Sword is a horcrux

[nuriaobradors]

No: HPFGUIDX 146655


> Hamstermap wrote:     
> I don't remember but should go back through but others say that 
>  when he attempted for a Hogwarts job for a 2nd time that as he 
>  left he made a motion of his hand. What if before the "interview" 
>  he had killed someone and as he left he used the horcrux "spell" 
>  or whatever it was, only nonverbally I'm just assuming, and if he 
>  did he knows it's in a safe place because all of the headmasters 
>  would protect it.  So, it would be a perfect place for it.

What the book says:
"Oh, you want to come back to Hogwarts, but you do not want to teach
any more than you wanted to when you were eighteen. What is it you're
after, Tom? Why not try an open request for once?"
Voldemort sneered. "If you do not want to give me a job —"
"Of course I don't," said Dumbledore. "And I don't think for a moment
you expected me to. Nevertheless, you came here, you asked, you must 
have had a purpose."
<snip>
For a second, Harry was on the verge of shouting a pointless warning: 
He was sure that Voldemort's hand had twitched toward his pocket and 
his wand; but then the moment had passed, Voldemort had turned away, 
the door was closing, and he was gone.
<nip>
"Why?" said Harry at once, looking up into Dumbledore's face. "Why did
he come back? Did you ever find out?"
"I have ideas," said Dumbledore, "but no more than that."
"What ideas, sir?"
"I shall tell you, Harry, when you have retrieved that memory from
Professor Slughorn," said Dumbledore.
.........................
"I would be prepared to bet — perhaps not my other hand — but a 
couple of fingers, that they be-came Horcruxes three and four. The 
remaining two, assuming again that he created a total of six, are 
more of a problem, but I will hazard a guess that, having secured
objects from Hufflepuff and Slytherin, he set out to track down 
objects owned by Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Four objects from the four 
founders would, I am sure, have exerted a powerful pull over 
Voldemort's imagination. I can-not answer for whether he ever managed 
to find anything of Ravenclaw's. I am confident, however, that the 
only known relic of Gryffindor remains safe."
Dumbledore pointed his blackened fingers to the wall behind him, where
a ruby-encrusted sword reposed within a glass case.

Interesting theory. I thought fleetingly of it, but disregarded it 
for the same reason stated by Lia:

> I'm wondering if a greater degree of ritual would go into the 
>making of a Horcrux, as opposed to it happening through a nonverbal 
>spell.

But we can only guess about this one, right? as we certainly do not 
now how the soul piece is passed onto the object to become a horcrux.

Lia:
>JKR stated that the Hat is not one, as it draws too >much attention 
>to itself, and thus I can't imagine the sword being >connected to it 
>in any way.  

Yes, everyone knows the hat. But how many know the sword? Harry knows 
it because he's used it, but I haven't heard anyone else making 
allusions to it, and though harry's been in DD's office with other 
people, we've had no account (as far as I remember) of another person 
turning to admire the majestic sword.

Lia:
>  I could be quite, quite wrong, but I somehow find it odd that 
>Harry would've pulled the sword out of the Sorting Hat if the sword 
>were a Horcrux.  

Considering the sword was used to fight a part of Riddle's soul 
itself, sounds indeed very unlikely. Yet we don't know how being a 
horcrux affects an object "normal" use. Could the locket and the ring 
be still used as ordinary jewels after made a horcrux without any 
side effects by the wearer? How different or alike are they to the 
diary? Depending on how this works, the sword could have been a 
horcrux and still serve its purpose of aiding a true gryffindor in 
peril.

Now, considering LV fleeting visit to DD's office - what if it's the 
other way round? Perhaps the object to become a horcrux is 'marked' 
in advance by a spell, the when the murder is committed, a more 
complete ritual is performed on the corpse that allows the soul-piece 
to be transferred to the previously selected Horcrux. 

Ideas?

Nuri