IHHS, the I Hate Horcruxes Society (was Re: Harry Horcrux redux)

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 155138

Carol, wishing she'd never heard of Horcruxes

Neri:
> > I think we've finally reached the bottom of it. You simply don't
> > like Horcruxes. The truth is that I don't like them much either.
> > But it seems that JKR does, and this is what counts.

Lupinlore:
> Count me in on the "don't like the whole horcrux angle" crowd.  *
(snip)*
> Thus, I think a lot of people, people who otherwise come at the
> Potterverse from VERY different angles, all end up standing shoulder
> to shoulder, looking at the horcrux plotline, and as one scratch their
> heads... *(snip)*

Ceridwen:
Count me in the society.  I wish they had turned up a couple of books 
sooner, I wish they had never been added, and so on.  I can see Neri's 
point about the possibility of an accidental Horcrux - after all, there 
had to be one accident at least for someone to realize this was even 
possible, but I can also understand Carol's dislike of the Harry 
Horcrux, for one example, idea.  Never played D&D, so can't quite see 
it the way Lupinlore does, but as he said, we all come at it from 
different angles but still end up scratching our heads.

However, fellow members, we are stuck with these unnatural objects.  
What wiggle room, if any, do we have from canon?  Did LV really make 
six Horcruxes?  Do we have to suffer through the destruction of four of 
them in book 7?  What sort of problems would a living Horcrux pose?  
What does free will have to do with it?  Death and deterioration?  
Changing loyalties?  The mislabeled boa from SS/PS?  Or, heck, Mark 
Evans?

Dumbledore tried to show Harry how to know Tom Riddle and therefore 
LV.  How does this play into things?  Do we see a pattern?  We were 
with Harry the whole way, and with Dumbledore out of the picture, Harry 
isn't getting a leg up on us during the hiatus while JKR finishes book 
7.  We are as up to speed as Harry is, a plus for us, I think.  How can 
we get around these unholy devices, or at least make short work of them 
no matter who or what they're housed in?

And, what sort of spells might be protecting these things?  Neri and 
others have brought up the blood factor being so prevalent in the 
books, including LV's wards on the cave, and the bloodlike gushing of 
ink from the Diary!Horcrux.  Blood is the life force and LV is afraid 
of dying.  How does this all tie together?

We're stuck with these things if we want to follow the series to its 
end.  As the loyal opposition, what is our position on Horcruxes?

Ceridwen.