Harry as a "Horcrux"--my view (long!)

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 164029

There are so many different views going around it's too hard to
quote them, so I thought I'd just state my views, after trying
to work it out logically in my mind. First, here's what we know:

A Horcrux is an object encasing a piece of torn soul,
created by means of an intentional spell.

One tears one's soul by a supreme act of evil--murder.

Dumbledore told Harry that Voldemort inadvertently transferred
some of his powers to Harry during the failed AK at GH.

Reasonably solid conjecture based on canon:

We've heard no direct canon on what happens to the separate
soul pieces when a soul is "torn" and the wizard doesn't
encase one of them in a Horcrux. Still, it doesn't seem
likely they leave the body and "float" about, so if one
doesn't removed the piece and place it in a Horcrux, then
the torn piece remains within the body. (Presumably this
is what happened with Snape, if he has in fact killed 
before Dumbledore, or he did actually kill Dumbledore thus
tearing his soul. Not to mention the state of all the 
other DEs who've committed murder for Voldemort). 

We also have no direct canon on what happens to a soul
piece after a Horcrux is destroyed. Is the soul piece
destroyed along with it? Can a soul piece be destroyed?
Canon only mention the destruction of the Horcruxes, not
the soul pieces, so I would assume the soul pieces do
survive, and in this case "float" off somewhere, beyond
the veil or into some other plane where they remain in
some sort of waiting mode.

Waiting for what? For the rest of the soul pieces to be
free--either removed from Horcruxes or released from the
original body upon its demise--so the "entirety" of the
soul--torn or whole--can go wherever the soul goes after
death. This implies that the soul piece, once released
from the Horcrux, is unavailable its "owner." Which fits
with canon, since we heard nothing about Voldemort trying
to retrieve the diary soul piece and re-encase it in
another Horcrux. Once unencased in a Horcrux or a body,
it's gone. 

That's what seems logical to me anyway. Now on to whether
Harry is a Horcrux. Well...no, of course he isn't. He's
not an object Voldemort intended or "spelled" to encase a
soul piece, which seems to be part of a Horcrux definition.
But does this automatically mean that Harry does NOT have
a piece of Voldemort's soul residing in him? No, I don't
believe it does.

Looking again at the events of Godric's Hollow as we know
them, Dumbledore believes Voldemort "intended" to make a
Horcrux upon Harry's death. The part we don't know about
Horcruxes of course, is how the spell works. Is a spell
required to "prepare" the soul piece to leave the body
and enter the Horcrux? Or is a spell only needed once
the murder is complete and the wizard has the intended
Horcrux object in his hands? Finally, does it even 
matter?

I don't think so, and here's why. Voldemort made his 
previous Horcruxes by splitting his soul. Let's assume
he had all the time in the world to pluck those soul bits
out of his body and place them in the Horcrux object. He
could do it immediately, wait a few days, or wait years
after a murder (as he may have after the murder of his
father and grandparents). All he has to do is pluck out
that torn part of his soul (don't ask me how he tells 
all his torn soul pieces apart!) and place it in the 
Horcrux by means of the Horcrux spell. This is what he
plans to do with Harry's murder, whether he brought the
intended Horcrux object to Godric's Hollow or planned to
go get it later. Voldemort split his soul as usual, but
something went wrong, and everything became different.
Not only did the AK rebound (as it never had before),
but unlike all the other times Voldemort split his soul,
this time he NO LONGER HAD A BODY ACTING AS A CONTAINER
FOR HIS SPLIT SOUL.

Equally, and this might even work better, if a preparatory
spell *is* required for the soon to be split piece of soul
(or even a piece that is already split and still residing 
in the body with the rest of one's soul), it still leaves
Voldemort in the same predicament. (Note: This kind of
spell would explain how a specific soul split, e.g. the
one resulting from Tom Riddle Sr's murder rather than the
one resulting from some nameless Muggle-lover's murder 
the previous week ends up encased in a Horcrux. Er, I 
think...)

In any case, what matters is that Voldemort lost his body
after having split his soul. And he lost his body in a never
before seen manner. During such unusual circumstances, what
would happen to his split soul? Will it all "hang together"
or will some pieces separate? Does it matter how recently 
part of the soul has been split off, i.e. does a newly split
piece need a period of time to heal/reintegrate/glue itself
back to the main soul? Could the rebounded AK have affected
this process, throwing the recently split soul piece out of
the cobbled-together "whole" so to speak?

We don't know. I don't think there is any canon that even
gives us a real clue. Which makes it quite possible that
Voldemort inadvertently tossed this recently split soul
piece to the wind with the AK. The rest of his much-torn
soul stuck together and slinked off to hide and regroup
in Albania. And this split soul piece without a home, it
could have floated off like the ones released from Horcruxes
presumably do...or it could have been slammed into Harry's
forehead by the force of the never-before seen and still
barely understood rebounding AK. 

Which is why I don't think we have enough evidence to even
say whether Harry likely is, or likely is not, possessing
a piece of Voldemort's soul. If he is, you can call him an
accidental "horcrux" or simply In-Possession-of-a-Voldemort-
Soul-Piece!Harry. That's really mere semantics. Besides, what
matters more is Dumbledore. Does he know, does he suspect,
how can he *not*, and what does this mean for his character?

Unless Dumbledore is much more of an idiot than he appears
he'd have to suspect. He said himself that Voldemort 
"transferred" part of his powers to Harry. And, yes, that
could be a simple magical process, if we're only talking
about actual magical abilities like Parselmouth. What it
doesn't explain is Harry and Voldemort's mental connection
in OotP. It's not Legilimency or any kind of known magic.
So what is it? Some ultimately unexplainable telepathy, or 
is it because Voldemort has part of himself in Harry, thus
is able to communicate with that part of himself in a way
separate from magic (or enhanced by magic but not merely
magic)? I think Dumbledore would have to consider the
latter as a distinct possiblitity, given the lack of 
certainty still surrounding everything to do with Harry's
survival at Godric's Hollow. 

As for why Dumbledore said he was telling Harry everything
but didn't inform him of this possibility, well, I think
Dumbledore can be forgiven (by us, and by Harry) for not
telling Harry that he might be/probably is a "horcrux" 
(using the term loosely), which implies that Harry (as
the object encasing the soul piece) must be destroyed to 
release the soul piece so Voldemort can be killed. How 
is he supposed to tell Harry THAT? What would that do
to Harry, especially if Dumbledore knows of no way to
remove the soul piece without Harry dying? Harry's already
far too impulsive, and oblivious to his own well-being
in his dedication to whatever cause has his attention
(and I'm not saying that's an entirely bad thing!). He'd
never put himself first, or even take his safetly into
consideration, so maybe this is Dumbledore's way of 
doing it for him.

Maybe Dumbledore has *always* been looking not to fulfill
but to subvert the Prophecy by finding a way for Voldemort
to die and Harry to live, even if he hadn't found it before
he died. And maybe this task has been left to Snape, he-who-
won't-harm-a-hair-on-his-most-detested-student's-head, even
under the most aggravating circumstances (and, yes, I don't
consider delivering a stinging hex to Harry's cheek "harm"
in this definition). Maybe it will be Snape who will find
a way to get that Voldemort soul piece out of Harry's head
so Harry can defeat Voldemort and go on to live the life of
a normal wizard. And won't Snape be happy for Harry ;-) Well,
maybe not, but it's one way to atone for your sins against
the father (and mother), and repay an old life debt. 

That's all *if* Harry does have a Voldemort soul piece in
him. I'm not saying he does, or doesn't. That's for JKR to
tell us. But I do feel it could go either way. Easily.

IMO,

Julie, apologizing for the length of this unedited post.