Det kan ha varit lite ledtrådar, men Rowling själv trodde att före Half-Blood Prince förmodligen inte var tillräckligt ledtrådar att gissa . Hon har nämnt detta i en intervju 2004 som själv kan räknas som en liten aning. Citat del av detta:
There are two questions that I have never been asked but that I should have been asked, if you know what I mean. If you want to speculate on anything, you should speculate on these two things, which will point you in the right direction. The first question that I have never been asked—it has probably been asked in a chatroom but no one has ever asked me—is, “Why didn’t Voldemort die?” Not, “Why did Harry live?” but, “Why didn’t Voldemort die?” The killing curse rebounded, so he should have died. Why didn’t he? At the end of Goblet of Fire he says that one or more of the steps that he took enabled him to survive. You should be wondering what he did to make sure that he did not die—I will put it that way. I don’t think that it is guessable. It may be—someone could guess it—but you should be asking yourself that question, particularly now that you know about the prophesy. I’d better stop there or I will really incriminate myself. The other question that I am surprised no one has asked me since Phoenix came out—I thought that people would—is why Dumbledore did not kill or try to kill Voldemort in the scene in the ministry. I know that I am giving a lot away to people who have not read the book. Although Dumbledore gives a kind of reason to Voldemort, it is not the real reason.
Uppdatering. Det sägs att det finns en liten aning i Filosofens sten kapitel 4. Här säger Hagrid detta om den mörka herren.
‘Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. […’]