Soul Bits

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 150892

Donna wrote:
What I'm wondering about is:  How can a soul be destroyed by another
human?  I know that LV split his soul into 7 pieces, encapsulating 6
in other objects (horcruxes) and retaining 1 in himself.   I can see
how destroying a horcrux can release the part of a soul contained in
it so that that part of the soul can go where ever souls go, but can a
soul or part of a soul be destroyed?  Is there canon for the soul
being destroyed along with the horcrux?

Carol responds:
I'm going to take a stab at this question, fully expecting to  be
corrected. We have canon that  destroying the Horcruxes is the key to
destroying Voldemort, so whatever happens to the soul bits, they no
longer perform their function of keeping that bit of Voldie's soul
earthbound. (I think the distinction made in Tonks' recent post
between earthly immortality and the eternal life of the
soul--existence beyond the Veil--is relevant here.) We also have canon
that destroying the diary Horcrux destroyed Memory!Tom (and/or
released Ginny's soul back to her).

The question, IMO,is whether the soul bit was released or freed. I
agree with you that a soul, while it can be damaged by the act of
murder (and perhaps tainted through other acts, such as the Cruciatus
Curse, though that's debateable), cannot be destroyed by a human
being. It can be sucked into oblivion by a dementor, a horrible fate
which implies that even the souls of murderers normally have some sort
of eternal life (again, whatever is beyond the Veil). If death were
nothingness, being soul-sucked would be only a particular horrible
form of death. But, again, a mere human being, even a powerful wizard
like Dumbledore, probably can't destroy a soul fragment. It's not so
much immortal as eternal (to use the distinction made by Tonks' priest
friend and which I made about two years ago in a forgotten post)
meaning that when the body dies, the soul continues its existence,
forever, in some other dimension. (I'm a bit confused regarding the
souls of ghosts thanks to NHN's remarks to Harry near the end or OoP,
but Iwon't go into that.)

Voldie is making the mistake of trying to maintain a permanent
*earthly* existence by keeping parts of his eternal soul on earth,
mostly in precious and virtually indestructible objects. He is afraid
of death, of what's behind the Veil. I *think* what happens when a
Horcrux is destroyed is that they escape beyond the Veil, so LVis now
two/sevenths dead and doesn't know it. (Reminds me of "Princess
Bride"--he's not yet "mostly dead." Sorry.) It seems clear that the
soul bits don't possess the destroyer (Harry was not possessed by the
diary bit) and it seems unlikely that they return to the original
Voldie soul from which they were split off. So, again, I think they
return to their eternal home. JKR is a Christian, and I think that
view of the soul as sacred and indestructible--even when split by the
act of murder and torn from the body by the first part of the
Horcrux-creating spell (the second part would encase it in a
container)--is implicit in the vague conception of an afterlife
presented in the HP books.(Luna is sure that she'll see her mother
again. DD sees death as the next great adventure.) Death is not the
end of everything, but Voldemort thinks it is. It would be the end of
his life and his (magical) powers and his power over others--the end,
he thinks, of everything. But just possibly it's something else--a
release from evil. 

At any rate, Voldie himself has removed those soul bits from himself.
IMO, they cannot return to him. Nor can they, on their own, possess
anyone else. That is a magical power belonging to Voldie himself, not
to the bits of eternity he has mistakenly encased to bind himself to
earthly existence. Nor is destroying a Horcrux,the container in which
a soul bit has been placed, murder. It doesn't kill a soul, or part of
a soul. The soul is fragmentable but indestructible. Destroying the
ring or locket or cup merely releases the imprisoned soul bit to its
eternal existence. As I see it, two bits of Voldie's of Voldie's soul
have joined each other and await the rest beyond the Veil.

On a side note, both Harry's wand and Voldie's contain Phoenix-feather
cores representing rebirth. But Voldie's wand is made of yew, also a
symbol of death and rebirth (note that this has, in essence, already
happened to him) while Harry's is made of holly, also associated with
death and rebirth but with Christian connotations. I think the
difference is that between the earthly immortality that Voldemort
craves (which requires a body somehow kept from old age, disease, and
other forms of corruption) and the spiritual immortality (eternal
life) that Dumbledore is now (permanently) enjoying. Perhaps Harry
will return from death (beyond the Veil) to earthly life (death and
rebirth) before finally dying in, say, the year 2107. Voldie, in
contrast, will suffer some fate worse than death (possession by Harry,
who shares some of his powers?) before the remaining portion of his
soul leaves his body to join the others beyond the Veil.

Carol, noting that DD or Snape making a Horcrux from Voldie's soul
bit, as suggested by another poster, would be counterproductive even
if it were possible as the whole point is to release the soul bits so
that Voldie will become mortal