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Challenge #2: The First Tear
Thu, 10/02/2008 - 17:22 — Sovran
The challenge:
Show Tom Riddle’s thoughts about his first Horcrux at or near the time of its creation.
The setting:
Hogwarts, in or near Tom Marvolo Riddle’s sixth year of schooling.
Restrictions/Guidelines:
- Maximum allowed length: 2500 words, including author's notes.
- No alpha/beta readers/editors allowed. This should be conceived, written, and edited solely by the author without any external input.
- The story must be from Tom Marvolo Riddle’s point-of-view.
- Any dialog should support the central point of Tom’s thoughts and/or feelings. Internal monologue and thoughts, if used, should be italicized.
- The geographic setting is limited to Hogwarts Castle and its immediate grounds (excluding Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forest).
- The story should be canon-compliant per the seven published Harry Potter novels.
- Please be sure to evaluate your story and label it with appropriate attributes and warnings if needed.
Recused mediator for judging and voting:
Sovran
You may submit stories for the challenge any time before midnight Pacific Time on October 31, 2008. However, all challenge stories will be posted on November 1, 2008. Until that time, your story will not appear on the site. You may edit your story as much as you wish until it is posted, but after that time, editing your story (aside from fixing html tags, formatting, and other non-story details) will disqualify it from the competition.
New for this challenge: All submissions will be posted publicly (on November 1) with the author’s name replaced by “Challenge Author.” During the voting and judging period, the authors will remain anonymous. When the results are announced, the authors will be revealed, and the stories will be updated to reflect the proper author. No reviews will be lost in this process. Authors, please do not respond to reviews until after the results are posted, so that the anonymity can be maintained. Prior to posting on November 1, you will still be able to edit your stories as usual.
If you have any questions about the challenge, feel free to post them here.
Comments
Please excuse me for asking
Please excuse me for asking this question if the answer is in the books (I'm not fully awake at the time I am posting this).
What was his first horcrux? Was it the ring or the diary? I'm asking because I remember when he was asking about the side effects of having more then one, he was wearing the ring...
A fish without a bicycle cannot contemplate his navel.
I don't think that is clear.
I don't think that is clear. I would think that the diary is the first one as he was 16 at the time and its the only 'common' object he used.
He wore the ring after having stolen it but it wasn't a Horcrux at the time.
I'm other will have their say :-)
Which Horcrux was first...
According to the Harry Potter Lexicon, the Diary was the first Horcrux, created from the murder of Moaning Myrtle. Interestingly enough, it states that the murder took in 1942 but that the Horcrux was created in fall of 1943, shortly before the Slytherin's ring Horcrux, created from the death of Tom Riddle Sr.
Pick which you like
For the purposes of the challenge, pick whichever (diary, ring) you prefer.
From a logical point of view (I have not read the Lexicon work), the diary is the one that makes the most sense. The ring can be 'made' to make sense, but is somewhat more complicated with ramifications.
Order
The Horcruxes were destroyed in the order they were created
Clarification
Just to make sure my wording was understood, the challenge permits stories that take place shortly before, during, or shortly after the creation of the Horcrux. Obviously there's no solid definition of 'shortly' in this case, but I trust that we can all be reasonable about it.
Ring on finger
When Tom Riddle first questioned Slughorn about multiple horcruxes, he was already wearing the Peverell ring and had, therefore, already killed his father. If, as I suspect, the making of the horcrux must occur very close to the time of the relevant murder, this suggests strongly that the first horcrux was already made, and was the ring.
Also, that meeting with Slughorn does not seem to contain an awareness that the Chamber had been opened or that killings had already begun.
Finally, the Riddle-mind in the diary knew that his father was a Muggle, something I'm sure he learned very soon before going out to kill his father.
These three pieces of evidence, taken together, suggest to me the following sequence: