Harry Horcrux redux :)

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 155124

> >  Geoff:
> > If Harry is indeed a Horcrux than we know that he will have
> > to die in order for Voldemort to be destroyed once and for all.
>
> Jo:
> No we don't! JK has left us a get-out-of-jail-free card on this:
>
> "The snake?" said Harry, startled. "You can use animals as
> Horcruxes?"
>
> "Well, it is inadvisable to do so," said Dumbledore, "because to
> confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for
> itself is obviously a very risky business."
>
> HBP p473 UK Hardback.
>
> Ah if only it was `obvious'!
>
> Even if Harry is a HRX we don't necessarily have to assume he must
> fall on his sword. How he might go about jettisoning an unwanted
> tenant who can tell?
>

Ken:

The quotation from HBP is found on page 506 of the US hardback edition
and I have to agree, it does not clearly say that killing the living horcrux
will destroy the soul piece encased in it. It does not say *at all* that
killing the soul piece will kill the living host. It says that a living horcrux
is inadvisable because it can act on its own. Since Harry can speak
Parseltongue this opens the door to a host of possibilities with respect
to a possible horcrux/Nagini. JKR loves complex resolutions, for example
instead of letting Harry and Hermione go near the end of OotP she has
the centaurs debate the matter so that Hermione can stick her foot in her
mouth so that Grawp can show up so that the centaurs can wound him so
that Harry and Hermione get splattered with blood so that the thestrals
they need to get to London will be attracted to the scent of the blood.

Whew!

When Harry considers becoming an Auror in his career consuling meeting
he makes a mental note to himself to meet some other experienced
Aurors to find out if they all end up looking like Mad-Eye. I could see this
fear coming to pass in the process of removing a soul fragment from
Harry. Given Fleur's example I can see Ginny not caring about how Harry
looks too. I hope the series ends on that note anyway, no matter how it
is accomplished.

Here's another snippet that relates to replacement horcruxes, not to
Harry/horcrux:

"But I thought he meant Lucius Malfoy to smuggle it into Hogwarts?"

"Yes, he did, years ago, when he was sure he would be able to create
more Horcruxes, but still Lucius was supposed to wait for Voldemort's
say-so, and he never received it, for Voldemort vanished shortly after
giving him the diary."

This comes from page 508 of the US edition of HBP. At the time they
are discussing DD believes that LV already had 5 horcruxes and we
know that his vanishing came about when he tried to use Harry's
death to create the 6th. It seems that DD believes that part of the
reason for LV's casual treatment of the diary/horcrux is that he was
prepared to make a replacement since he uses the plural to describe
LV's intentions at a time when he needed only one more.

Nagini/horcrux co-opted by Harry speaking Parseltongue, a replacement
horcrux that Harry didn't count on, Harry/horcrux that neither he nor
LV accounted for, these could all be part of a standard JKR complex
conclusion. Or not. There are so many other possibilities. Canon is an
uncertain guide to the future. Whatever else it is, book 7 will be new
canon after all. The only thing about book 7 that I forsee as certain
is that LV's threat to the WW will be eliminated. In spite of the prophecy
I am not even certain that one of the LV/Harry pair will die. I suppose
it is possible that LV could be "destroyed" by redeeming him back into
a sadder and wiser Tom Riddle. I think the prophecy even allows that
if you read it carefully.

Ken