Why 4 Horcruxes left, and not 3??

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 142091

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "chrusotoxos" <heos at v...> wrote:
>
> Hi everybody...there's something bothering me about this story of 
> Horcruxes.
> 
> If I remember it well, according to Dumbledore Voldemort made 7 
> Horcruxes (let's suppose, for simplicity's sake, that he had already 
> his 7 before murdering the Potters - it doesn't change my problem).
> So Voldie has split his soul in 7 parts:
> 1) a part of soul in himself
> 2) Nagini
> 3) the ring
> 4) the diary
> 5) Slytherin's locket
> 6) something of Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff
> 7) Hufflepuff's cup
> 
> Ok, so here is my question: the night the Potter died, Voldemort 
> got an Avada Kedavra curse (the one that rebounded) but he didn't 
> die because his soul was not only in his body, but had been split 
> in different objects. So that night, as I understand the whole 
> business, his body died along with the piece of soul inside it,
> but as there were 6 other pieces safe Voldemort was not destroyed.
> 

bboyminn:

I can't tell you what is, only what I think. Here is my take on the
Horcruxes.

In a sense, the /remote/ soul-pieces have been put into new bodies;
the new bodies are the various material objects they have been tied
to; ring, locket, cup, snake, etc.... As long as they have a 'body',
they are tied to the earth. When Voldemort experienced the rebounded
curse, his body was destroyed, but the other embodies soul-pieces held
his home-soul piece on the earth; so in a sense, he was not truly dead.

Now to a common mistake, in my opinion, that people are making. Some
people assume that the actions of the Diary typify a Horcrux, but I
don't think that is true, and I think we/you are engaging in flawed
thinking when you uses the Diary as a model or example for all Horcruxes.

The Diary wasn't merely a Horcrux, it was Voldemort's 'Plan B'. It was
his backup, a potential way to re-embody himself, if the need should
ever arise. The problem is that the new Riddle that would be created
by the Diary takes its lifeforce from the new owner/victim, in this
case Ginny. Now the new Riddle would have a body and a brain and most
importantly a Will of his own. The Voldemort home-piece-soul that was
wandering around Albania, would want to join with the new Riddle body.
But now you have two life-forces, two separate but similar Will
occupying one body. That could cause complications. Best to create a
wholy unique body as Voldemort did with the Blood-Flesh-Bone
Charm/Potion. 

So, the point is that the Horcrux aspect of the Diary was only one
small part of it. It was designed and created for a greater purpose
than merely being a Horcrux. The Diary was meant to be found and used;
Horcruxes are meant to be hidden away and guarded at all cost. So, the
Diary's actions DO NOT model the standard actions of a Horcrux.

Now to how the Horcrux works; again, I'm just presenting my opinion.
The only thing we know of so far that seems to have the ability to
destroy (or consume) a soul is a Dementor, and I assume that is
exactly what a Dementor does, it consumes a soul. The soul is the lost
to both heaven and earth. 

Other than that, souls don't die. The soul is the eternal part of
ourselves that has no end; that why it's eternal. Harry's task is not
to destroy the souls, but to release them from earthly attachment.

So, I suspect that when a Horcrux is destroyed, the soul piece is
released for its surrogate 'body' and return to where ever it is that
souls go; Heaven, nirvana, or whatever is consistent with your belief
system. So, Harry doesn't destroy the soul-piece, he has to destroy
the 'body' that is containing it. When that is done, that soul-piece
is no longer earthbound. 

The whole point of the Horcruxes is to keep the soul earthbound. When
Voldemort suffered the rebounded AK, his soul remained earthbound; it
did not 'pass over'. When all the remote soul-pieces are released,
then the home-soul-piece is no longer earthbound by anything other
that the one and only body that contains it. 

Now, I'm not closed to alternate interpretations, maybe the
soul-pieces don't go to 'heaven' as soon as they are released; maybe
they wander the earth aimlessly as disembodied unattached soul-pieces
or maybe the rejoin the Home-Body-Soul-piece. If they do rejoin the
Home-soul, I don't think they actually re-join with it, I think they
simply take up residence in the home-body but unattached to the
home-soul. When the home-body is destroyed then the home-soul and
soul-pieces are freed from earthly existance.

Regardless of the exact mechanism, the key is that Horcruxed
soul-pieces are tied to the earth by their surrogate bodies.
Regardless of what they do when released from those surrogate bodies,
they are no longer earthbound, and it is only that earthbound quality
that keeps Voldemort safe.

As to Voldemort moral deterioration as he moved pieces of his soul to
their surrogate bodies, I think in general, we have a spiritual
deterioration of Voldemort. He is losing his spiritual essense and
that is the source that all good radiates from. I don't think it is
actual good that is lost, which explains why Diary-Riddle was just as
cruel as the original. 

In a sense, the distinction is between general goodness and specific
goodness. I think general goodness is what is lost and that is tied to
the spirit; specific goodness is tied to the personality and the body,
in a way, it represents earthly or physical goodness as opposed to
general spiritual goodness. I realize that I'm making a very fine
distinction, but even good people do bad things, but that doesn't
erase their goodness, they have a core spiritual goodness, and they
understand that they have done something bad and they regret it. But
without that core moral compass, you don't understand that something
is bad. Voldemort thinks torture and murder are fun and games, he has
lost his moral core. 

> 
> Ok, I'll stop here with this rambling, I just wanted to know if 
> someone has understood this piece of Dark magic.
> 
> bye
> 
> chrusotoxos
>


bboyminn:

No harm in a little rambling (as is clear from my rambling post).

To your core question, why four instead of three. Maybe you just had a
miscount. The four are - Nagini, Slytherin's locket,  something of
Ravenclaw/[Gryffindor], and Hufflepuff's cup. Voldemort himself, in a
sense, doesn't count because he is the Home-Horcrux, he is the final
soul-piece that must be destroyed. He can't be destroy until the other
four soul-pieces have been released from earthly existance. 

Again, whether they go to the realm of spirits, or wander the earth
aimlessly, or return to the Home-Body is irrelevant. The key is that
once released from their surrogate bodies, they are no longer
earthbound, and Voldemort is no longer protected by them. 

Remember, I just make this stuff up.

Steve/bboyminn