Horcrux and Lily Stepping Aside

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 146226


> La Gatta Lucianese:
> 
> Voldemort is a mass murderer indirectly; isn't the actual killing 
done 
> by his Death Eaters et al.? He can afford to be selective about the 
> murders he commits personally, so maybe his soul isn't as 
fragmented 
> as all that.

zgirnius:
He has definitely killed more people than the number of Horcruxes he 
is believed to have. I don't believe he is selective with his killing 
in terms of trying to limit the number of fragments. The magic number 
7, I think, is really the number of objects to which bits of his soul 
are bound. (6 Horcruxes, one Voldemort body. The Voldemort body just 
happens to have a soul which is torn into lots of pieces). I believe 
we are told he killed Bertha, for example-he could have had Pettigrew 
do it, but did not bother. It is also speculated that he killed 
Amelia Bones personally. , or wanted to. Sirius states his belief 
that Regulus was not important enough to have been killed by 
Voldemort personally-that this is specified suggests others may have 
been important enough. So I would guess that he personally has killed 
enough people to be well in the double digits.

> La Gatta Lucianese:
> 1. Does a multiple murder committed at one time split the soul only 
> once? That would account for one soul-splitting, and therefore only 
> one horcrux (the diary?, resulting from the death of his father and 
> grandparents. Likewise, perhaps, one soul-splitting resulting from 
the 
> deaths of James and Lily, whether or not he used that particular 
split 
> to make a horcrux.

zgirnius:
I do not believe this is the case. I think each murder 'counts'. 
Since each is the evil and unnatural elimination of a unique sentient 
being... This is of course only my opinion, Dumbledore and Slughorn 
do not go into this sort of detail in the canon we have.

> La Gatta Lucianese:
> 2. How long after a particular murder can a wizard wait to plant 
the 
> soul fragment in a horcrux? Does it have to be done immediately, or 
> can he wait until conditions are a little less fraught? I.e., could 
he 
> have used the deaths of James and Lily to create a horcruz at some 
> future time when he was well away from Godrick's Hollow and away 
from 
> the eyes of whichever Death Eater (Peter?) was with him?

zgirnius:
Another fact which is not known to us. Is the spell cast before or 
after? Both? Does the tear need to be very recent? We are not told 
any of this. I think that the door has definitely been left open for 
the idea that Harry's scar may be a Horcrux, and the presence of that 
piece of Voldemort's soul is the source of the mysterious connection 
Harry has with Voldemort. I can also definitely see ways in which 
Horcrux!Harry could be used to further develop the theme of 
sacrificial love. And I think Horcrux!Harry fits well with the words 
of the prophecy. 

*If* Harry is a Horcrux, then I would suspect that yes, the soul must 
be recently torn, and yes, if you care which bit makes the Horcrux 
you need to prepare in advance (because otherwise, as you say, 
Voldemort should have just waited...) If he is not, we may never 
learn the answers to these questions, or we may learn that the spell 
is definitely cast after ther murder, and possibly long after.