What is Nagini? Horcruxes and Soul-Bits

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 157119

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, 
"ecaplan_52556" <harryp at ...> wrote:
>
> > Carol:
> > But what would be his [Harry's] reason for killing 
> > her [Nagini] if she's not a Horcrux? What if he kills 
> > her thinking she's a Horcrux and there's really 
> > another Horcrux left that he doesn't know about?
> 
> Eddie:
> This leads me to an interesting tangent: how does
> Dumbledore/Harry/anybody *KNOW* for certain when 
> they've destroyed a Horcrux?  If RAB hadn't left a 
> message in the wrong!locket, would Harry have known 
> he had the wrong one?
> 
> ... what ... verification is there? 
> 
> Eddie, who wonders too much about the mechanics of 
> magic in fictional youth literature.
>


bboyminn:

It shouldn't come as any suprise to anyone that I have
 a theory on  this. Though I confess little proof beyond 
speculation. Although when I specualate I try to make if 
fit in consistently with the world we are presented. I'm 
not trying to rewrite the story, just reading very deeply 
between the lines.

I speculate that we do not literally destroy the soul-bit 
contained within the Horcrux. In a sense, the Horcrux 
becomes a new body for the soul-bit, and as long as that 
new 'body' stays intact, the soul-bit remains trapped within. 
So, to release the soul-bit, you don't have to destroy the 
soul, you merely have to destroy the 'container' it is in.

In a sense, very figurative, the soul-bit is imprisoned in
 the object. If you break the prison open, then the soul-bit
 is free and no longer earth-bound. Where the soul-bit goes 
after being freed is somewhat irrelevant, whether it stays 
on earth or crosses over or wanders the cosmos aimlessly 
isn't critical. 

So, in a sense, we would refer to the soul-bit as being 
destroyed since it is no longer earth-bound, no longer a 
Horcrux, and no longer connected to its master's body and 
therefore no longer relevant. While perhaps not literally
 dead, the soul-bit is neither any form of life force; its 
existance doesn't sustain Voldemort in any way. Functionally 
it is destroyed even if it more literally roams the earth.

So, to destroy a Horcrux and render its soul-bit ineffective, 
you must break open the prison and set the 'prisoner' free. 
Note the Diary was stabbed by a poisonous Basilisk fang, the 
ring was cracked open, and though it isn't confirmed, the 
Black locket couldn't be opened. 

Now, its not so much 'poking a hole' in a Horcrux object
 the neutralizes it, I think it is more a case of 
destroying the essense of the object rather than the 
object itself. For example, if Harry had torn a page from 
the diary, he would have damaged it, but I'm not sure that 
would have released the soul-bit, but stabbing it with a 
fang certainly was sufficient. 

In the case of the diary, I think there are many 
complicating circumstances involved. We could say that 
the diary was the embodiment of Tom's 16 year old self, 
and as Tom stole Ginny's life force to create a new body 
for himself, until the transition was complete, that diary 
still represented Tom's earthly embodiment, though that 
was rapidly transferring to his new body. When Harry 
stabbed the Diary, he was stabbing Tom's body, and thereby 
killing Tom, or at least that aspect of Tom's current self.

Note that I don't think stabbing the locket or the cup would
accomplish the task, since the circumstances of each one is 
unique. I think that will be a big part of Harry's task, to 
determine how to unlock each unique Horcrux 'prison'.

I suspect, that if Nagini is a Horcrux, killing her snake 
body, is the same as killing Tom's Diary body, and that 
would release the Horcrux soul-bit. 

Now to the mysterious and uniquely magical number seven. 
I ponder whether it is the existance of seven Horcruxes 
that is key, or the existance of seven independant soul-bits. 
If it is the existance of seven physical Horcruxes, then 
when each one is destroy, Voldemort would be obliged to keep
 making more to keep the number continually at seven. 

However, we don't see Voldemort doing this. He created the 
seventh in Nagini, or so Dumbledore speculates, to replace 
the failed Horcrux he intended to make out of Harry. But, 
Voldemort doesn't seem to have replaced the Diary which he 
surely knows was destroyed.

So, I speculate that the key is not seven physical objects, 
but seven independant remote pieces of soul. Note: that it 
is likely that Voldemort had many many torn soul bits inside 
him, but since they are still with the core soul, they, in 
a sense, don't actually exist as independant entities. 

I further speculate that the destroyed soul-bits were not 
really destroy but merely rendered irrelevant. They are free 
and independant, though still part of the magic number seven, 
but the fact that they are free and unconstrained by their 
physical Horcrux means they have no effect on Voldemort's 
immortality. Yet, they still give weight to the magical 
number seven.

When Voldemort is finally killed, if they are not already 
there, then I speculate the seven soul-bits will join him 
on the other side. 

Specifically to Nagini, I'm not convinced that Nagini is 
necessarily a Horcrux. Dumbledore seems to have reach the 
conclusion by process of elemination rather than proof. 
Dumbledore doesn't seem that convinced, but he needs a 
seventh Horcrux and there is something odd about that snake, 
so, lacking anything else, he concludes it's Nagini. 
But Dumbledore didn't really convince me, because he didn't 
sound all that convinced himself. 

I suspect the reason Tom wanted a job at the school was to 
give him a chance to find a Horcrux with a Gryffindor 
connection. That seems to be the only piece that he was 
missing. I think, being barred from that, he saw Harry's 
death as a powerful and effective alternative. 

It seems that both the Horcrux creating death and the magic 
object in which the resulting soul-bit will be imprisoned 
must be significant to Voldemort. The more powerful and 
significant the person and the more powerful and significant
the object, the more powerful and significant will be the 
protection it provides him.

Not sure it adds up to anything, but there it is.

Steve/bboyminn