LV's Offence of the Dark Arts - OODA 301

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 170433

> Jen: 
> <snip>  No matter that Slughorn talks about the spell as 
> 'encasing' the soul, I've always thought the importance of the 
> Horcrux spell is getting the  torn soul bit *out* of the body 
> and not the act of closing it up in a jar or what have you. 
> Because closing it up seems like elementary  magic.

Mike:
Thank you :) I don't see either of the functions as more or less 
important than the other. They both do something unique and equally 
important to the process. I also agree with Pippin and Debbie, this 
spell has not been called complicated nor complex in canon, and I 
don't believe it would be. It probably requires more than one or two 
words, but that's just because it performs two distinct functions; 
removing a soul piece from a *designated* someone and encasing that 
piece in a *designated* object. I do think it's at least NEWT-level 
material. ;)

But I see this spell as requiring the kind of conviction that Bella 
says a proper Crucio requires. I'd imagine that doing something 
against nature cannot be done on a whim. As Bella said, "You need to 
mean them".


> Jen:
> <snip>
> 
> A soul piece already ripped apart from the soul wouldn't be as 
> strenuous an experience during removal but still, how to get the 
> piece of soul *out* - wouldn't that be the tricky part of encasing 
> the soul in an object?  The presentation of soul removal prior to 
> Horcruxes coming into the picture seems like useful canon to 
> consider for speculating the spell is what initiates the removal
> of the soul.

Mike:
Although I'm not completely sure what you're saying/asking here, 
never let it be said that that stopped me from replying. :D

The discovery of how to remove the soul piece could very well have 
been the breakthrough that made the Horcrux process possible. I think 
your reasoning is quite logical. Especially since encasement doesn't 
seem to be a very difficult piece of magic. 

But I would point out that encasement seems to be just as integral. 
No encasement and the soul piece would disappear "beyond the veil", 
imo. And though JKR treats the soul as an organ for the purposes of 
splitting, I don't think she means for us to believe the soul has a 
corperal quality. (I believe Debbie already pointed this out) That 
would mean that one must "encase" an essence or an ethereal... thing. 
That might have presented it's own set of difficulties to the spell's 
creator.

Re your last sentence: are you suggesting that the spell must do some 
kind of prep work on the soul to facilitate the tearing/extracting? 
Or are you suggesting that the soul piece extraction is caused by a 
seperate spell than the encasement spell? Actually, I don't see 
anything in canon that would dispute that reading. Sluggy could very 
well have been speaking of two spells. 

Hope this helps. :)
Mike