Horcrux – Horace Slughorn’s memories
Tom Marvolo Riddle, Voldemort discusses what would happen if the soul was split into seven pieces by the Horcrux magic. Horace Slughorn was terrified of even thinking of such idea as the life of one person is required for making a Horcrux but making seven seemed insane.
Horace Slughorn replies theoretically possible trying to think as much as possible that he might have overthought Tom Marvolo Riddle’s intentions and it was simply for academics.
Albus Dumbledore’s Theory on Voldemort’s multiple Horcruxes
Albus Dumbledore has been wondering for a long time on how Voldemort could have returned. By the real memories of Horace Slughorn and how careless Voldemort left the horcruxes,
Albus Dumbledore concludes that Voldemort really made multiple horcruxes after confirming from Horace Slughorn that is theoretically possible to split the soul multiple times.
Albus Dumbledore noted that Tom Riddle’s Diary was a horcrux but he wondered why Lord Voldemort would be so ignorant of managing it. Albus Dumbledore concluded Voldemort didn’t need to heavily protect a horcrux if he had made multiple horcruxes based.
Albus Dumbledore confirmed this thanks to Harry Potter retriveiing Horace Slughorn’s memories after Aragog’s funeral. He also realizes Voldemort’s appearance mutated like a snake as if Voldemort’s face deteriorated was because Voldemort split his soul multiple times.
Horcrux – Origins and Effect
Horcrux was one of the most terrible dark magic among all dark magic. Even the most dreadful dark witches and wizard wouldn’t dare use it. A Greek dark wizard named Herpo the Foul was the first wizard recorded to have make a horcrux.
Herpo the Foul was also the first wizard that was recorded to successfully breed a Basilisk by hatching a chicken egg beneath a toad.
A Horcrux is a dark magic that requires a sacrifice of a human life that would rip the caster’s soul and hide a fragment onto an object.
Unless the Horcrux that contains a soul fragment is destroyed, the caster’s soul shall never enter the afterworld, and thus the caster could become immortal unless the horcrux is destroyed.
Any object could become a Horcrux but the caster must murder a person to perform the horcrux magic onto an object.
Dark Wizard and Witches even avoided using the Kiling Curse, Avada Kadavra because the Kiling Curse could instantly murder a victim but it would also harm the caster’s soul.
Even the most wicked dark wizard and witches were thus careful in casting the Killing Curse because they knew that damaging the soul would cost them great pain in the afterlife.
Thus, even the evilest witches and wizard avoided horcrux magic even though it could grant conditional immortality because it would literally split and fragment the soul.
Voldemort, however, was reluctant and didn’t care of such consequences that he dared to make multiple horcruxes. By research of death in the wizardry world, a damaged soul is permanent even in the afterlife so wizards and witches would insist on keeping their soul intact. Some would say that instant death is preferred than enduring the pain of keeping a damaged soul.
Secrets of the Darkest Art – Book that had information of the Horcrux
Written by Magick Moste Evile, the Tom Marvolo Riddle or Lord Voldemort finds information of the Horcrux in this book Secrets of the Darkest Arts that was in the Restricted Section of the Library of Hogwarts. However, even in this book, the information of horcrux was limited.
Voldemort thus, flatters Horace Slughorn while giving him crystalized pineapple to induce him to a conversation of theories that Voldemort had with the horcrux.
How to create a Horcrux
Any object even a creature could become a Horcrux. The wizard or Witch who wishes to create a horcrux must first split a portion of his or her soul. In the wizardry world, murdering a person with the will and intention would damage the soul.
Thus, even the most wicked wizards and witches usually feared using the Killing Curse Avada Kadabra so they wouldn’t even think of creating a horcrux.
However, murder is mandatory to create a horcrux as a portion or a fragment of the soul is required to be stored in the object that shall become a horcrux.
After a murder of a victim with an unknown spell, the fragment that split from the murderer’s soul would be detained and captured into the horcrux.
Once every time someone creates a horcrux, a fragment of the soul would be torn off. Thus, Voldemort’s handsome appearance has deteriorated as he has created multiple horcruxes and his mentality also became more unstable afterwards.
Identity and defensive measures of a Horcrux
Once a horcrux is created, the soul fragment would remain intact in the object until the object itself is also destroyed. A horcrux would also contain the identity and consciousness of the soul that has split from its creator.
The horcrux spell itself would create defensive measures and the creator of a horcrux would cast additional defensive spells on the horcrux as it is such an important object.
However, the consciousness and the will of the horcrux creator’s soul would also drain energy or even provide dark energy to those who wield it by its own will.
The consciousness and will of the soul contained in the horcrux would also take defensive measures to protect itself as well. In other words, a horcrux had its own self-consciousness of the soul fragment of its creator.
Destruction of a Horcrux
Unless a horcrux is destroyed, the soul of the horcrux creator shall be detained from entering the after world. Thus, the horcrux served as an anchor of someone from dying and grant conditional immortality.
The will and consciousness of the soul that dwell in the horcrux itself takes defensive measures while the horcrux spell itself reinforce the horcrux.
Also, the soul itself that dwell inside the horcrux must be destroyed rather than the physical object. Thus, ordinary physical means or magic spells were useless for destroying a horcrux.
Only the most powerful substances or magic such as the venom of a basilisk or a direct killing spell that targets the soul fragment of the horcrux creator could destroy the horcrux as it would both damage the soul fragment of the horcrux creator and the horcrux that contains the soul.
Powers of a Horcrux
The soul fragment that dwell in a horcrux had its own consciousness and held magical powers. Basically, the horcrux held very powerful dark magic and it could both drain the energy of those who held it or even provide power to those who wield it.
A horcrux could drain enough energy to actually recreate a physical body form for the soul fragment of the horcrux.
Tom Riddle’s Diary was one of the examples that almost possessed Ginny Weasley and could have even used her for the resurrection of the soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle or Voldemort. Ginny Weasley was mind controlled by the powers of Tom Riddle’s Diary as the soul fragment of Voldemort would manipulate her.
Defects of a Horcrux
The Soul is the source of life and the essence of a person. Even dark wizards and witches feared the consequences of damaging a soul.
The soul would determine the personality, one’s characteristics, physical appearance and basically everything that would distinguish a person from one another.
Creation of a horcrux would split one’s soul into multiple pieces thus, after creation of one horcrux and another, the creator of the horcrux would rapidly deteriorate and lose itself in all terms of physical appearance, character and mental stability as the soul would crumble as it shrinks.
Voldemort lost his charming looks and even lost his traits as a human as he has created multiple souls. As a result, he lost his traits as a human literally and started to resemble a serpent became even cold-blooded as well.
Known horcruxes of Voldemort
Albus Dumbledore knew of Voldemort’s tendency of collecting trophies and Voldemort would never make a horcrux out of an ordinary object due to his pride and narcissistic manner.
By the private lessons of Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore concluded that Voldemort made horcruxes out of the artefacts of the four founders of Hogwarts except for Godric Gryffindor’s(Godric Gryffindor’s artefacts were kept intact with Dumbledore) and special meaningful objects to Voldemort.
By this point Gaunt’s Ring and Tom Riddle’s Diary were known horcruxes that were destroyed by the Sword of Gryffindor and the Basilisk's fang.
How could the Sword of Gryffindor destroy Horcrux
Technically, the Sword of Gryffindor couldn’t destroy a Horcrux. However, the Sword of Gryffindor that was forged by the most finesse goblin forging and molding technique possessed the power of absorbing the object’s power that it has encountered.
The Sword of Gryffindor absorbed and possessed the power of the Basilisk’s venom when Harry Potter slayed the Basilisk with Godric Gryffindor’s Sword. Thus the Sword of Gryffindor could destroy horcruxes as it absorbed and wielded the power of the Basilisks’ venom.
