves the question what would cause Albus to believe so. Because logically, if the prophecy caused Tom to fear for his life to the point of wanting a Horcrux as 'insurance' why wait so long? Especially as we know of at least one person Tom killed himself between hearing the prophecy and the Godric's Hollow attack - Order member Dorcas Meadows.
So either something caused Albus to believe Tom only learned about Horcruxes shortly before Godric's Hollow or there was very clear evidence at the crime scene that suggested attempted Horcrux-making - and Albus fell in love with his theory to the point he was not willing to look further.
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I've been speculating that DD didn't know that Tom had been making horcruxes. And he didn't know right away that Vapormort was still lurking around. All he knew was that there was a piece of Tom's soul lodged in Harry's scar. What if he thought that the soul bit in Harry was all that was left of Voldemort to deal with?
Voldemort could still "return" one day if the soul bit was able to possess Harry.
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I am still of the opinion that the Serpensotia incident at the dueling club was because Albus wanted to know whether Harry might be a Parselmouth. Snape exceeded his orders that time. I suspect that Albus had not intended that the matter be resolved quite so *publicly*.
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