Harry a Horcrux?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 153482

KJ wrote
>      To me, this proves that no spell was performed prior to the
murders at GH, or he would have some idea of what might have occurred.

Carol responds:
Forgive me for responding to only one small protion of your post, but
I'm still going around in circles trying to figure out Yahoo's new
"improved" method of organizing our posts.

Can you tell me where you found the idea that the Horcrux spell must
be performed *before* the murder?

As I understand it, Tom Riddle had murdered at least three (I count
four becuse I see Moaning Myrtle's death as a murder) times before he
even knew exactly what a Horcrux was, much less how to create one. And
surely, the death of his father was sufficiently important to use for
the creation of a Horcrux. IMO, it was used for the ring Horcrux.
*But* Tom Riddle did not go to Little Hangleton planning to murder
anyone. He went there to find Marvolo Gaunt. When he decided to kill
his father and blame it on Morfin, he borrowed Morfin's wand and
perhaps stole the ring, or he stole the ring after he had killed all
three Riddles and implanted the false memory. But he certainly did not
create the ring Horcrux until much later, certainly after the
conversation with Slughorn the following school year and probably
after extensive research, which could not have been done until he left
Hogwarts.

Apparently a Horcrux is created by a spell placed on an object *after*
a murder is committed. AFWK, there is no statute of limitations on the
amount of time that can pass between the murder and the creation of
the Horcrux, and apparently LV can somehow choose the murder that is
used to create the Horcrux.

But the idea I've seen on this list that the object has to be present
at the murder scene seems false. It's possible, of course, that Tom
stole the ring before he killed his father and wore it when he
committed the murder, but he certainly could not have put a
Horcrux-creating spell on it first. More likely, it was a magpielike
souvenir of the murders, not to mention that it was his "rightful"
possession as the Heir of Slytherin.

Which brings me to a sidenote: How could Tom be the Heir of Slytherin
if Morfin, who was ahead of him genealogically, was still alive?
Evidently Morfin, who was also a Parselmouth, never attended Hogwarts
and consequently didn't count. (Only the Heir of slytherin could open
the Chamber of Secrets.)

To return to the topic, I think that the diary was created with
Myrtle's murder (significant because it was the first), but the diary
was not present at the murder, and it certainly was not a previously
prepared Horcrux for the same reason that the ring wasn't: he didn't
know how to make one.

The cup and locket were present for Hepzibah Smith's murder, but he
killed her to obtain them. They were not prepared by some spell to be
Horcruxes before her murder. (I think that her murder was used to
create the cup Horcrux because of her connection to Helga Hufflepuff.)

I won't give any more examples. I'll just state what I think is the
sequence of events in creating a Horcrux. A murder is committed. The
soul is damaged (torn or perforated, so to speak, but not detached
from the main soul). An object is selected for the Horcrux. A spell
(probably a complex incantation) is performed to encase the soul bit
in the object. Additional protections may be placed on the Horcrux,
such as sealing the locket shut and placing a curse on the ring, but
these are optional, as is the elaborate set of protections around the
locket (presumably identical for the real and fake Horcruxes).

But to state that no encasing spell was performed before Godric's
Hollow (a point I agree with, BTW) does not prove that LV did or did
not intend to make a Horcrux using Harry's murder. Perhaps he did, but
if he had lived and Harry had died, he would, as far as I can
determine from he evidence, have performed the encasing spell on the
intended Horcrux *after* he had that particular soul bit to encase.

Carol, well aware of the unanswered questions related to Horcruxes but
not wanting to bring them up here