Hufflepuff's Cup

I was reading some google group posts about HP issues, and I saw a list of questions. One of them in particular caught my attention: Where is Hufflepuff's cup if we should be able to figure out the horcruxes by reading books 1 through 6?

I have an idea! Couldn't it be placed among all the plaques and trophy cups in the trophy room at Hogwarts? Would anyone pay particular attention to this cup if it was placed there? Could a horcrux be "stored" at Hogwarts without Dumbledore quickly detecting it?

When would Tom/Voldemort have placed the cup there if that's where it is? When he went to Hogwarts for his job interview?

Could someone else have later placed the cup there on Voldemort's behalf? Snape? We know that Lucius had Voldemort's diary. We think Voldemort hid the locket himself (Dumbledore detected Voldemort's magic signatures). Who planted the ring at the Gaunt house...probably Voldemort, but maybe not. Might Voldemort entrust Snape with protecting the cup without explaining why it was so valuable to him? All Voldemort would have to say is that it once belonged to a founder, and that it should be protected as an historical artifact. Snape might have thought the best place for it was the trophy case....

And if I'm totally wrong, where else could it be?

What about the horcrux Voldemort had planned to make with Harry's death back in 1981? Which artifact was Voldemort going to use? Who found it at Godric's Hollow after the attack, or was it even found?

There are two major possibilities here: either the item is still in the ruins of the Potter house or someone found it and took it away. We know Sirius went there and we know Hagrid went there. We also know that Fudge and some other ministry folk showed up. There's also the mysterious person who must have been at the Potter house the night of the attack...Harry? Snape? Wormtail? So many possibilities. We know it wasn't handed over to Dumbledore, otherwise Dumbledore would have mentioned this to Harry after showing him the memory about the cup and locket. However, it doesn't rule out the possibility that it somehow ended up in the Hogwarts trophy case.

Hagrid doesn't mention anything about Sirius taking items from the crime scene, so that pretty much (but not quite) rules out Sirius. What about #12 Grimmauld...or the place Sirius bought with inherittance...or the Black family vault?

Hagrid probably would have either overlooked it or would have taken it to Dumbledore.

Fudge and his employees would have taken it back to the MoM if they thought it was of any significance...or might have kept it for personal, greedy reasons.

Wormtail doesn't seem to know about the horcruxes (though you think he'd know by now) so he could have left it in the ruins or placed it just about anywhere...at Hogwarts...even at The Burrow.

If Snape found it he'd probably figure out it's somehow important and connected to Voldemort in some way. He could have taken it to Hogwarts or even to Spinner's End. I'd like to think he'd take it to Dumbledore, but I'm a bit on the fence about Snape's loyalty. He might ultimately be loyal only to himself.... If he found it, he obviously didn't take it to Dumbledore.

And then there is the whole idea of Harry not just viewing a memory but actually travelling back in time to witness the attack first-hand. If this is the case, then he will have found one of the objects originally intended to be a horcrux -- an object that is not a horcrux.

Best case senario: Snape or Timetravel!Harry finds the Hufflepuff cup at Godric's Hollow. It's not a horcrux because Voldemort didn't get to use it. Either man sneaks the cup into Hogwarts and places it in the trophy case.

Worst case senario: Harry witnesses the attack (either through time travel or pensieve), sees the item (might be something other than the cup), sees someone take it, and now wants to track down the item. I say "wants" only because he doesn't need to track down an artifact that isn't a horcrux.

Harry doesn't realize it yet, but his trip to Godric's Hollow, either in the present or in the past, will either gain him one item or give him major clues as to where it is. Horcrux or no horcrux, it's one item Harry will be able to cross off his list....