The proper use of Horcruces

[davewitley]

(I think the plural should be -ces, not -cii, if it's Latin.  Third 
declension, I presume.  If English, -xes)

I'm looking forward to Lyn's Grand Universal Theory of Horcruces.  
In the meantime, I think one thing that makes it difficult to know 
how they're supposed to work is the curious incident of Voldemort's 
body.

Where did it go?  If we go with the assumption that Voldemort simply 
intended to kill Harry, and then make a Horcrux based on that, and 
that the AK somehow 'bounced' off Lily's protection, then why wasn't 
there a dead Voldemort body?

Well, presumably, his pre-existing Horcruces prevented him from 
dying - but, had he suffered an ordinary assassination attempt (or 
dragon pox, or whatever), what would have happened?  Would the soul 
(the bit still in his body) have detached and then reattached itself 
to the corpse?  If his body was severely damaged (like head totally 
detached), would the damage heal or what?

Or would it stay a corpse or vanish, requiring the disembodied soul 
to find a new body, as in fact Voldemort had to do?  In effect, was 
Vapourmort the natural consequence of (earlier) Horcrux use, or a 
special product of the combined AK, Lily's protection, and whatever 
Voldemort had done to prepare for this last Horcrux?

David, still trying to think through a coherent sequence of events 
for Godric's Hollow