Horcrux and Lily Stepping Aside (was:Re: Nagini etymology + snakes' lifespan?)

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 146220

Carol:
> I also don't think that a Horcrux needs to be made on the spot
> immediately after a murder. For example, if he used Myrtle's murder,
> important because it was his first, to make the diary Horcrux, he
> would have had to wait quite a while to do it. He had already murdered
> his own father and grandparents and returned to school before he asked
> Slughorn about Horcruxes. And I doubt that he could have learned more
> about them at Hogwarts; he'd have had to do it on his summer holiday
> before his seventh year. So even if he used his father's murder rather
> than Myrtle's to turn the diary into a Horcrux (which doesn't make
> sense to me because there's no connection between the two), there
> would still be a time lag because he didn't know how to make a Horcrux
> yet.)
*(snip)*

Ceridwen:
I'm not sure that TR didn't know the basics about horcruxes before he 
talked to Slughorn.  I've just read it over again (pgs. 496-498 HBP 
Scholastic) and I still think it's possible that the entire wrangle was 
a ploy to get to the question of how many horcruxes a wizard could 
make.  He was very careful of his wording until he got to that part.  
Then he used some unwise phrasing, IMO:

(pg 498)  "...I mean, would one Horcrux be much use? *Can* you only 
split your soul once? Wouldn't it be *better*, make you *stronger*, to 
have your soul in more pieces, I mean, for instance, isn't seven the 
most powerfully magic number, wouldn't seven --?"
--(*Emphasis* mine)

Until this point, he's polite and restrained, even though Harry sees a 
gleeful or hungry look on his face.  IMO, this is the material he's 
really interested in learning.  But he doesn't want to let on that he 
knows anything more about Horcruxes than the name.  He leads Slughorn 
down the path of the discussion, listening eagerly (he already knows 
this stuff) until he gets to the thing he wants to know, then he gets 
anxious and makes the faux pas *emphasized* above.  That's when 
Slughorn looks at him as if he'd 'never seen him plainly before'.

It could be read any other way, of course, but this is how I read it.

Ceridwen.