Harry a Horcrux?

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 153353

>    KJ:
> 
>      To me, this whole argument is a question of semantics.  Is a soul 
> part, whether intentionally, or unintentionally, encased in anything, a 
> horcrux? Does a soul part actually have to be intentionally encased in 
> order to make a horcrux? <snip> 
>
>In this instance, it is less confusing to 
> argue whether or not we believe that Harry is holding a soul piece,
than 
> it is to argue whether or not he is a horcrux.


Neri:
I agree with KJ and, in a sense, with Jazmyn too. This is semantics.
My own thoughts too are that Harry indeed got a Voldemort's soul part
in GH, but that he is *not* a Horcrux, or at least he will not
function as a Horcrux at the critical moment in Book 7.

I think that, with our knowledge about Horcruxes, it is hardly
possible to conclude that encasing a soul cannot happen by chance. My
own favorite scenario for GH is like this:


A. As Dumbledore theorized, Voldemort indeed had meant to make a
living Horcrux with the murder of the prophesied baby. 

B. He wanted a Gryffindor Horcrux but failed in appropriating the only
Gryffindor relic: the sword. So instead he decided on a Gryffindor
student: he meant to make Lily into a living Horcrux. Maybe he got
this idea because Peter had asked him to spare Lily.

C. So, just before Voldemort enters the Potters house at GH, he
performs the Horcrux spell in a way that only two things are still
needed to seal it - the murder and the living Horcrux itself.

D. He tries to spare Lily, but she refuses and he realizes that she
would be too difficult to control. So he decides he'll use Nagini for
his living Horcrux after all, and he kills Lily. The murder has now
been done and the only thing left to seal the spell is the living
Horcrux itself.

E. Voldemort now tries to kill Harry but the AK rebounds on him. His
two soul parts are released. The only body still alive in the house is
Harry, so one of the soul parts enters him and the spell is finally
sealed.


Of course, JKR hasn't given us enough information to either accept or
overrule such a scenario. But she had shown us in the past some
complex magic that was first cast and then needed to be sealed with a
last act of choice. Famously, as Dumbledore tells Harry in OotP,
Petunia taking him into her house was the act needed to "seal the
charm I placed upon you". Another example is Hermione's sneak jinx.
Hermione (as she tells Ron and Harry later) had put it on the
*parchment*. Then two things were still required to operate it: the
victim signing the parchment while making a certain promise, and the
victim breaking this promise. In this case the victim didn't even need
to know that she was sealing any spell (indeed, her not knowing was
the whole point).

The scenario above explains several important mysteries:

1. How the connection between Voldemort and Harry was formed.

2. Why Voldemort himself was not aware that such a connection was formed.

3. Why Voldemort seems to be unsure about what exactly happened at GH
(he says in the graveyard: "it appeared that one or more of my
experiments had worked... for I had not been killed")

4. Why we were told about the possibility of a living Horcrux.

5. Why we were told that Voldemort wanted to make a living Horcrux
with Harry's murder.

6. Why Voldemort tried to spare Lily (as JKR recently confirmed).

7. What was to be the Gryffindor Horcrux, and why we've been told that
the only Gryffindor relic is safe.


Note also that this scenario does not preclude that Nagini is a
Horcrux too. Perhaps Voldemort believed that his soul part from GH was
lost forever, so he made her a Horcrux later, as Dumbledore theorized.
This gives a new meaning to Harry's experience the night Nagini
attacked Arthur in the Ministry. It also suggests the interesting
future possibility that Harry can seize control over Nagini.


Neri