During the Chamber of Secrets, it is revealed that Voldemort (or Tom Riddle in this case) is the last heir of Slytherin and that he opened the Chamber of Secrets during his fifth year.

The more I think about it, the more it doesn't make sense.

Voldemort hates the orphanage he grew up in. He detests going back every summer, and asked Dumbledore on at least one occasion if he could remain at Hogwarts during the summer.

He also hates muggleborns, in part to preserve his image, and in part because of his ''complex'' regarding his own heritage.
Therefore, when he discovers a part of his heritage he is fonder of, he decides to cleanse the school of muggleborns.

Why would he undertake steps that would surely guarantee the schools eventual shutdown? I am aware that he wanted to turn his diary into a horcrux, but he could have simply just murdered a muggle to make that happen.

And he was definitely smart enough to figure out that killing and attacking muggleborns would put the school's reputation in jeopardy. This seems like a conflict of interest to me.

What do you guys think?

 

I think you didn't read to the end of the book.

 

J.K.R. wanted to picture him as psychopath. All of his actions we know about fit - lack of foresight, poor impulse control, superficial charm. There is still possibility to explain many of his actions, but he is supposed to be villain and his action to be lacking logic.

Probably it was his only way to prove his ancestry? He wasn't in possession of Slytherin's locket and talking to any snake isn't impressive or reliable.

Killing muggleborns can be also considered as advancing his agenda, showing he really can do something.

If I remember correctly, he was about 16 years old back then. Couldn't he except different outcome? Something like "I'll show them how it's supposed to be and they'll understand"? He crucioedpeople to make them loyal, incomprehension of their fear isn't completely surprising.

 

Like you already said he needed a kill for the horcrux. But it's pretty clear in COS that if the attacker is stopped they wouldn't shut down the school and we know he already planned for Hagrid to take the fall.

Besides "catching" Hagrid gave him a reputation as a hero and he got an award for special services to the school.

 

Why risk shutting down your only home when you can easily kill a stranger? The risks seem to outweigh the reward to me. Besides, Tom already had a great reputation. The teachers loved him, and he was very popular in Slytherin house.

 

I think because he could. Tom Riddle was arrogant and proud, some part of him will have been amused with the fact he could get away with it. He knew Dumbledore was suspicious of him but he did it anyway. Even at a young age he was pushing his limits and testing the responses of Dumbledore and the ministry.
If you look at the items chosen for the horcruxes it shows why he might have done this. Not any item was worth being a horcrux for Lord Voldemort so it makes sense that not any murder was worth making a horcrux, we also don't know any details of the ritual that makes a horcrux meaning we could be missing some detail that make it make even more sense.

 

"But i wasn't going to waste those long years id spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, i would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work." - Tom Riddle CoS

Its obvious isn't it? He said everything in the book. He didnt want to waste his time, he wanted people to know that he was the heir of Slytherin but obviously he was not able to identify himself at the time. One day people would look back and say "So you killed that girl.." blah blah, of course he must have thought that before the atks, he didn't know back then how many people he would be able to kill.

I presume that Hogwarts must have ancient magic that gives a certain amount of "luck" to students. Based on this quote by Dumbledore in the same book CoS "Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

 

There's also the fact that Sixteen year old Riddle wouldn't have had to return to the orphanage. He could easily get by without going back there. Let's not forget he didn't have to recharge super magical Duracell blood protections.

 

I think the plan to kill muggleborns perfectly fits with his agenda. He hates muggles and everything associated with them, and suddenly he's granted an untraceable means to kill them. He's also a sociopath. Of course he's going to kill them. He probably figured because the society was pureblood dominant, as in they had most of the money and political power, they wouldn't bother closing the school just because a few muggleborns died and instead just told the muggleborns they could leave if they want to. Later when he finds out they're going to close the school then he makes the most of the situation and "finds" the culprit because he wants to keep it open.
I think one of his life goals was to "cleanse" the wizarding world of muggleborns so he decided to take advantage of the opportunity and figured since most people disliked muggleborns no one would do anything about it, and just adapted later when he realized they actually would close the school. Lastly he didn't really have to go back to the orphanage, unlike harry he didn't have a virtual army making sure he stayed put he could have gone anywhere in the world and as long as he was back September 1st most likely no one would have cared

 

In an entirely Slytherin manner, this could've been Tom's plan all along. Along the way, he found out that Hagrid had a pet acromantula lying around in his trunk and decided the cash in on it.

Let the snake out, kill a few muggleborns and then make Hagrid take the blame before the school shuts down, letting himself be rewarded.

It is high-risk, yes. But canon Voldemort has been presented as a person who seemingly loves to play with high risk to get what he wants (making several Horcruxes, for instance).

 

I suppose it should be written down to a character flaw then.

 

I think beyond his character flaws, he just got caught up in the moment. He'd spent 5 years searching for the Chamber of Secrets, finally found it, and then, whoops! What do you know? There's a monster here birthed just to kill muggleborns! And I hate muggles!

Maybe also the chamber had some echantments encouraging him to do so, especially since Salazar wouldn't have wanted an heir to get cold feet.

 

I personally prefer the idea of him just fucking up.

Tom discovers that he is Slytherin's descendant and assumes that it will give him control of the basilisk. So he awakens it, but instead of submitting to his will the basilisk takes off and starts trying to kill muggleborn. And than Tom is forced to take up the anti muggleborn rhetoric himself if he wants to really claim his ancestry and the basilisk's actions.

After all if your a Dark Lord hell bent on conquering the world why would you leave a super weapon lying dormant in a school. And his line in CoS just sounds like the plausible sounding excuse that he came up with to tell why he isn't using the basilisk he claims to control.