I’m so sorry, I’ve been so crazy busy with life and working on outlines for a fantasy novel that is going at a snail’s pace. I’ve just been writing that these past few months, expanding the ideas, gathering more research material, etc. I don’t know when I’ll get back to blogging regularly as this outline – for a story I don’t plan on fully writing for years but feels so important that I feel I must write the outline now – is taking a very long time. Anyway, enjoy this “theory” – more like blind guess – of mine.

Nagini raised Tom Riddle to become Voldemort

The timeline of Nagini being trapped as a Maledictus circus performer is curiously perfectly in place with baby Tom Riddle being raised as an infant in the orphanage. We never get a real explanation for why Voldemort ever made Nagini a Horcrux and essentially shared his mind with her. Why would Voldemort of all people trust someone who he knew was a Maledictus, once he used Legilimency to see her mind and almost certainly after making her into his Horcrux?

Do you all think this is just a plot hole that JK Rowling didn’t think about? Well, hold on a moment, remember Book 6, when Dumbledore himself shared his memory of meeting a young Tom Riddle in the orphanage?

Tom Riddle had a dead rabbit in a box. Dumbledore – being a complete moron like usual – cites this as evidence of Tom Riddle’s evilness since he was a young boy and very foolishly and irresponsibly just decides to let an 11-year old wander London unsupervised because . . . an orphaned and troubled 11-year old boy who is in need of guidance told him to.

Also, fun fact: snakes eat rabbits. So, let’s presume that a parselmouth like Tom Riddle simply had a snake for a pet. Well, I’m sure you all figured out where I’m going with this:

So, Nagini – who is probably cursed as a snake forever by that point judging from JK Rowling’s timeline – would conveniently be able to survive if someone were nice enough to feed her dead rabbits. And little Tom Riddle would obviously not want anyone to know about his secret snake friend who is a Maledictus. There could be any number of reasons why. What is most interesting to me is that if this is indeed the case, then Tom Riddle really was Dumbledore’s screw-up. The reason Tom Riddle was hostile to him was because Tom felt protective of Nagini, but what could have happened to cause Tom Riddle to be alarmed by Dumbledore and desire to keep Nagini a secret from him at all costs? More specifically, what did Nagini tell Tom Riddle about Dumbledore?

Interestingly, this would all be somewhat after Dumbledore tells Harry not to feel any sympathy for a baby Tom Riddle never having a mother since he was always Voldemort through and through, because Harry felt a bit of sympathy for how Tom Riddle grew-up. This was possibly the dumbest thing Dumbledore ever said – which is really saying something considering how much of a complete moron he was throughout the books what with never securing the Horcrux in the Room of Requirement that he and Harry pointedly recognize is in Hogwarts or doing anything to stop Mundungus’s thieving which unwittingly lost them the locket in 12 Grimmauld Place – since having no sympathy for Voldemort’s upbringing contradicts his argument about love and shows just how callous and uncaring he was for the abuse that Harry suffered. Dumbledore really was a menace to society.

My current theory: The Secrets of Dumbledore will reveal that Nagini met a very young Tom Riddle and – due to her hatred and powerlessness – raised Tom Riddle out of hatred for Dumbledore to be the complete opposite of Dumbledore’s ideals. This would mean Nagini is Tom Riddle’s surrogate mother and in essence, the Lady Voldemort. Raising Tom Riddle out of hatred and spite to do her bidding for her own selfish aims as a juxtaposition for Lily Potter sacrificing herself out of love for her son. And why the heck would Nagini do this? Simple: Dumbledore either purposefully or accidentally got Credence killed through his actions. So Nagini spent her remaining life, perhaps in her mind “wasted” away in a snake’s body, to get revenge for the loss of Credence.

Update: Apparently, Riddle hung the rabbit up a ceiling, so my bad with misremembering that detail, but still counts judging from his general attitude, secretive nature, and desire to keep Dumbledore away. What could be seen as an impulsive bully and young sociopathic behavior could still be something deeper.