Sorting Hat as Horcrux? (Was: Voldemort's chat with Dumbledore)

[Sherry]

No: HPFGUIDX 143222

Amontillada:

Cutting LARGE sections of quotes, because I'm responding only to a
couple of comments that brought ideas to my mind.

> MercuryBlue:
> [The Sorting Hat] IS still a powerful magical artifact
> with connections to all four Founders.

Amontillada:
In fact, it combines large scoops of magic from all four Founders. I
find that to be the main reason why it couldn't be a Horcrux: it's
hard to believe that even Voldemort could place a soul fragment in
such a magically powerful object without touching off the magic that's
already there. 

(By comparison, I think that using a person--Magical or Muggle--as a
Horcrux would have the same problem. Dumbledore thinks that even a
non-rational living creature, like a snake, is a risky Horcrux; all
the more dangerous vessel a rational person.)
> 
> 
> MercuryBlue:
> Sixteen-year-old Memory!Tom IS a Horcrux. Or more accurately, he is
> the soul fragment attached to the diary. How can he NOT have known
> that he'd already made a Horcrux?
> 
Amontillada:
Memory!Tom didn't know anything which had happened after he was
attached to the diary. Of course, we weren't told when CoS was written
that he was actually a Horcrux. But to stretch that idea, I suggest
that this soul fragment didn't know what happened after the killing
that ripped it from the rest of Tom/Voldemort's soul. It couldn't be
made a Horcrux until after the killing took place, so that was
something it couldn't know.

> Carol:
> > I agree with Orna that it's unlikely that the complex spell required
> > to create a Horcrux could be cast in thirty seconds. I'm guessing that
> > it requires an elaborate ritual incantation spoken aloud...,.
> 
> MercuryBlue:
> And just how many time-consuming spells have we seen? Complex spells,
> yeah, plenty of them, but once they've got the hang of them we've
> never seen anyone put more time into a spell than it takes to say the
> word, have we? 

Amontillada:
Word or words? Most of the spells we've seen performed required one or
two words, but potions took longer; I think more complicated,
difficult, and rare spells would also require more time. 

Voldemort's rebirth in Goblet of Fire was the longest, most complex
spell we've seen being performed in the series, I think. It required a
longer, more elaborate incantation with the ceremonial addition of
different...ingredients (bone, flesh, blood). It seems to me that the
Horcrux spell was probably more similar to this than many of the
spells "in action" that we've seen. 

While I believe that the actual killing could have been done
earlier--I also think that the Witch or Wizard would need to have the
object at hand when he or she actually performed the spell. By
comparison, Wormtail couldn't perform the rebirth spell until he had
the ingredients for the potion at hand, as well as, of course,
Voldemort's soul to enter the new body. As Voldemort himself observed,
he could have been reborn earlier if he hadn't insisted on having bone
and blood from specific sources. 

Amontillada