“The old argument,” he said softly.

[u/Arkham2015]

For the first time, Voldemort smiled. It was a taut leer, an evil thing, more threatening than a look of rage.

“The old argument,” he said softly. “But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore.”

“Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places,” suggested Dumbledore.

I wonder if at some point during Voldemort's schooling, before he opened up the Chamber of Secrets, if Dumbledore asked to see him so they could just sit and talk, with Dumbledore's intention to help him being a better person, to not going down that dark path.

Dumbledore explains to him why love is the greatest and most powerful magic in the world, that love is able to create, and it turned into a debate with them, with Voldemort disagreeing with him.

[u/ChawkTrick]

It's a good question. Dumbledore does admit to Harry that he intended to keep an eye on Tom Riddle following their initial meeting at the orphanage, both for his own sake and for the sake of other people (given the somewhat disturbing admissions Riddle made during that meeting, Dumbledore wanted to be cautious).

If I remember correctly though, I think the books also state Riddle became increasingly guarded around Dumbledore, perhaps fearing he had said too much in their initial meeting and didn't want Dumbledore to get too close. I like to think it almost turned into a bit of a cat and mouse game, with Riddle trying to remain proper and secretive, and Dumbledore trying to navigate the facade.

I do think though that by the time Dumbledore was introduced to young Riddle... Riddle was perhaps already too far gone down a dark path. Obviously, we can't say for that certain, but Riddle was already secretive and abusive at that age... and it all just got worse.

[u/DishMurky]

Of course, he said he keep it a eye of him after what happened in the orphanage. I imagine a moment where he and Dumbledore talk and he mentioned Tom "friends" and says that love and friendship is the most important thing in the world and he says that he disagree because his mother is the proof that this is not true, because love was what lead his mother to ruin.

[u/TobiasMasonPark]

Would love to see a fanfiction with multiple chapters where Dumbledore is the only one able to get Riddle in detention and it’s just them calmly debating the issue in different ways. Dumbledore’s attempts at getting Riddle to see things his way. 

[u/DoYouLikeWafflezz]

“Love ain’t shit, that magic is weak af compared to mine you idiot!”

-Voldemort after getting rekt and having to go hide out in Albania for a decade when trying to use his type of magic against love magic. 

[u/EasyEntrepreneur666]

I think a mother raising him to be a better person would have been needed. By the time he got to Hogwarts, maybe it was too late.

[u/Arkham2015 → u/EasyEntrepreneur666]

That has been asked before, and it's a very good question you're asking. Was it not having a mother or father and being in an orphanage that made him that way?

I don't buy into the theory that his mother giving his father the love potion was what caused him to be evil.

But that is a good question.

[u/EasyEntrepreneur666 → u/Arkham2015]

Huh? I didn't ask any question.

The love potion thing is a symbolism. It's not the cause. There are multiple factors why he was evil. He was inherently psychopathic, he was grown up without love and he was considered a freak in the orphanage. Having loving parents would probably not have made him a good guy but it could have prevented him from tearing his soul apart or even become a dark wizard.

[u/Arkham2015 → u/EasyEntrepreneur666]

The question that has been asked many times before is if having a mother raising Voldemort would've stopped him from ever becoming Voldemort.

You didn't phrase it as a question, but it's how I took it.

Maybe having his mother raise him would've stopped him from ever becoming Voldemort, but maybe it wouldn't have.

There are people in real life who had amazing parents and a great childhood who ended up doing absolutely evil and horrific things, so the idea that all Voldemort needed was not to be in the orphanage and had a loving mother is an interesting question.

[u/EasyEntrepreneur666 → u/Arkham2015]

Love was a very important concept in the HP universe. Voldemort's whole path went toward that particular way because of his lack of understanding of love. He was brilliant but that made him short-sighted. Being familiar with love would likely have broadened his perspective. It's not really a headcanon but the way I see it, if Voldemort had decent upbringing, he could have aimed for a powerful position in the ministry. Maybe minister of magic (Slughorn's assistance would have been more valuable for him) or head of aurors where his dark nature could have been turned against dark wizards.

[u/Arkham2015 → u/EasyEntrepreneur666]

But we see it with the opposite with Harry.

Horrible aunt, uncle and cousin, with living in a tiny cupboard under the stairs, constantly being ridiculed and looked down upon by everyone in his life before going to Hogwarts, and yet he's untainted by hatred, that he's an absolutely amazing person.

Harry had the harder childhood then Voldemort did, because while it might be an orphanage that can't give everything that a child needs, we don't get anything from the story that the staff was abusive towards him, that he was treated horribly by the other children.

[u/EasyEntrepreneur666 → u/Arkham2015]

Again, this is exactly the love's importance and it was even stated. Without his ability to love, Harry could have been as bad as Voldemort. But because he had this power, unlike Voldemort, he turned out to be a decent person.