Dumbledore's Horcrux Hunt (was the Soul Shrapnel Theory)

[Mike Crudele]

No: HPFGUIDX 191232

> Steve/bboyminn wrote:
>
> <snip>
> 
> My theory as to how Harry ended up a Horcrux-like object, I will
> call the "Soul Shrapnel Theory". 
> 
> It was random chance that when the curse rebounded on Voldemort and his very unstable soul, that one bit of soul was randomly blasted in Harry's direction, and hit him like a piece of shrapnel. Finding life, the soul shrapnel clung to it. And like a bit of metal shrapnel, the soul bit didn't just bound off Harry, it cut into him, and there it found life to cling to. 

Mike:

This is the easiest to understand explanation I've heard. I like it!


> Steve continues: 
> 
> Now other bits of Voldemort's fragmented soul also went flying off in all directions, then quickly reconstituted themselves around the remaining intact part of Voldemort and his soul.

Mike:

They go blasting apart because Voldemort's soul is very unstable, Dumbledore said just that in HBP. Yep, I really like this theory, Steve.

> Steve finishes with:
> 
> So, in a sense, Harry was simply hit by some Soul Shrapnel, and once it stuck to him, it stayed stuck, it clung to the nearest and dearest life it could find, until the final book when Voldemort unstuck it himself. 

Mike:

One question: Why did the soul piece cling to Harry? Put another way, if soul bits want to seek a living body, why didn't the other soul bits attach themselves to Harry instead of reconstituting with Voldemort's main soul bit that is lifeless, "less than the meanest ghost"?


So now I'm gonna solicit some further opinions. When Hagrid shows up with baby!Harry outside of the Dursley's home, McGonagall asks Dumbledore to fix Harry's cut on his forehead before it turns into a scar (as we all know, the lightning bolt scar). Dumbledore declines to do so. 

Did Dumbledore know then that the forehead cut was a result of "Soul Shrapnel" hitting him? Did Dumbledore realize then that Harry had a piece of Voldemort's soul in him? Or did it take the events of Chamber of Secrets for Dumbledore to realize Harry's "bit" of Voldemort was a soul bit?

When do you all think Dumbledore began his search for Voldemort's Horcruxes? He seemed to have collected a lot of memories about Voldemort, going a long way back. But when did he realize that he needed to review those memories for clues on Horcruxes?

Mike