Do you think that Voldemort/Tom Riddle could be redeemed or find redemption “through” anyone else but Harry? Obviously we are going with a very broad & loose canon divergence scenario here, but, assuming we try to follow canon as closely as possible, do you think that anyone else aside Harry might lend any amount of support for redemption? (I’m referring to the last scene of them with that remorse part)
Omph, okay, so, first of all, I don't think redemption is something that could be found "through" anyone. Redemption and remorse are processes Tom should go through. It's not Harry (or anyone) that leads him through it but Tom actively looking in and choosing to examine himself and his actions — something I don't really see him doing.
Like remorse requires a combination of two things:
A sense of guilt over your actions
Regret of said actions due to the aforementioned guilt.
Now, Tom, I think, does have his regrets. I think he regrets going after Harry, he regrets killing Myrtle to a degree as well, but not because of the effects on others, but because of how these events effected himself. He regrets going to kill Harry on Halloween 1981 because it killed him. He regretted killing Myrtle (at one point) because it ruined his chances to stay at Hogwarts during the summer, but he did not regret her death, or creating a Horcrux. So, Tom does experience regret, so that's no problem.
The guilt is a more interesting aspect. Guilt is defined as a feeling of blame, the sense that you are to blame. Now, I think Tom is definitely aware he is to blame for each and every death he caused, I think he just doesn't particularly care about most people. Not enough to feel anything about it. But, I think he does feel guilt for some things. I think him killing his father and grandparents was in a moment of passion and I think he does feel some remorse over it. Over killing them, not over making their deaths into a Horcrux or making the Horcrux.
The reason I keep mentioning the Horcruxes is because in the quote you brought up, Harry mentioned "remorse" as a means of destroying Horcruxes. I mentioned here and here how remorse could destroy a Horcrux: by regretting the creation of said Horcrux you'll break the oath that binds the Horcrux's magic. So, this specific brand of remorse would only happen if Tom decides he wishes to die (either now or eventually) but the moment he accepts his own death, he breaks the Horcruxes.
Now, I think that the final one is something Tom could eventually do. I mentioned here how Tom's behavior indicates he suspects he would wish to die, eventually, or that he at least wants that option open to him. Another person could help point the journey out to him, but it would still be a decision Tom would have to make. Otherwise, it won't really mean anything.
As for who, well, I mean, there is a reason Harry is the person we see asking Tom to try for some remorse. Harry isn't offering to lead Tom in his redemption, but he offers that path to him. He tells him he could try it, that he has another choice, which Tom, as we know, declines. But I think Harry is the only character in canon (definitely around book 7) who could or would offer Tom this alternative.
Ron mentioned in DH it's scary how well Harry understands Tom:
When Harry had finished speaking, Ron shook his head.
“You really understand him.”
“Bits of him,” said Harry. “Bits . . . I just wish I’d understood Dumbledore as much. But we’ll see. Come on—Ollivander now.”
Now, I don't think Harry understands Tom as well as I do, but he definitely understands Tom better than Dumbledore. I think it's striking how Harry feels he knows Voldemort better than he does Dumbledore, but I digress.
the point is, that Harry always showed sympathy towards Tom Riddle. When Dumbledore showed him Tom Riddle's memories, Harry didn't see a psychopath who was born evil, but a child, an orphan, not so dissimilar to himself, who ended up evil. Harry and Tom both remark on how similar their circumstances were:
Because there are strange likenesses between us, Harry Potter. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike. . . .
On how, if Harry's gone on a slightly different path, they could've been even more similar, with how he was almost in Slytherin.
When we see Harry calling Voldemort Tom in the final book, it's in a different tune than when Dumbledore called Voldemort Tom.
Dumbledore called Voldemort "Tom" as a statement of power. To diminish Tom back to the student he was, to diminish his achievements, to remind Tom he is still the same boy and no lord. That he isn't as special as he thinks he is. When Harry calls Tom by his name, Tom is convinced he is doing the same, but I don't think he is.
I think Harry calls him "Tom" because it's his name. Because he's human like everyone else. For Harry, it's from a place of understanding and sympathy and not a taunt. Not really. The taunt is Harry knowing something Voldemort doesn't, Harry is taunting him over magic and information, not about his name.
Harry is the only character in book 7 that can claim to have a resemblance of understanding of Tom Riddle and who he is. More importantly, Harry is the only character we see who feels sympathy towards Tom Riddle. That's why I said Harry is the only one who would offer Tom another option, a chance at redemption because no one else would. The entire wizarding world in the final book, even Death Eaters, Ron and Hermione see Voldemort as a kind of bogyman, a figure of fear more akin to death than a mortal man. Harry calls him Tom Riddle because he sees him as a human being, something which is necessary to be able to offer sympathy and to tell him he could choose remorse — redemption.
I think Harry, who determines how he feels about people not necessarily according to their actions, but according to how much he cares about them (he doesn't mind when Hermione kidnaps Rita Skeeter but is willing to strangle, maybe kill, Mundungus for stealing from Grimmauld Place) and understands Tom too much to not care about him enough to make him this offer at the final moment. And I think Harry is one of the only people, if not the only person, who would look at Lord Voldemort and what he did, and decide that knowing Tom Riddle is enough to offer him a chance at forgiveness. Like, this decision is insane and shows Harry's insane compassion. Yes, his compassion is somewhat selective, but once he decides he cares about you, even the most minuscule amount (like Stan Shunpike) he'll go very far for you. Up to and including giving Voldemort the option to choose redemption. But this isn't something I think anyone else would've offered.
I mean, the Order lost too much to Voldemort in the first war (and the second one). They see him as a monster more than a man. The same goes for Ron and Hermione and everyone else, really. Even Snape doesn't really know Voldemort enough to consider himself his equal, to see Voldemort as just another human. But Harry does: "Mark him as his equal" and all that.
So, basically, I think it could've only been Harry to make that offer because no one else would. But, unless we drastically change the books, no way would Tom have ever said "Yes, I want to try remorse".
(As an aside, I think it could've been hilarious if Voldemort did say: "yeah, sure" and Harry had to explain to everyone Voldemort is alright now, because he's feeling remorse and Harry decided he can forgive him. I can see how well that's going to go)
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