Horcruxes
Appearance: Can look like any normal object on the outside. The only known Horcruxes belonged to Lord Voldemort and were a diary, a ring, a locket, a cup, a diadem, his snake Nagini, and Harry himself.
Function: To preserve a piece of the creator's soul within itself so that he or she may become immortal.
How to Use: The creation of a Horcrux is one of the darkest pieces of magic a witch or wizard can perform. One must split the soul, and in order to do so he or she must commit murder. Explicit directions are provided in Secrets of the Darkest Art, a book that was probably in the Hogwarts library when Tom Riddle was in school, but which Dumbledore most likely removed once he became headmaster. This book also warns that one's soul, after being ripped apart, is very unstable just by making one Horcrux. According to Hermione, "the fragment of soul inside [a Horcrux] depends on its container, its enchanted body, for survival. It can't exist without it" [DH6]. However, while the Horcrux is intact, the piece of soul inside it can flit in and out of someone if that person gets too emotionally attached to the object. The diary was able to feed off of Ginny Weasley's soul because she shared her secrets with it [COS17].
Notes: The Horcrux was invented by that most unpleasant (if admittedly rather talented) of wizards, Herpo the Foul, who can also claim the "credit" for creating the first Basilisk. The actual method of creating a Horcrux is never described in detail, however, no doubt in part due to the fact that the process involves a number of distinct steps, some of which are simply too horrible to mention [JKR/TLC Podcast].
While the creation of a Horcrux has therefore not been explicitly described, the destruction of Voldemort's seven is chronicled in detail. The only way to destroy a Horcrux is with "something so destructive that the Horcrux can't repair itself" [DH6]. Harry already destroyed Tom Riddle's diary in his second year with one of the few foolproof ways to do so, by stabbing it with a basilisk fang [COS17]. Dumbledore hunts down and destroys Marvolo Gaunt's ring (which also turns out to be the Resurrection Stone) with Gryffindor's sword, which had been imbued with basilisk venom from Harry second-year adventure [DH33].
The trio located the third Horcrux, Slytherin's locket, once they realized they had already seen it two years ago in Grimmauld Place: a heavy, golden locket that no one could open [OOTP6]. After learning that Sirius' brother's initials were R.A.B., the trio questioned Kreacher and learned of the locket's history and whereabouts. The original hiding place for the locket was a hard-to-reach cave by the sea, in which Harry and Dumbledore encountered Voldemort's magical protections and found the fake locket [HBP26]. Kreacher told the trio that, upon realizing what cruelty Voldemort was truly capable of, Regulus asked Kreacher to help him switch the lockets and destroy the real one [DH10]. Kreacher was unable to destroy it, but tried to keep it safe in his sleeping area until Mundungus Fletcher stole it and other Black family heirlooms. Dung revealed to the trio that it had been taken from him by non other than Dolores Umbridge [DH11]. After a complex yet quite naïve plan to infiltrate the Ministry and take the locket from Umbridge, the trio does in fact retrieve it but don't know how to destroy it [DH13]. The evil within the locket affects each of the trio, who take turns wearing it for fear of leaving it lying around. Ron is most susceptible to its effect and storms off after a particularly nasty row with Harry. Upon his return, Ron rescues Harry from the Horcrux's attempted strangulation and pulls the sword of Gryffindor from the pond. Harry is sure that Ron must be the one to destroy the Horcrux and has an epiphany that simply saying "open" in Parseltongue will open the Horcrux; well, he's right [DH19]. Like the diary, the locket, once opened, takes on aspects of its owner: where picture would normally be placed two eyes blinked out at Ron. A voice hissed from the locket, revealing that it had absorbed Ron's innermost thoughts and fears when it had hung around his neck. Two ghost-like "grotesque bubbles" bloomed out of the locket windows in the shape of Harry and Hermione, repeating his own fears back to him until, finally, he stabbed the locket and destroyed the piece of soul inside it [DH19].
The fourth Horcrux was Helga Hufflepuff's cup, which was placed for safekeeping in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts [DH26]. While Harry was off looking for Ravenclaw's diadem, Ron and Hermione got into the Chamber of Secrets (through Ron's imitation of Parseltongue), took fangs from the basilisk carcass still lying in the Chamber, and Hermione stabbed the cup [DH31].
The fifth Horcrux was Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, a tiara-like object that give the wearer more intelligence. Riddle had learned from the Gray Lady (the Ravenclaw ghost and daughter to Rowena) that she had hidden the diadem in Albania. Riddle recovered the object, transformed it into a Horcrux, and hid it in the Room of Requirement (specifically, the Room of Hidden Things, where students have stashed centuries of contraband items) when he interviewed with Dumbledore for the DADA teaching position [DH31]. Oddly enough, this Horcrux was destroyed accidentally by Crabbe when he conjured Fiendfyre and was unable to control it.
As Dumbledore had rightly guessed, Voldemort did turn Nagini into a Horcrux, a fact that Harry glimpsed when he went inside Voldemort's head [DH27]. This is further confirmed when we see that Voldemort has placed a protective orb around Nagini once he realized that his other Horcruxes have been destroyed. On a whim, as Harry walked out of Hogwarts to confront Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest, he told Neville that if anything should happen Neville must kill the snake. Fortunately for everyone, Neville does not forget. As Voldemort sets the Sorting Hat aflame on Neville's head for disobedience, Neville all of a sudden pulled the sword of Gryffindor out of the hat and decapitated Nagini as she sat on Voldemort's shoulders [DH36].
The unexpected (for some) Horcrux was Harry himself. Dumbledore revealed to Snape that on the night Voldemort tried to kill Harry and the curse rebounded on him, a fragment of Voldemort's soul was blasted apart from the whole and attached itself onto the only living soul in close proximity: Harry [DH33]. Dumbledore told Snape that Harry must die at the hands of Lord Voldemort…but that wasn't the whole story. Harry sacrificed himself, put up no fight, in order to let Voldemort destroy a piece of his own soul, which is probably what saved Harry [DH35]. Because Voldemort used Harry's blood to resurrect himself he kept Lily's protection alive and anchored Harry to the world of the living. Thus, only Voldemort's soul was destroyed because its container (Harry) experienced a type of death where Harry only went into limbo and was able to return.
JKR revealed which murders created which Horcruxes in her webchat after the release of Deathly Hallows:
The diary - Moaning Myrtle
The cup - Hepzibah Smith, the previous owner
The locket - a Muggle tramp
Nagini - Bertha Jorkins (Voldemort could use a wand once he regained a rudimentary body, as long as the victim was subdued)
The diadem - an Albanian peasant
The ring - Tom Riddle Sr.
|
