Accidental Harrycrux : a theory

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 155311

Carol earlier:
> > *Encase* means "enclose as if in a case." *That's* what the
encasement spell does. And you can't encase the soul bit before the
murder because the soul bit doesn't yet exist.
> >  
> > So a hypothetical preliminary spell, of which there is no
suggestion in canon, would not in itself *encase* the soul bit in the
Horcrux. At most it would open the Horcrux, but it would not place the
soul bit inside or seal it up. If *encasing* requires a spell, an
accidental Horcrux is impossible.
> 
zgirnius responded:
<snip> To borrow your analogy of the fruitcake, suppose that you 
> are going to put the fruitcake in a hinged box.
> 
> The 'encasement spell' could be the equivalent of a spring-loaded 
> mechanism which will snap the lid shut once a sufficiently heavy
object is placed into the box. Once you open the box and set the
mechanism, all you need to to to 'encase' the fruitcake is drop it in.
If you leave, but an explosion in your kitchen knocks the cake off a
shelf and into the box, you agency is no longer even needed. The set
up you have created will encase it automatically.
> 
> By analogy, the Horcrux making spell could place the object in a 
> magical condition whereby the addition of a torn soul piece would 
> automatically complete the Horcrux making process. 
> 

Carol:
Maybe it could, but where is the evidence that the Horcrux spell works
that way, or that a preliminary spell is ever needed or used? At least
four murders (three if you disregard Myrtle) predate the first two
Horcruxes. Are you saying that he may have prepared the ring and diary
Horcruxes and gone out and killed two more people because his soul was
no longer split from the earlier murders? Where was he going to find a
victim more significant than his father (before the Prophecy)?

zgirnius:
> Now, whether magical backlash could cause such a spell to change its
location from some suitable artifact Voldemort would have prepared in
 advance to Harry's forehead is a different question.

Carol:
Aye, there's the rub. What's the use of a prepared Horcrux if the soul
bit goes into Harry's cut instead? And clearly Harry himself was not a
prepared Horcrux because Voldemort was trying to kill him.

Slughorn says that a spell is required to encase the fragment, not to
prepare the Horcrux. And a spell on a prepared Horcrux, if such a
thing existed, would not enable the soul fragment to lodge itself in
some other object or person, such as Harry or his scar. And in all
cases that we've seen, the murder appears to precede the Horcrux.

zgirnius:
 But my feeling is 
> that if Rowling wishes this to be possible in her universe, it would 
> not be too great a stretch. Personally, I am undecided as to whether 
> she would want to or not, but I think an interesting story could
ensue  if she did, or if she didn't.
>

Carol responds:
 
I'm not saying that an interesting story couldn't be created using a
previously prepared Horcrux, but I don't think it's done that way.
Suppose that LV used Frank Bryce's murder to make Nagini into a
Horcrux, as DD suggests. Do you think he prepared her in advance,
knowing that the old Muggle was going to come up the stairs and be
AK'd? Clearly he killed Hepzibah Smith before he stole the cup and
locket, and I'd be very surprised if he didn't use her murder to
create the cup Horcrux--*after* he had split his soul by killing her.

Obviously, JKR can do anything she likes with her story, but I expect
her to have a plausible mechanism for creating Horcruxes that fits
with what we've already been told, and I don't think that a
preliminary spell placed on an object before a murder fits with what
we've seen so far.

Carol, feeling a bit like Molly Weasley at 12 GP, looking around for
allies and not finding them