Believing Harry is not a Horcrux

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 139859

Just a piece of trivia to start with. The first contribution posted 
by a member after the 19th July restart was message 132908. When I 
came to send this message, the latest on the group was 139858, a 
total of 6951 posts in just under 53 days.

Why the trivia? To cover my back if what I am writing now has been 
dissected in several hundred posts already. I suspect that many 
members, like myself, do not have the time to wade through the myriad 
threads – many with similar titles. Again, as I said recently, I am a 
non-conspiracy theorist and tend to take a simplistic view. Up until 
recently, I have tended to avoid discussion on the Horcruxes and kept 
an open mind about their qualities. 

However, I am tempted to emerge cautiously from my trench under my 
tin hat to enter the discussion on whether Harry is a Horcrux or not, 
coming down on the side of the argument that he is not.

We are told that a Horcrux is created, "by an act of evil – the 
supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing rips the soul 
apart. The wizard intent upon creating a Horcrux would use the damage 
to his advantage: he would encase the torn portion-" [1]

Now, considering Harry as a possible Horcrux, it has been suggested 
that it could have happened at Godric's Hollow. Passing beyond this 
for a moment. I think on the other occasions when Voldemort and Harry 
were close together, the conditions for creating a Horcrux did not 
obtain. At the end of Philosopher's Stone, the question has been 
raised as to whether Quirrell died because of Harry's attack or 
Voldemort's withdrawal from his possession. Whatever the cause, 
Voldemort was in disembodied form and was not able to wield a wand. 
One the next occasion when they met directly at the end of Goblet of 
Fire, it was Peter Pettigrew who actually murdered Cedric; at that 
point in time, Voldemort was again in no state to use a wand. Later 
in the face off, he was more intent on killing Harry than doing 
anything else to him. And in the last encounter at the Ministry of 
Magic, Voldemort did not murder anyone, although he tried to hit 
Harry with an Avada Kedavra.

Dumbledore comments on Voldemort's progress in HBP:
"However, if my calculations are correct, Voldemort was still at 
least one Horcrux short of his goal of six when he entered your 
parents' house with the intention of killing you. He seems to have 
reserved the process of making Horcruxes for particularly significant 
deaths. You would  certainly have been that. He believed that in 
killing you, he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined. 
He believed he was making himself invincible. I am sure he was 
intending to make his final Horcrux with your death." [2]

So, if there had been a chance to make Harry into a Horcrux, it would 
have had to be at Godric's Hollow. But it would seem that Voldemort 
was obsessed in destroying the person he saw as his most dangerous 
opponent. I agree that on this occasion he did commit murder twice 
but I believe that his intentions were then directed to killing Harry 
and that he did not give any thought to making him a Horcux. As this 
point, those he had created were all encased in "objects" and the 
thought that he could create a living fragment case may not have 
occurred to him.

I cannot subscribe to the idea that a Horcrux could be created 
accidentally. This is not mixing the wrong ingredients for a potion 
and creating something new and unexpected. The spells for a Horcrux 
must be very specific and powerful. I do not think that in the sudden 
turmoil of the backfire and personal disembodiment which would have 
been disorientating, to say the least, that Voldemort would have been 
able to do anything further in the way of casting spells and I see 
Lily's protection – whatever form it did take – saving his life and 
nothing else.

[1] HBP "Horcruxes" p..465 UK edition
[2] ibid. p.473