Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today, we’re going to be discussing the most vile of the dark arts known to the Wizarding
World of Harry Potter: Horcruxes.
For any witch or wizard, making a Horcrux is considered to be the worst kind of magic.
In fact, it is a brand of dark arts that is thought to be so evil and revolting that it
is intentionally never discussed and information on how to create one is very limited.
For this reason, many witches and wizards don’t even know what creating a Horcrux
involves.
And as it turns out, neither do we!
But here’s what we do know…
The very first known Horcrux was made in Ancient Greece by a wizard named Herpo the Foul, and
thousands of years later, Voldemort became only the second known creator of a Horcrux.
Made from magic that is so terrible in nature that even dark wizards are horrified by what
it entails, Horcruxes are creations that are unimaginable to the vast majority of the Wizarding
World.
So, when Voldemort made seven, it was a demonstration of just how incredibly evil he was.
To make a Horcrux, a damaged piece of one’s soul must be removed from the creator’s
body and put into an inanimate object or living host, making the creator immortal.
In order to do this, the witch or wizard who wishes to split their soul needs to commit
the ultimate act of violence and evil: murder.
And not just any murder, they have to deliberately kill someone without regret or remorse.
Acting in self-defence or retaliating in protection of someone else will not result in the ability
to create a Horcrux.
It must be done with the utmost evil intent, resulting in a metaphysical damaging of the
murderer’s soul.
It’s important to note that this fragmentation of the soul would occur after a murder of
this sort, regardless of whether or not the witch or wizard intended to create a Horcrux.
It’s just that one who wishes to make a Horcrux then uses the damaging of their soul
to their advantage.
In any case, after they have killed their victim, the witch or wizard uses a powerful
incantation to remove this damaged part of their soul from their body, placing it in
a vessel outside of themselves, and then performing an UNKNOWN ritual to bound the fragmented
soul to its new container.
So, what exactly happens during this disturbing ceremony?
From interviews that J.K.
Rowling has given over the years, she has said that what she imagines as the ritual
for creating a Horcrux is so vile that she doesn’t even want to say it out loud.
This, of course, is the narrative in the Harry Potter universe as well – creating a Horcrux
is so dark in nature that limited knowledge of the practice is known within the wider
wizarding community, and Albus Dumbledore forbade the instruction and the study of Horcruxes
at Hogwarts while he was Headmaster of the school.
Even books in the Restricted Section of Hogwarts’ library barely acknowledge Horcruxes existence.
The only known book to detail the creation, repercussions, and destruction of a Horcrux
is a text called Secrets of the Darkest Art.
At one point, this exact book was kept in the Restricted Section, however, after Dumbledore
realized the depth of detail it provided on how to make a Horcrux, he removed it from
the library and kept it hidden in his Headmaster’s office – unfortunately, he did so only after
Tom Riddle had found and read it.
Which still leaves us asking, what happens during this ritual?
From the theories that I have heard on the internet, here are a couple that I feel are
most plausible…
The murderer must eat part of their victim.
In other words, the unknown ritual is cannibalism.
There’s lots of good support around this theory, including the sheer fact that cannibalism
is revolting.
But for another thing, cannibalism is present in many literary works through the ages, and
Rowling has been known to find inspiration in classical literature.
Of course, there’s the issue that none of Voldemort’s victims who are linked to the
creation of his Horcruxes had anything notably missing from their bodies.
Although, as powerful as he was, it’s not out of the question that he was able to feed
off of the insides of these victims, without leaving any noticeable marks.
Another theory is that Voldemort had to give up pieces of his OWN body in order to bind
his soul to each container.
This could account for how his looks deteriorated as he gained more power and created additional
Horcruxes.
His nose became non-existent, his eyes became red slits…perhaps these were the body parts
he exchanged for immortality.
Of course, these changes could also be attributed to his crumbling humanity as he continued
to rip his soul apart.
So, other than just being an evil witch or wizard, why go through this horrifying ordeal?
Well, if the container of a fragmented soul remains intact, the soul stays within the
realm of the living for all eternity, keeping its creator alive, even if their body was
destroyed.
This is how Voldemort survived after his body was reduced to nothing when he attempted to
murder an infant Harry Potter.
And as we saw Voldemort accomplish later in the series, since his fragments of soul remained
in various Horcruxes, he was able to eventually regain a physical body, even though his original
form had been destroyed.
However, there is also the stability of the soul to consider.
Once a soul is split, it becomes incredibly unstable.
So, you can imagine just how out of control Voldemort’s soul would’ve been after splitting
seven times.
Which is why, as Dumbledore shared with Harry, it simply broke apart when he attempted to
kill Harry.
While it was originally thought that a witch or wizard could only split their soul in half,
Voldemort managed to sever his six additional times – although the seventh time, with
Harry, was unintentional.
It would seem that equal size pieces are fragmented with the creation of each Horcrux, and considering
how unstable the main part of Voldemort’s soul became, it’s clear that, even though
one could create more than a single Horcrux, there is a finite number of times one can
rip their soul apart.
In addition to the magic used to create a Horcrux, counter charms and curses were often
put upon them in order to protect the piece of soul inside.
This would look different depending on the type of spell used by the creator.
For example, the aggressive behaviour of some of Voldemort’s Horcruxes was likely due
to enhanced magic that the Dark Lord chose to bewitch them with.
This can be seen in how Tom Riddle’s diary wanted to possess Ginny Weasley’s body and
how Salazar Slytherin’s locket gave its wearer poisonous thoughts and visions to corrupt
their thinking and drive them mad.
There was also the cursed ring of Marvolo Gaunt that would’ve eventually killed Albus
Dumbledore had he not been cursed to death by Snape.
It's also interesting that the pieces of a soul found in a Horcrux directly reflects
the creator at the time in which the Horcrux was made.
Like Tom Riddle in the diary.
It’s Voldemort’s soul from when he was 16 and made this first Horcrux after murdering
Myrtle Warren.
The piece of soul is unable to grow or age, it’s more like a snapshot of their soul
at the time it was created.
This seems to differ from when a Horcrux is made out of a living object.
Can the piece of soul talk to the host?
Does it ever take over the host?
Based on Harry’s experience, as an accidental Horcrux, it would seem that the piece of the
soul co-exists in the shadows of one’s mind but can surface in certain ways.
For example, Harry has his scar which would sear in pain – and this seemed to be directly
linked to Voldemort’s emotions.
He also had Voldemort’s ability to speak Parseltongue, and at times was able to see
into Voldemort’s mind.
Side effects of creating a Horcrux include dehumanization, an unstable soul, and the
inability to find peace in death, as seen by the maimed creature that Harry encounters
in limbo after he’s been killed in The Deathly Hallows.
This brings us to the destruction of Horcruxes.
There are a few ways to destroy these pieces of dark magic, one of which could also reunite
the soul and potentially “cure” the side effects just mentioned.
In this instance, the creator has to feel such remorse as to bring his soul back together.
Apparently, this process is incredibly painful, and for witches and wizards who have fragmented
their soul in this way, an unlikely path.
Other options to eliminate a Horcrux – both living and inanimate – includes basilisk
venom, Fiendfyre, and anything that has absorbed an element capable of destroying a Horcrux,
such as basilisk venom.
Throughout the series, we see basilisk venom destroy two Horcruxes – Tom Riddle’s diary
and Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup, Fiendfyre takes out Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem, and the Sword
of Gryffindor – which Harry used to defeat the basilisk in The Chamber of Secrets, thereby
absorbing its venom – eliminates Salazar Slytherin’s locket, Marvolo Gaunt’s ring,
and Nagini.
It would seem, based on the fact that being hit with the Killing Curse removed Voldemort’s
soul from Harry, that dying could remove a Horcrux from a living host.
Although it’s unclear if Avada Kedavra could’ve take down Nagini or if her death had to come
from one of the listed weapons above – that is, basilisk venom, Fiendfyre, or suped-up
goblin-made steel.
Although, Harry was bitten by the basilisk in The Chamber of Secrets, so it stands to
reason that the Horcrux in him could’ve – or maybe even should’ve – been affected.
But since Harry was saved by Phoenix tears and didn’t die, it would seem that it remained
fully untouched.
I’m curious though, if Harry had died by basilisk venom, would Voldemort’s Horcrux
inside of him have been destroyed?
And could he have come back in the same way he did in the Deathly Hallows, sans Horcrux?
I guess we’ll never know.
What do you think?
Do you have any theories on the third mysterious step of creating a Horcrux?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
And, as always, if you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to like it and subscribe to
the channel!
Until next time…
Remember
To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.