Finite Souls? (was Endless horcrux hunt?)

[kiricat4001]

No: HPFGUIDX 144730

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
>
> SSSusan wrote earlier:
> > > wouldn't it be likely that Voldy would then make MORE 
horcruxes? 
  
> Becky responded:
> > Voldemort said that 'seven' was a magically significant number. 
He 
> > has already split his soudl into seven pieces, he cannot make 
any 
> > more horcruxes as it would mean it had been split into more 
pieces.
> 
> 
> SSSusan:
> Actually, I think it was DD who said this, rather than Voldy.  (Or 
do I 
> have that wrong?)  But you're right that *if* DD is correct that 
the 
> number seven truly matters to Voldy, that could prevent him from 
> wanting to make more horcrusts.  OTOH, since a couple have been 
> destroyed now, could Voldy do the math and decide "Okay, 7 - 2 = 
5... 
> so I can make 2 more and get back to 7"??  

 
> 
> Claudia:
> > This idea never occurred to me because I got the impression that 
there
> > was too little left of the "original" Voldemort to create another
> > horcrux. I have no canon to support this, I think my impression 
comes
> > from the descriptions of Voldemort as looking very inhuman and
> > snakelike after his return.
> 
> SSSusan:
> I think this is an interesting impression, Claudia, and I wouldn't 
be 
> surprised if Jo confirms it, either in a website update (if we 
ever GET 
> another one!) or in Book 7.  There's no canon I can think of 
either 
> to "prove" it to this point, but just the same gut reaction you 
had... 
> plus the knowledge that we're going into the final volume and she 
will, 
> ostensibly, want to keep things from getting TOO convoluted.  
Voldy 
> making more howchits *would* be making the plot more convoluted, 
> methinks.
> 

Marianne:

I can certainly see Claudia's point, but I also appreciate Susan's 
consideration that Voldemort is probably capable of performing 
simple subtraction.  I bet he can even do it in his head ;-).  

And this made me wonder if there are some sort of limits on souls. 
Or, to put it another way, is a soul in Potterverse a certain size 
or volume? If there is a finite amount of soul, would Voldemort 
still be limited on the amount of horcruxes he could create?  Or 
could he use smaller and smaller bits of soul to create many 
horcruxes?  Would this be self-defeating because, without a certain 
high level of soul, the horcrux would not be particularly potent?  

The number seven thing I read as an educated guess on Dumbledore's 
part. His knowledge of Riddle/Voldemort led him to believe that, as 
seven is a significant number, that logically Riddle/Vmort would 
select that as the number of horcruxes to make.  I never thought 
that meant that seven was the maximum number of horcruxes that could 
be made. Of course, I could be forgetting some bit of canon.

Getting back to souls in general, what would happen if a Dementor 
was interrupted while administering the Kiss?  Is is possible that 
only part of a person's soul could be sucked out?  What a disturbing 
thought!

Marianne