[HPforGrownups] Re: Concerning Horcuxes

[dracojadon at yahoo.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 169961

> Anna:
> does the mere act of killing someone -- anyone -- split the soul, or
> is the soul only split when one does a particulary nasty/evil
> murder, or has the concious intention of creating a Horcrux?
> Voldemort did countless murders, yet he only supposedly created 6
> Horcruxes.  Do you think his soul is really split into a hundred-
> some-odd pieces?

jadon:

I think a murder is just one ingredient in creating a horcrux, which  
IMO requires:

*someone's death
*any old object
*intent (Bellatrix on Crucio: "Never used an Unforgivable Curse  
before, have you, boy? [...] You need to mean them, Potter! You need  
to really want to cause pain")
*a spell or incantation (just like any other piece of magic in HP)

Without the last two, there'd be horcruxes all over the place and a  
whole lot of oddly-immortal half-people. Pettigrew might have  
thirteen, and could LV put up with that?
(--Worthless servant! Fail me again and I'll use you for Avada  
Kedavra practise!
--Yes Lord V, I'm sorry -- but one part of my soul fell through this  
London drain, and another bit got washed into the Atlantic--)

It would also be a failsafe preparation for entering a dementor- 
guarded Azkaban. There's a _reason_ that the only person [we know of]  
using horcruxes in LV. It takes a lot more than murder.