Horcruxes: Theories

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 136277

--John Kearns: 
>>>  3) Finally, When were the Horcruxes created, and who was 
>>>  killed in the process?

--Juli:
>>  Ring: Morfin Gaunt
>>  Locket: The Riddle family (dad, grand parents)
>>  Nagini: the old man (the gardener at the Riddle house)
>>  The others? who knows!

--John K:
>  Remember that Riddle was wearing the ring - indicating to 
>  Harry that the Riddle family was already dead - when he 
>  asked Slughorn about Horcruxes (so he probably couldn't 
>  use them to create the Horcruxes).  And Morfin died in 
>  Azkaban.  So... it looks like Frank Bryce is the only one 
>  we even have a clue about.


I thought it was fairly well implied that Voldemort created the first
Horcrux (likely the ring) when he killed his father.  Dumbledore
mentions him reserving the process for "significant" murders.  VM
clearly had the ring available to him at that point, and the ring had
particular significance in connection with the murder since it came
from his mom's family.  

True, he had not yet had the conversation with Slughorn at that point,
but I think if you reread the conversation it is at least plausible
that Tom already knows how to create a horcrux (and even has done so)
at that point, and that he really raised the subject with Slughorn
because he wanted to get around to the question of how many.  If you
do read the conversation as indicating that VM does not yet know how
to create a horcrux, then you must assume that he did not learn until
sometime thereafter, as Slughorn does not give him enough information
to do it (e.g., they do not discuss what the spell is, how it is cast,
at what point it is cast, how it is directed at the soul fragment,
etc.).  

Although he might also have found it significant to imbue the locket
at the time of a murder involving his father's family, we know that he
did not have the locket at that time because he acquired it when he
was working at B&B after graduation.  He did -- we believe -- own the
diary at that point and could have made it a horcrux when he killed
his grandparents.  I am not so sure, however, that he was comfortable
with the idea of multiple horcruxes before vetting it with Slughorn.

Returning to the locket, conceivably it or the cup may have been made
a horcrux at the time he killed Hepzibah Smith (I think we are pretty
clearly intended to assume that he did that).  He might have viewed
her death as suitably significant given that she had been the owner of
those items, particularly the locket which he considered his birthright.

I can't remember and don't have the book with me, but is there any
strong implication in HBP that Nagini was made a horcrux at the time
of Frank Bryce's murder?  It doesn't seem to fit the "significance"
test -- even if Voldemort figured out that Frank was his grandparents'
old gardener (and there is no indication he did), what was the
particular significance of his death?  Also, it would seem more in
character for VM to have completed his quotient of seven horcruxes
before he returned to wizarding society to begin VWI.  

-- Matt