please, can you read this Harry-potterquestionnaire and keep it in mind when

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178010

Katty Geltmeyer wrote:
>
> Hey
> Perhaps, someone of you was lucky enough to obtain a golden ticket
for j.K. Rowling's "open book tour" in the USA or Canada.
> 
> Please, can you read this questionnaire and keep it in mind while
you are listing your own "things to ask"?
> 
> I had no chance to obtain a ticket, because I'm not living in the
USA or Canada. <snip>

Carol responds:

I have no chance to obtain a ticket, either, but I can answer a few of
your questions.

> 4: Some questions about horcruxes:
> 
> a: How does the proces of making a horcrux exactly work? I mean: is
the murder, necessary to make a horcrux, needed to happen
simultaneously? If that's the case, how could the murder of the
Riddle-family be used for making a horcrux? I thought at the moment of
the murders, Voldemort didn't know how to make one.

Carol responds:

It's unclear from Tom's conversation with Slughorn whether he already
knew how to make a Horcrux, but DD thinks that he did. It seems that
the diary was already a Horcrux at that time (made with Maoaning
Myrtle's murder, according to a JKR interview), but the ring, which
Tom was wearing, was not yet a Horcrux because tom didn't know if a
wizard could make more than one. Since he later made it into a Horcrux
using his father's murder (the interview again), it's clear that a
Horcrux does not need to be made on the spot at the time of the murder.
> 
Katty:
> b: Is it necessary for the horcruxmaker to kill somebody by himself,
or can he only cause the murder? I thought Hokey killed her mistress
by using a poison, so, Hokey committed murder and was the acting
person. If you have to commit murder for splitting your soul, houw
could Voldemort use this murder for making a horcrux? How did he kill
Hepsiba Smit then?

Carol:
Actually, Winky didn't kill Hepzibah Smith. Tom Riddle did, by
poisoning Hepzibah's tea. He planted the memory of the murder in
Winky's mind, just as he planted the murdr of the Riddles in Morfin's
mind, so that she'd think she did it (accidentally, of course). 

Katty:
> d: By making a horcrux, is poisoning someone as usefull as using the
killing curse, strangling somebody or another directly way of killing?

Carol:
I'm pretty sure that murder is murder in the HP books (though perhaps
the murder of Cedric wouldn't have counted because LV didn't perform
it himself). In the case of Moaning Myrtle's murder, the Basilisk
killed her on Tom's orders, but it was still a murder that Tom could
use to create a Horcrux because the Basilisk was his instrument as
much as his wand was in murdering the Riddles. So, whether a murder is
committed using a snake or poison or a wand (or a twelve-inch knife,
if you're Sirius Black trying to murder Peter Pettigrew), it's still a
murder and it splits the soul. (Voldie is guilty of murdering Snape
even though he used Nagini rather than a wand, right?)


> 
> 13: Was Merope a witch or a squib (as her father called her, or was
he just insulting her)?

Carol responds:

We're told that she was a witch who either performed an Imperius Curse
or, more likely, created a love potion to use on Tom Riddle Sr. Also,
she had a wand, which she could not have had if she were a Squib. Her
father (the brute) was just insulting her.

Katty: 
> 20: Some questions about Fenrir
> Greyback:
> a: How old is he?
<snip>
> c: Was he an adult or a child when he received the bite? He seemed
to be old enough to have received a wand (cf. dh23), so is this an
indication to find how old he was at the time he was bitten?

Carol:

We have enough information to speculate a bit here. Clearly, Greyback
is older than Remus Lupin, the first and only werewolf to attend
Hogwarts, who's 38 when he dies. Also, Greyback must have been an
adult when he bit the child Lupin. Despite not going to Hogwarts, he
must have received his wand at age eleven like any other wizard. He
may or may not have been a werewolf at this time (I'm guessing that he
was or he'd have attended Hogwarts), but he could have purchased the
wand (along with his parents) on a day when he wasn't transformed,
just as Remus Lupin, bitten as a small child, must have done. I don't
see how his having a wand relates to the age at which he was bitten.
However, as hardened as he is in crime and as bitter as he is against
(normal) wizards, not to mention his still having wolflike traits when
he's not transformed, I'm guessing that he's been a werewolf for a
long time. At a guess, he's at least 58 (adding 20 to Lupin's age at
death).

Carol, also wondering about the Elder Wand's core, since no core is
mentioned in the story of the three brothers