Do you agree? (Harry as Horcrux)

[Annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 163998

> Carol:
<huge snip>
> Here's the conversation in brief. "How do you make a Horcrux?" "You
> split your soul." "How do you split your soul?" "You commit murder,
> which splits the soul, and encase the torn portion in an 
object." "How
> do you encase the torn portion?" "There's an incantation." You kill,
> creating a soul bit, and *then* you encase the soul bit, which can't
> be encased until it exists.


Annemehr:
That still does not logically mean that the spell has to be done 
after the murder.

I have no druthers either way regarding when the spell is done, but I 
think Mike is right that there is no canon to help us.

The casting of the spell and the soul-bit entering the Hx are 
discrete things and there is no reason why they can't be separated in 
time, in the same way that Hermione's spell on the DA roster and the 
appearance of the pustules on Marietta's face were separated in time. 
(And IIRC Mike actually used this example somewhere.)

Slughorn himself said he does not know the spell that creates a 
Horcrux.  As far as we know, he was truthful on that point -- so, as 
far as we know, he does not know when the spell can be cast, either.  
There is no use trying to parse his words too precisely when he 
himself is very imprecise.

Annemehr