Why 4 Horcruxes left, and not 3??

[ronnie]

No: HPFGUIDX 142198

---> Christina wrote:
> 
> Can they?  Who have we actually seen execute a successful AK?

Expectopatronnie:
"...that's Marlene McKinnon, she was killed two weeks after this was 
taken, *they* got her whole family... Benjy Fenwick, he copped it 
too, we only ever found bits of him... That's Edgar Bones... brother 
of Amelia Bones, *they* got him and his family' too ... Gideon 
Prewett, it took *five Death Eaters* to kill him and his brother 
Fabian... that's Dorcas Meadows, *Voldemort killed her 
personally*... " (Moody showing Harry the picture of the old Order, 
OotP, Bloomsbury edition, p. 158, my emphasis). 
Not to mention Amelia Bones, Emily Vance, Hannah Abott's mother and 
DD (HBP, only Bones is mentioned as probably being killed by VM 
personally).  
Harry doesn't see every AK that is made, so we don't either. But it 
seems a lot of DE know how to. For crying out loud - Sirius and 
Lupin almost did in PoA (aiming at the rat, of course). Also, a lot 
of people know about AK (most wizards, in fact), but do they know 
about Horcrux? Hagrid & Fudge both claim statements that suggest DD 
won't share with them this peice of information.  

Christina:

>One would think that the AK spell would be
> *all* the DE's would be casting.  The fact that they didn't 
>suggests to me that casting AK is extremely difficult.  
...
>  These are the baddest of the baddies
> here- why is anything but AK's being sent around?  

Expectopatronnie: 
Because most of the battle, Harry's got the Prophecy, and the DE are 
only trying to get it safe, and stop Harry and his mates. They know 
perfectly well what will be the destiny of the Prophecy, should they 
AK any of Harry's friends!

Christina:

>Casting one requires an extraordinary amount of hatred and sadism.  
>Even after Harry witnesses Bella Lestrange
>  murder Sirius, he *still* only manages
> to briefly knock Bellatrix off her feet.  And that was just in 
>trying *Crucio*.

Expectopatronnie: 

At last we agree on something. However, hatred and sadism is much 
more common (not only for DE, I bet Umbridge won't have a problem 
with this peice of magic). Horcrux are rare (even if not managed 
only by VM) - first of all because they require knowledge that goes 
beyond the common. Also, IMO it's a difficult spell to do. 

Christina, you say:

> The only advantage in making a horcrux is a little temporary 
> immortality- Slughorn even says that death is usually preferable 
> to the sort of state one lives in after making horcruxes. 
> I think that's enough to explain why all killers don't have 
> horcrux (just as all people don't drink unicorn 
> blood when they are dying).


but then you add: 

> > expectopatronnie:
> > VM is less and less human with each killing, because it *ripps* 
> > the soul apart, regardless infinte math calculations. 
> 
> Christina:
> 
> Which was the central point of my post.  With each 
> killing,Voldemort ripped up his soul more and more.

Expectopatronnie: 

So what is it that makes living unworthy - the killing (which ripps 
the soul appart), or encasing the ripped soul-parts in a horcrux? 
Why does this make matters worse? 
I think VM is in such an awful state because of his many killings 
(much more than 7, IMO), and not because of the Horcrux. I think the 
Horcrux is such an awfull spell, not because of what it does to your 
soul, but because in order to conjure it and give yourself some 
guarantee from death (closely related to immortality, but not 
quite), you have to sacrifice someone - you have to do an AK - the 
most terrible of the Unforgivable curse. (very much like drinking 
unicorn's blood!) 

M. Thitathan wrote:

>Isn't it enough to assume that all the horcruxes contain soul 
>fragment with equal magical power and that Harry will have to get 
>rid of all of them before facing a LV that is just as magically 
>powerful as he was when all of his horcruxes were still intact?


Expectopatronnie:

Well, I'm not sure I understood what you meant, but if you mean that 
be the killings and the horcruxs, VM *soul* is being ripped/splitted 
over and over, but *not* his power - then I agree. This is also an 
answer to the so-called mathematical problem: IMO VM was weak after 
the rebound AK in 1981, and through some of the books (up until the 
end of GoF), not because of the splitting of his soul, but rather 
because of the lack of body for his mother-soul (no matter how 
distorted it is). 

Well, I hope I'm not getting all mixed up here, 
E.