Of Patronuses and Horcruxes (was: And the Trelawney award goes to...

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 177260

The current thread on how far predictions matched up with 
the final events has been an interesting one to browse.

I did have three things which I wanted to happen or, as the 
case may be, not to happen which I carefully did not publish 
and which in the event I claimed about one and a half of 
them in a post on one or other of the groups to which I 
regularly write.

I was more open in writing regularly that I expected Harry 
to live and I did not believe that he was a Horcrux because 
of that assumption. but of course, we now know that we were 
apparently wrong as Dumbledore pointed out:

"'You were the seventh Horcrux, Harry, the Horcrux he never 
meant to make." 
(DH "King's Cross" p.568 UK edition)

But I believe that, whether deliberate or not,  we have been 
on the receiving end of misdirection and misinformation on 
the part of JKR in two areas – Patronuses and Horcruxes.  In 
HBP and DH, she has unveiled two new models: the Patronus 
version 2.0 and the Horcrux version 2.0 which offer improved 
performance.

Dwelling for a moment on the Patronus, let us consider the 
specification for the Patronus version 1.0:

`"The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced 
magic, Harry – well beyond 
Ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm."
"How does it work?" said Harry nervously.
"Well, when it works correctly, it conjures up a Patronus," 
said Lupin, "which is a kind of Anti-Dementor – a guardian 
which acts as a shield between you and the Dementor."
Harry had a sudden vision of himself crouching behind a 
Hagrid-sized figure holding a large club. Professor Lupin 
continued, "The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a 
projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds on – 
hope, happiness, the desire to survive – but it cannot feel 
despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can't hurt it. 
But I must warn you, Harry, that the Charm might be too 
advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty 
with it."
"What does a Patronus look like?" said Harry curiously.
"Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it."'
(HBP "The Patronus" p.176 UK edition)

But our new Patronus is a different beast. It isn't a protective 
guardian, it seems to be primarily for communicating with 
others. Snape's is a doe, while McGonagall even manages a 
triple Patronus:

`She marched towards the door and, she did so she raised 
her wand. From the tip burst three silver cats with spectacle 
markings round their eyes. The Patronuses ran sleekly 
ahead
.'
(DH "The Sacking of Severus Snape" p.480 UK edition)

And we know that apparently their appearance can be 
changed:
`"And incidentally," said Snape, standing back to allow 
Harry to pass him, "I was interested to see your new 
Patronus."'
(HBP "Snape Victorious" p.153 UK edition)

So we have a revised version Patronus. How about the 
new Horcrux?

In the Pensieve memory which Harry retrieved from 
Slughorn, we find the following:
`"A Horcrux is the word used for an object in which 
a person has concealed part of their soul."
"I don't quite understand how that works, though, 
sir," said Riddle.
His voice was carefully controlled but Harry could 
sense his excitement.
"Wel;l, you split your soul, you see," said Slughorn, 
"and hide part of it in an object outside the body
.."


.:How do you split your soul?"
"Well," said Slughorn uncomfortably, "you must 
understand that the soul is supposed to remain
 intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, 
it is against nature."
"But how do you do it?"
"By an act of evil – the supreme act of evil. By 
committing murder. Killing rips the soul apart. 
The wizard intent upon creating a Horcrux would 
use the damage to his advantage: he would encase 
the torn portion –"
"Encase? But how –"
"There is a spell, do not ask me, I don't know" said 
Slughorn

'
(HBP "Horcruxes"  from pp. 464/65 UK edition)

We know that up to DH, Voldemort deliberately 
created six Horcruxes:the diary, the ring, the locket, 
the cup, the diadem and Nagini.

However, we know more than Voldemort:
`"
. If there comes a time when Lord Voldemort stops 
sending that snake forth to do his bidding but keeps 
it safe beside him, under magical protection, then, I 
think, it will be safe to tell Harry."
"Tell him what?"
Dumbledore took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
"Tell him that on the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill 
him, when Lily cast her own life between them as a 
shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort 
and a fragment of Voldemort's soul was blasted apart 
from the whole and latched itself on to the only living 
soul left in that collapsing building. Part of Voldemort 
lives inside Harry
."'
(DH "The Prince's Tale" pp.550/51 UK edition)

`"You were the seventh Horcrux, Harry, the Horcrux he 
never meant to make. He had rendered his soul so 
unstable that it broke apart when he committed those 
acts of unspeakable evil, the murder of your parents 
and the attempted killing of a child. But what escaped 
from that room was even less than he knew. He left part 
of himself latched to you, the would-be victim who had 
survived."'
(DH "King's Cross" p.568 UK edition)

So we have a number of differences which applied to Harry 
when he became the prototype Horcrux 2.0 and Voldemort's 
seventh.

First, he is the only human Horcrux. Except Nagini, all the 
others are inanimate objects. Dumbledore said, in HBP, that 
it was dangerous to make a living Horcrux which had 
happened, unknown to him, in this event. Second, does 
the "latching" onto the nearest living soul create the same 
result as "encasing" a soul fragment using the correct spell?

This does throw up a side issue at this point. Voldemort 
used murders to create the six Horcruxes we listed. But, 
he has carried out more than six murders. So his soul has 
been split more than six times. Surely this means that the 
soul fragments which have not been used for Horcrux 
creation are still in Voldemort and his soul resembles a 
broken cup in pieces on the kitchen floor, all together 
but not linked. When the curse backfired at Godric's 
Hollow on the fateful Hallowe'en night, his soul was
obviously split again. But why didn't the torn piece just 
remain with the other "wreckage" in Voldemort. Why, 
on this occasion, was the fragment `blasted apart'?

I think those of us who argued against Harry being a 
Horcrux should claim a moral victory; Harry wasn't  a 
`standard' Horcrux created by the usual method. His 
conversion to a Horcrux was unplanned and unseen by 
Voldemort and designed by JKR to pull the rug from 
under those of us who dearly wanted Harry to be safe 
and well.

Sneaky.
:-)