The Killing Curse and Horcruzes WAS:Back to The Plan

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164826

deborah wrote:
> 
> We know from Dumbledore that he is sure Voldemort was planning to
use Harry's death to create a horcrux.  We don't really know much
about what that entails.  There is no evidence of what the Horcrux
spell actually is or how it is performed, simultaneously with the AK
curse, before it, after it, or whether it is a complete spell itself
that does the killing and creates the Horcrux at the same time.  Nor
do we have evidence that a person's body and the bit of soul that
resides in it, is not killed if that body is killed.  All we know is
that if someone has a horcrux he cannot be completely killed until all
his horcruxes are destroyed.  
> 
> "Well, you split your soul, you see, and hide part of it in an
object outside the body.  Then, even if one's body is attacked or
destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and
undamaged.  But of course, existence in such a form..."  Slughorn to
Riddle in HBP, page 497

Carol responds:
But you're not including the whole conversation here. To summarize,
Tom follows up with "How do you split your soul?" to which Slughorn
replies, in essence, "by the act of murder." Then Tom asks how you
encase the soul bit, and Slughorn says "there is a spell. Don't ask
me." So the act of murder and the encasement are separate processes.
There's no spell that simultaneously kills and creates a Horcrux.
Besides, all of Voldemort's victims that we know of whose soul bits
could have been used to create a Horcrux were killed with either an AK
(the Riddles and Frank Bryce) or poison (Hepzibah Smith) or a Basilisk
(Myrtle). Logically, the murder splitting the soul occurs before the
spell that encases it, though I realize some people argue that the
spell could precede the murder (which pretty much eliminates most of
our murder victims as Horcrux candidates (Tom Riddle *could* have
taken the ring and even the diary with him when he murdered his
parents, though the evidence indicates that he didn't go there with
the intention of murdering them, but he didn't have the cup or the
locket at that time, so there goes at least one and probably two
wasted soul bits--Grandma and probably Grandpa murdered for nothing.
Whereas if he could use the soul bits at any time, after he learned
how to make Horcruxes, and there was no special
two-birds-with-one-stone spell, he could use Myrtle for the diary, Tom
Sr. for the ring, one grandparent for the locket, Hepzibah for the
cup, and the other grandparent for the Ravenclaw Horcrux. Or, if you
don't count Myrtle as a murder, there's a grandparent for the diary,
dad for the ring, the other grandparent for the locket, Hepzibah for
the cup, and the murdered Order member for the Ravenclaw Horcrux.
Either way, Harry's murder, for which we know he tried to use a
Killing Curse, could have been saved for the Gryffindor Horcrux, the
Sword of Gryffindor, which he didn't have yet. I'm not saying that I
have it right, only that it's almost certain that the soul splitting
and the encasement are two separate operations, and it's more logical
and economical in terms of known murders if the Horcruxes didn't have
to be prepared in advance or the object present at the scene of the
murder.

deborah:
> 
> I believe if all of the soul within the person who was physically
destroyed was safe and protected due to the horcruxes that person had
in place, Slughorn would have said "all of the soul remains
earthbound" or "the soul remains earthbound," but what he says is that
"part of the soul remains earthbound."  This means part of the soul
does not remain earthbound; there is no other way to read this line,
and as Slughorn instructed Voldemort about horcruxes, I think we must
take him as the authority.  

Carol:
Exactly. The part of the soul that is not split off, the part that
remains in the murderer. However, in the unlikely event that the
murderer is vaporized, the main soul from which the soul bit was split
off would remain anchored, but the unanchored soul bit could float
freely off. IOW, when Voldie says he was *wrenched* from his body,
less than the meanest ghost, he is still referring to *himself*, not
to a soul bit. Otherwise, all the soul bits are potential Voldemorts.
(The diary, which contains a *memory* of Tom that very nearly became
reanimated because of *Ginny's* soul, could have become a second Tom
with interesting results if Horcrux!Tom and Vapormort met, but I don't
think the other Horcruxes have that ability. Their soul purpose is to
anchor that main part of the soul (partial only because part has been
split off) to the earth. Usually, of course, what's anchored remains
within the murderer, but if his body is killed or destroyed, it
remains alive. That's what happened to Voldemort. "Who would want to
live in such a form?" as Slughorn says. Answer: Tom Riddle would.
Better in his mind to float bodiless, having to possess animals to
have a body, than to have his soul leave the earth, i.e., to die. He
still has *himself* even without his body. And once he has a magically
reconstituted body (with unicorn blood or wizard blood as a key
ingredient), he has his powers again and can wield a wand.

Carol, with apologies for not reposting the same old quotes but you
can easily find them if you use Carol, Slughorn, and Horcrux as your
search terms