Harry Horcrux redux

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 155037

Geoff wrote:
> I am tempted to emerge cautiously from my trench under my tin hat to
re-enter the discussion on whether Harry is a Horcrux or not, coming
down on the side of the argument that he is not.
> 
> I have said in the past that I believe that, to create a Horcrux,
the victim and the spell caster need to be close together. That is
just my theory; I can't recall any canon to support it but I am using
it as a launch pad. < big snip>

Carol responds:
I agree with you that Harry is not a Horcrux and that a Horcrux can't
be created accidentally. Apparently, a Horcrux requires an elaborate
spell (advanced Dark magic) that must be performed deliberately to
encase the soul in an object (ideally, a powerful magical object made
of gold or some other indestructible substance). Voldemort would not
have made someone he wanted to kill (in order to thwart the Prophecy)
into a Horcrux. It's clear from Godric's Hollow, from the graveyard,
and from the battle in the MoM that he wants Harry dead. If Harry were
a Horcrux, the last thing he'd want to do is to destroy him.
Basically, you murder the person, which tears your soul, then you
detach that bit of soul and encase it in an object, which obviously
can't be the person you just killed, who at best could be made into an
Inferius. 

However, I see nothing in canon to suggest that the Horcrux needs to
be made at the site of the murder, with the dead person still present,
which is what you seem to be suggesting (please correct me if I'm
wrong), or that it needs to be made within a particular timeframe.

I admit that the details are extremely fuzzy--it's unclear how a
multiple murderer could choose a particularly soul bit from among the
many or how it could constitute exactly one-seventh of his soul either
before or after he had committed six murders. (Ever try to divide
anything into sevenths? Now if he wanted *eighths* and the soul is
sufficiently tangible to be divided into halves, then quarters--nope.
That won't work, either, because the second murder should divide the
soul into thirds (the original plus two fragments) and you can't get
to thirds from halves. Oh, maths! Okay, I'll take it on faith that the
Horcruxes contain equal parts of an infinite and only partly tangible
soul and that he can choose the appropriate soul bit--This one's for
my father! This one's for Grandpa Riddle! This one's for Grandma! and
so on. My head is spinning trying to figure it out. I rather think
it's like the idea that Charlie Weasley, who's three years older than
Percy, would have left school seven years before Percy's fifth year.
(It doesn't work that way, JKR!)

Okay, taking all that on faith, we know that Tom was commiting murder
while he was still in school, even if we don't count attacking a girl
with a Basilisk as murder (and I do). We also know that he didn't know
how to create a Horcrux at that point. (He was wearing Marvolo Gaunt's
ring when he asked about the Horcruxes, meaning that he had already
killed the Riddles, and he had killed Myrtle the previous June.) He
had (probably) already placed the memory of his sixteen-year-old self
into the diary, making it a powerful magical object intended to "carry
on Salazar Slytherin's noble work," but neither it nor the ring was
yet a Horcrux. I think he made them into Horcruxes while he was at
Borgin and Burke's, using Myrtle's murder (his first) for the diary
and his father's murder (his most significant so far) for the ring.
When he killed Hepzibah and stole the cup and locket, he resigned
before creating the Horcruxes (which would have significantly altered
his appearance) and then created two new Horcruxes, only one of which
could have used Hepzibah's murder. (As an Heir of Hufflepuff and the
possessor of two significant pieces of Hogwarts history, her murder
would probably have seemed important. If not, there were two more
Riddles, killed a few years previously, still available.)

At any rate, I see no reason for the object to be present at the
murder, or for the Horcrux to be created immediately. The important
point is that a Horcrux is almost certainly a deliberate creation, and
you don't make a Horcrux out of a person you're trying to kill even if
you're unwise enough to use a living creature like Nagini that can
think for itself (and is subject to death, a point that neither
Dumbledore nor Voldemort seems to have considered).

Geoff:
> I cannot subscribe to the idea that a Horcrux could be created
accidentally. This is not mixing the wrong ingredients for a potion
and creating something new and unexpected. The spells for a Horcrux
must be very specific and powerful. I do not think that in the sudden
turmoil of the backfire and personal disembodiment which would have
been disorientating, to say the least, that Voldemort would have been
able to do anything further in the way of casting spells <snip>

Carol responds:
This part I agree with. Vapor!mort was unable to do anything except
possess animals until Quirrell arrived and somehow transported him to
England. (That's another fuzzy spot in Voldemort's history, BTW. He
manipulated and terrorized Quirrell but didn't possess him until after
the botched burglary at Gringott's. Oh, well.) I think that Voldemort
planned to kill Harry, and perhaps Neville for good measure, and if DD
is right that he was one Horcrux short (I'm not sure that I
agree--Nagini may already have been a Horcrux) search for a suitable
object at his leisure, preferably a Ravenclaw or Gryffindor artifact.
After all, he'd be to all intents and purposes immortal already. He'd
have all eternity (or at least till the end of the world) to pursue
his search if I'm right that there's no time limit for the creation of
a Horcrux, and I see no indication that a fragmented soul melds back
together within a specified time after a murder.

How, then, does Harry see into Voldemort's mind and speak Parseltongue
if he's not a Horcrux? Simple. We accept Dumbledore's explanation
given early on that some of LV's *powers* were transferred to Harry at
GH and that the scar creates a conduit between them, perhaps because
Harry acquired a particular form of Legilimency ("the usual rules
don't seem to apply to you, Potter") along with the Parseltongue. I
would not be at all surprised, in fact, I'm expecting to learn that he
acquired the power of possession as well. (If Voldemort can't bear to
be inside Harry's body and mind, imagine his agony if Harry possesses
*him*.) And of course, there's that other power that Voldemort "knows
not," the power that will ultimately defeat him: Love.

So, as I see it, there's no plot reason for Harry (or his scar) to be
a Horcrux, and no need for the complications that would arise when he
tried to figure out how to destroy himself (the last Horcrux) and
still kill Voldemort, or how to kill Voldemort without leaving one
last Horcrux (himself) to be destroyed. I imagine (and hope!) that JKR
will find a way for Harry to destroy Voldemort that involves neither
murder nor suicide. I think, as I said or implied, that it will
involve possession.

Carol, coming down firmly on the Harry-is-not-a-Horcrux side of the
argument