CHAPDISC: DH27, The Final Hiding Place

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184150

Carol earlier:
> > I was keeping count, of course, and since I had suspected the
tiara as the Ravenclaw Horcrux since HBP, it made no difference to my
(incorrect) view that Harry "couldn't" be a Horcrux because a Horcrux
is a deliberate creation requiring an encasing spell and because of
the complications that would ensue--Harry would have to die to destroy
the Horcrux, but Harry couldn't be "the one with the power to vanquish
the Dark Lord" if he were dead. I still think that an accidental
Horcrux is not quite the same thing as a Horcrux, but it took "The
Prince's Tale" to persuade me that I was wrong. 
> 
Jen responded: 

> I still don't think of Harry as a real Horcrux exactly.  What 
persuaded you from The Prince's Tale?  Dumbledore doesn't call him a 
Horcrux.  I guess DD wouldn't though, since he's not telling Snape
everything about the Horcuxes.  Reading Dumbledore's explanation 
again about a bit of Voldemort's soul attaching to Harry's soul made 
Harry sound more like a host than a true Horcrux.  Not that I can't 
be convinced otherwise!!  <snip>

Carol again:

I guessed you missed the part about my not thinking that an accidental
Horcrux is the same as a real Horcrux, a point on which we seem to
agree. Anyway, I was convinced that a Horcrux (or something resembling
it) couldn't be created accidentally for the reasons I cited above, so
I thought that what was in Harry's scar was not a soul bit but some of
Voldemort's powers (Parseltongue, a unique form of Legilimency, and
possibly the power of possession, which I suppose that JKR thought was
too Dark for Harry). "the Prince's Tale" showed me that I was wrong;
it *was* a soul bit and therefore Harry, the accidental Horcrux
(which, incidentally, spoiled whatever special magic was attached to
the number seven--obviously Voldemort wasn't aware of the Chinese
belief in the lucky number eight!!), had to be "killed" to release the
soul bit. that, of course, leads us to Harry's self-sacrifice (with
Snape protesting DD's pig-to-the-slaughter approach to the boy that
snape has been protecting!). 

So it's by no means my intention to convince you that Harry was a true
Horcrux. I agree that he wasn't. Obviously, Voldemort would never have
cast the encasing spell to make him one. He wanted Harry dead, and a
living Horcrux has to remain alive (which makes me wonder about
Nagini's natural lifespan. Would she have lived as long as a Basilisk,
or was it only the protective spells--or a shared life with LV--that
kept her alive as long as she didn't come in contact with Basilisk
venom?) Anyway, DD's statement that it was dangerous to create a
Horcrux that could move and think for itself always seemed to me to
miss the point. Surely, it was even more dangerous to create a Horcrux
that could be killed? (That, of course, is another reason why LV
wouldn't have made Harry or any other person into a Horcrux.)

I suppose "host" is as good as any term for Harry's relationship to
his soul bit, except that it doesn't appear to be as parasitic as
Vapormort's battered and fragmented "main" soul, which sucked the life
and power out of Quirrell and out of the lesser hosts, snakes and
small animals, that it inhabited (other than Nagini, who appears to
have been congenial to Voldemort both before and after she was
Horcruxed, very much his alter ego in female and animal form, a
magical animal functioning as his "familiar spirit"). Which takes us
back to accidental Horcrux or quasi-Horcrux. Harry's soul bit acted as
a Horcrux in helping to keep LV alive, but it was not a true Horcrux
in having been deliberately created and having additional protections
placed on it, nor did it require Basilisk venom to kill Harry and
destroy the soul bit. An AK would have sufficed, at least till the
shared drop of blood complicated matters. Harry's soul bit is also
different from the other soul bits (except Nagini's, which can
communicate directly and deliberately with LV, a two-way connection)
in that it still maintains a connection to the "main" soul. (I suspect
that Diary!Tom would have found his way to Vapor!mort and reanimated
him, but only after he had stolen Ginny's life and soul. As long as
that soul bit was confined to the diary, it had no more connection to
LV than the locket, the ring, the cup, and the tiara. Harry's
accidental Horcrux, ironically, maintains a connection that Voldemort
never intended to create.

Carol, now wondering how the cup and tiara soul bits would have
manifested themselves if they had not been destroyed