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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 143233

MercuryBlue wrote:
> > 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 responded:
> 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. <snip>


Carol adds:
Exactly. The elaborate ritual incantation involved with the
restoration of Voldemort to his body was what I had in mind when I
mentioned a complex spell that requires more than, say, establishing
the right frame of mind, pointing a wand, and saying one or two words.
Granted, the restoration ritual also involves a potion and
Horcrux-making probably doesn't, but that doesn't mean that all that's
required is committing a murder, pointing your wand at an object, and
shouting "Creo horcruxum!" or whatever. It seems quite likely that the
protective charm that DD placed on Harry while he called 4 Privet
Drive home or the Fidelius Charm also involve elaborate rituals.

We see something of the sort with the Unbreakable Vow, which involves
three people, and the one holding the wand (the bonder) is not the one
speaking the binding words. The ritual also involves kneeling and
holding hands as the, um, bondee and the speaker are bound to each
other with snaking ropes of fire. Surely something as important and
Dark as encasing a soul fragment in an object would require an equally
elaborate ritual even though only one person is involved? I doubt that
removing a soul fragment is quite as simple as placing a wand to your
head and removing a thought, and, if I'm correct, only a skilled
Legilimens can do that.

So first (not counting the murder itself and choosing an appropriate
object), you have to remove the soul fragment. Then you have to encase
the soul fragment. Then you have to put some sort of protection on the
object (or entice a reader to enter it, if it's the diary)--a curse,
as on the ring, or a potion like the one that protected the locket.
I'm guessing that the (real) locket is also protected by a curse like
the one on the ring. Certainly if it's the same locket we saw in OoP,
it's protected by some sort of locking spell. (No one at 12 GP could
open it. Interestingly, Snape was not present, or he might have
suspected it for what it apparently is.)

Obviously, I'm only speculating. But both the resurrection ritual and
the UV clearly demonstrate that magic can be more complex than the
simple one- or two-word spells that Harry and Hermione can perform.
The spells that a powerful wizard like Dumbledore or Voldemort can
cast and those that a sixth-year student can cast may be quite
different. Why haven't we seen more of these complex spells? Quite
possibly because, with the exception of "Spinner's End" and a few
similar chapters, we almost always see the action through Harry's eyes
via the third-person limited-omniscient narrator.

Carol, wishing we had seen DD releasing the soul fragment from the
ring!Horcrux and Snape saving him from its curse