Horcrux

A Horcrux is a magical object in the fictional Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. The first known example of such an object was introduced in the second novel of the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, although the concept of the Horcrux was only explained in the sixth novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Horcruxes play a large part in the seventh and concluding book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows .

Description

A Horcrux is a "receptacle in which a Dark wizard has hidden a fragment of his soul for the purposes of attaining immortality." With part of a wizard's soul thus stored, the wizard becomes immortal so long as the Horcrux remains intact, typically hidden away in a safe location. If the wizard's body is destroyed, part of the soul remains preserved within the Horcrux. However, the destruction of the Horcrux creator's body leaves the wizard in a state of half-life, without corporeal form. The dark magic involved in the creation of a Horcrux is considered most despicable and is therefore rarely published, even in books devoted to the Dark Arts.

A Horcrux can be made from any normal object. Destruction of the Horcrux destroys the fragment of soul contained within it, ending the protection it provides, and rendering the creator mortal if there are no remaining Horcruxes. A wizard must have at least one piece of his soul intact on Earth in order to continue living. Thus, if all of the Horcruxes created by one wizard were destroyed, then there would be no way for the wizard to return after being killed, as his death would release the last piece of his soul from mortal existence.

Lord Voldemort is the only wizard explicitly mentioned as having created a Horcrux (though others are known to have done so) and is the only wizard known to have created more than one.

The idea is similar to the story of Koschei, who is said to have taken his soul and put it inside a needle, which is in an egg, which is in a duck, which is in a hare, which is in an iron chest, which is buried under a green oak tree, which is on the island of Buyan, in the ocean, all in an attempt to achieve immortality.

Creation

The specific spell is unknown, but the creation of a Horcrux requires the creator to commit a murder which, as "the supreme act of evil," "rips the soul apart". Once the murder is committed, the spell is cast to infuse one portion of the ripped soul into an object, which becomes a Horcrux. There is no apparent limitation on the nature of the items that can be made into a Horcrux; even living creatures may be used. There also seems to be no limit to how many Horcruxes a wizard can create, but in Voldemort's case, each time he split his soul and created another Horcrux, he lost more of his humanity.

Horcruxes within the Harry Potter novels

Lord Voldemort's creation of Horcruxes is central to the later storyline of the Harry Potter novels.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore states that he believes it is likely that Voldemort created six Horcruxes from six important murders, and kept the remaining portion of his soul within his body, thus keeping his soul in seven separate locations. Voldemort chose to do so as seven is a powerful, mystical number (see Bridget Wenlock). Thus, anyone wishing to completely kill Voldemort must first locate and destroy all of his Horcruxes, before attempting to eliminate the remainder of his soul that resides in his body.

Dumbledore believed that all of Voldemort's Horcruxes are objects that have had some importance or sentimental value to him. Since he can only create a Horcrux through a deliberate act of murder, knowing the setting and circumstances of Voldemort's murderous acts can yield clues to the possible location and form of his Horcruxes.

However, assuming that the identities of the Horcruxes are correct as theorized by Dumbledore, Voldemort has never achieved his desired total of seven parts to his soul. The diary was destroyed at the end of The Chamber of Secrets, while it is believed that Voldemort only created his sixth and final Horcrux (the great snake Nagini) at the beginning of The Goblet of Fire.

Known Horcruxes

There were two confirmed Horcruxes that were recovered in the first six books of the series, and whose soul fragments were subsequently destroyed.

File:Riddle's Diary.jpg

Tom Riddle's diary: one of the Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort, as seen in the film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

• Tom Riddle's diary was previously in Lucius Malfoy's custody, along with other former Dark possessions of Lord Voldemort. In Harry's second year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lucius Malfoy secretly slips the diary in with Ginny Weasley's school supplies while she shops at Flourish & Blotts bookstore. She unwittingly takes the diary back to Hogwarts, and subsequently falls under the influence of Riddle's "memories", opening the Chamber of Secrets and releasing Slytherin's Basilisk. For a short time, Harry comes into possession of the diary, and begins a dialogue with Riddle. Regaining the diary from Harry, Ginny is captured and taken to the Chamber of Secrets. Coming to her rescue, Harry confronts Riddle and then realises there is a connection between the diary and Riddle's manifestation. Without knowing the diary is a Horcrux (or even what a Horcrux is), Harry destroys it, along with the Riddle manifestation and the soul fragment, using the Basilisk's poisonous fang to stab into the pages of the diary. Harry takes the diary back to McGonagall's office, where he and Dumbledore confront Lucius Malfoy. Harry returns the diary to Malfoy, but it is not stated what became of it. Dumbledore later realises that the diary was a Horcrux, and one of many, and speculates that Voldemort only discovered that the Horcrux had been destroyed when he "forced the truth out of Lucius Malfoy", and "that his anger was terrible to behold".

• Marvolo Gaunt's ring was discovered by Dumbledore in the Gaunt shack where Voldemort hid it, during the summer shortly before the start of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts. Events of Tom Riddle's earlier life, as revealed in the Pensieve, suggested that he took the heirloom ring when he framed his uncle, Morfin Gaunt, for the murder of the rest of the Riddle family. Tom Riddle wore the gold-and-black ring at Hogwarts, and it appears on his hand in Horace Slughorn's Pensieve memories. Dumbledore destroyed the ring Horcrux, but was seriously injured in the process, with his hand appearing blackened and burned, due to a "terrible curse" placed upon the Horcrux ring. The damaged ring, with its black stone cracked down the middle, was kept for a time on a little table in the Headmaster's office; Harry later noted that it was no longer there, but received no explanation from Dumbledore. Its black stone was later found inside of the very snitch Harry had caught in his first Quidditch match that had been left to him by Dumbledore.

• Salazar Slytherin's Locket was once owned by Lord Voldemort's mother, Merope Gaunt. When Merope was homeless and starving after Tom Riddle Senior's abandonment of her during her pregnancy. She sold the locket to Caractus Burke for a tiny fraction of the Locket's true value, not having known its true value (it was priceless) or having simply ceased to care. It was then bought by Hepzibah Smith and was then stolen by Tom Marvolo Riddle. Riddle then transformed the Locket into a Horcrux and hid it in a cave by the sea in which he had once terrorized two of his fellow orphans years earlier. The Locket was then stolen by Regulus Arcturus Black and his house elf Kreacher. After having rescued the Locket from the rubbish heap, Kreacher hid the Locket in his cupboard before it was stolen from him by Mundungus Fletcher, who was then bribed into giving the Locket to Dolores Umbridge. The Locket was later disarmed after Harry opened it using Parseltongue and Ron stabbed its windows with the Sword of Gryffindor.

• Helga Hufflepuff's Cup was once owned by Hepzibah Smith, a distant descendant of Hufflepuff. It was stolen from her after her murder at the hands of Tom Riddle. The Cup, like Slytherin's Locket, went on to become one of Voldemort's many Horcruxes. He entrusted it to Bellatrix Lestrange, who kept it well hidden deep in the bowels of Gringotts Bank in her family's high security vault. After an adventurous excursion into the bank, Harry managed to steal the Cup from the vault where it was later destroyed at Hogwarts by Ron Weasley using one of the remaining fangs of Slytherin's basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.

• Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem was once owned by Rowena Ravenclaw, stolen by her daughter Helena, better known as the Gray Lady. After running away with the Diadem of her mother, Helena was pursued by none other than the Bloody Baron, who accidentally killed Helena when she refused his attraction to her. Horrified by what he'd done, he killed himself in the Albanian Forest they were in, which also happened to be where Helena hid the Diadem shortly before the Baron caught up with her. Years later, her spirit was tricked into revealing the Diadem's resting place by none other than the charming Tom Marvolo Riddle. Riddle traveled to Albania (where he would return to hide in exile many decades later) and acquired the Diadem, transforming it into a Horcrux. Years later, when he returned to request the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, he hid the Diadem Horcrux in the one place that he believed he alone knew about, the Room of Requirement. Harry was finally able to deduce the Diadem's location and it was destroyed by fiendfyre started by Vincent Crabbe.

• Harry Potter, who was said by Albus Dumbledore to be the only living entity left in the room when Voldemort's fatal Killing Curse backfired on himself. Voldemort's soul had been so weakened by his continuous creation of Horcruxes that when he was ripped from his body, a fragment of his soul was lost when he fled the scene, and the fragment attatched itself to the only living thing in the room, the infant Harry Potter. This gave Harry a window into the Dark Lord's mind and his gift of Parseltongue. Due to his use of Harry's blood to resurrect himself years later, Voldemort only succeeded in destroying his own soul fragment inside Harry rather than Harry himself when he finally attempted to kill Harry once and for all. This accounted for Dumbledore's "gleam of triumph" upon learning of Voldemort's fatal mistake in using Harry's blood, knowing that it was this mistake that would save Harry. Unlike the other Horcruxes, Dumbledore did not provide Harry with the suggestion that he could be a Horcrux; he asked Severus Snape to reveal this information to Harry at the end of his task.

• Nagini, who was said to have been transformed into a Horcrux with the murder of Frank Bryce near the beginning of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Once he realized that his other Horcruxes were no longer functional, Voldemort cast a powerful, bubble-like protective shell around Nagini during the second Battle of Hogwarts. When he was fooled into believing that Harry Potter was dead, he carelessly removed this protective shell from around the snake. When the right distraction came, Neville Longbottom, acting on Harry's previous instructions to kill the snake should the opportunity present itself, brought the Sword of Godric Gryffindor down on Nagini, severing her head and at the same time rendering Lord Voldemort mortal once again.

Bibliography

Books

• Frazer, James George, Sir, The Golden Bough, "Chapter 67:The External Soul in Folk-Tales". (Wikisource).
• Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747532699.
• Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747538492.
• Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Bloomsbury. ISBN 074754624X.
• Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747581088.

Online resources

• Frazer, James George, Sir, The Golden Bough, "Chapter 67:The External Soul in Folk-Tales". (Wikisource).
• Rowling, J.K. . "J.K. Rowling's Official Site". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)