Concerning Horcuxes

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 169520

Simon wrote:
> > 
> > My understanding is that you need a very powerful magic item.
Would  the item need to be in your hand?
> 
> The Diary doesn't appear to have been be a 'very powerful magic
item' pre-horcruxing. Nor, for that matter, does the snake, if it
indeed is a horcrux. <snip>

Carol responds:

Dumbledore doesn't say that the item made into a Horcrux *has* to be
powerfully magical. He says that Voldemort would prefer such an item,
and that consequently the Horcruxes are not going to be mouth organs
or tin cans ("You're thinking of portkeys," he tells Harry) but items
of significance to Voldemort. and he explains that the diary fits this
description--it's the proof that tom is the Heir of slytherin, which
suggests that he put the memory of himself that Harry entered (and
perhaps others, say using the Basilisk to kill Moaning Myrtle, which
he certainly would not have showed Harry) before the diary became a
Horcrux. It seems that the diary was created immediately, before he
left school for the summer, with the intention of manipulating someone
else into using the Basilisk to kill Muggleborns. Even after he had
killed his father and grandparents the following summer, he still
didn't know how to make a Horcrux, nor did talking with Slughorn
provide him with all the information he needed. (The ring wasn't a
Horcrux yet; it was still on his hand.)

So I would say that the object must first, for Voldemort (not
necessarily for Grindelvald or any other Horcrux maked), have personal
significance, a connection to his heritage (the ring, the diary, the
locket) or to the Hogwarts founders (the locket, the cup, "something
from Gryffindor or Ravenclaw"--most likely Ravenclaw) or to his own
restoration to bodily form (Nagini, whose venom contributed to the
potion that created his fetal form and served as the "milk" that
nourished her horrible surrogate child). I'm quite sure that Nagini is
no ordinary snake and that she, too, qualifies as "powerfully
magical." No ordinary snake would do as Lord Voldemort's familiar. On
a side note, I think she may have withstood possession better than
ordinary snakes and developed a bond with him even before she became a
Horcrux, which may be how Quirrell smuggled Vapor!mort into England.)

Logically, it doesn't make sense to use a living creature as a
Horcrux, not only because it has a mind of its own, as DD pointed out,
but because it's mortal, but perhaps Nagini, being magical, is as
long-lived as a Basilisk, in which case she would serve the purpose as
well as any object for a thousand years or so, and I don't think
Voldemort thinks that far in advance. She would also have built-in
protections, unlike rings that have to be hidden and cursed or lockets
that have to be surrounded by Inferi and protected by a horrible potion.

My own inference (DD says nothing about it) is that even for
Grindelwald, who presumably didn't share Voldemort's obsession with
relics relating to his wizarding heritage, a Horcrux should be
resistant to rotting or weathering or rust, making a golden object
(the ring, the cup, the locket) ideal for the purpose, especially if
it were magical as well.

Carol, hoping that whatever powers the locket and the cup possess can
be used for good and not destroyed when whatever protective curse is
on them is broken