Portraits

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164948

Ronin wrote:
> It can not be an actual part of the subject's soul which animates
the portrait. That would make the portrait a horcrux and would require
dark magic.


Carol responds:
I agree. I think that the painted image (which probably resembles the
living witch or wizard more closely than any Muggle painting could)
contains something analogous to the "brains" of the Four Founders
placed in the Sorting Hat or even the "memory" of the sixteen-year-old
Tom Riddle placed in the diary *before* it became a Horcrux. Neither
the "brains" nor the "memory" is the same as a soul bit, which can
only be created by an act of murder.

Whatever animates the portraits is an "imprint" of a soul, not the
soul itself or a part of the soul. And I still say that Snape's use of
the same word, "imprint," in relation to ghosts ("the imprint of a
departed soul") is more than coincidence. I just wish that JKR's
intended meaning were clearer!

Carol, eating Valentine's chocolates that the apartment managers left
on her doorknob and wishing there were more than four!