Ultimate Horcrux

[Caius Marcius]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "snow15145" <kking0731 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> 
> 
> Not much time (since Dad has been on the verge of "the next great 
> adventure") to ponder my most recent thought provoking recovery re-
> reading old posts (when I don't have time)
 so I'll just put it out 
> there raw and underdeveloped. 
> 
> Dumbledore has been said to have vanquished the Dark Lord 
Grindlewald 
> via canon, and verified to be indeed dead by JKR in the most recent 
> of interviews. If Dumbledore did kill Grindlewald, did this split 
his 
> soul? 
> 


The Hebrew commandment "Thou shalt not kill" is improperly 
translated - it should read "Thou shalt not murder" - or more 
idiomatically, "Don't murder!"  Hebrew scripture distinguishes 
murder, which is unacceptable, from killing, which is the acceptable 
taking of a life under certain sanctioned conditions:  the execution 
of a condemned criminal, the sacrifice of a ritually purified animal, 
or the taking of an enemy's life on the battlefield.  "Killing" is 
legally allowed as a way to strengthen and protect the 
community; "Murder" is a method through which an individual advances 
a radically selfish agenda, taking a life to further that 
individual's purpose, and thus lacks social sanction.

In HBP we read:

"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 commiting 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 —"

Slughorn defines the supreme act of evil as "murder," but muddies 
things up for the would-be interpreter by going on to speak 
of "killing" in the next sentence. But I'll still interpret this as 
referring to those acts of "killing" which meet the legal criteria 
for "murder."

Surely, to evoke a hypothetical situation, an Auror who killed a 
Death Eater who was about to bring bodily harm to a number of 
defenseless children would not suffer the same spiritual damage as a 
Tom Riddle who decides to kill a wealthy old woman to obtain precious 
heirlooms that were in her possession.

   - CMC