[HPforGrownups] Harry Horcrux Question: PHILIP

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 175821

Donna wrote:
> Please help me understand something.   To make a horcrux, a murder
> has to be committed and a spell cast to put the torn piece of soul
> into an object intended to be a horcrux.  When was the spell cast to
> make Harry a horcrux?

Bart:
	An excellent question, with no definitive answer. But here's the best I 
can come up with.

	First of all, let us consider: it is established in DH that there ARE 
books on how to make a horcrux. And there are certainly evil wizards. 
WHY aren't there a bunch of immortal wizards with horcruxes? Here is my 
guess: having a piece removed from one's soul must be a truly horrible 
thing, with one exception: If one never had contact with one's soul in 
the first place, then it feels pretty much the same. And Tom Riddle, 
being a psychopath, was cut off from his soul. So, he was not only able 
to make one horcrux, he was able to make six. This is significant 
because it almost certainly makes the Pottercurx unique, and therefore, 
THERE WAS NO NAME FOR THE PHENOMENON OTHER THAN "HORCRUX". I'm calling 
the theory PHILIP: Potter's Horcrux Is Likely Introducing Precedent.

	What I am getting at is that there is no differential term in the 
Wizarding vocabulary for a piece of a soul that broke off and attached 
on its own. So, the only term we had for what happened to Harry was 
"horcrux." But what happened (interpreting the spirit formerly known as 
Dumbledore) was that, when Morty tried the first AK against Harry (you 
know, one definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over 
again expecting different results, but we KNOW Morty is insane) his soul 
was already in such a sorry state that the rip that would normally 
appear in his soul was sufficient to split off a piece without having to 
cast any spells. With no prepared container, the soul piece attached to 
the most suitable container: Harry. But this also meant that the soul 
piece never really attached properly; by allowing himself to be hit with 
YAAK, the Mortysoul was broken loose, and Harry was able to come back.

	Bart