Soul bits (Was: CHAPDISC: HBP 23, Horcruxes)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 160921

Carol earlier:
> > IMO, the memory (or memories) that Tom placed in the diary are
like those we see Snape and Dumbledore taking from their heads and are
separate from the soul bit that was encased using a Horcrux-creating
spell. If Dumbledore placed a memory in a diary, even if he intended
that memory to be read and shared (like a Pensieve memory or the
memory of Tom "catching" Hagrid), would that memory be capable of
possessing the reader? I don't think so.
>
Jenni from Alabama responded:

> Actually, they are quite different! The memories that are placed in
> the pensieve that Harry witnesses are just that - memories of the
> events, accounts of them - containing no soul at all. However the
> diary was a Horcrux. It contained not only the memories/accounts of
> the events that Harry witnessed (the 'capture' of Hagrid) but the
> essence of Riddle himself, a fraction of his soul. However it was
just a fraction of his soul, fragmented and not whole.
>
> Pg. 310 Am Ed CoS says: "If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been
> able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to
me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted...I grew stronger
> and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I
> grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful
> enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start
> pouring a little of my soul back into her..."
>
> So, if Riddle's 'memory' had no soul, Riddle wouldn't have been able
> to pour himself into Ginny and possess her.

Carol responds:
I'm not arguing that the diary isn't a Horcrux or doesn't contain a
soul bit, nor am I unaware that the soul bit possessed Ginny. I'm
arguing that the memory was placed there first as part of the plan to
use the Basilisk to kill Muggleborns, meaning that the diary was
already a powerful magical object before Tom added the soul bit to
make it a Horcrux. IOW, in my view the memory and the soul bit are two
different things.

The soul bit enabled the memory to possess the reader of the diary (as
with Ginny) rather than merely to interact with the reader (as with
Harry). Note that Harry's excursion into the diary to view the
Riddle/Hagrid incident is very similar to his excursions into the
Pensieve. He's a witness to events that he sees objectively, from the
outside, and the memories are not aware of his presence, nor do they
control his thoughts. The memory is just a memory. Neither it nor the
soul bit controls or influences Harry. He just misinterprets it, as
Diary!Tom intended.

Carol, whose entire argument can be read by going upthread