I don ' t believe there is much to be ' wrong ' about yet , as this is something new in terms of explanations . However I thing the thing to consider here is that you are precisely correct already in the end there is no obscurial to be had . The soul fragments themselves were born of magic usage , of the most heinous kind , therefore an obscurial could never be formed from them . Now ripping the obscurial from a child , binding it to a soul fragment , and having the soul fragment bend the power of that suppressed magic to its whim could potentially have been feasible . but it would have required Tom Riddle to have any regard for a child who willingly shunned the gift of magic , which I believe he was incapable of doing . The feeling I ' ve always gotten is that Gellert Grindelwald was a much more intellectually nuanced wizard than Tom Riddle could ever hope to be , but Riddle was incredibly powerful and willing to deform himself in the pursuit of power and immortality . Grindelwald would see such a child as an opportunity , whereas Riddle would see it as a waste .