I’ve been watching the movies in the two day marathon that ABC Family (or Freeform as they keep telling me it’s being called now). It’s been a few years since I’ve read the books and now I’m wondering some things.
Voldemort accidentally made Harry a horcrux when killing his parents. What was he trying to put his piece of soul into at the time? Did he think he’s made something else a horcrux. I’m thinking he didn’t know Harry was a horcrux because it would have been stupid of him to try to kill Harry as destroying the thing kills that piece of soul (as demonstrated by the diary.)
Seeing as how making one requires a murder, a potion and a thing, you’d think The Dark Lord would have noticed making one, no?
Voldemort was not intending to make a horcrux and did not realize that a fragment of his soul had attached itself to Harry. His soul was unstable due to the creation of several previous horcruxes. Voldemort is the only wizard in the Harry Potter universe known to have even attempted more than one horcrux, so he had no way of knowing what the side effects would be. It is mentioned elsewhere in the series that Voldemort’s soul was so fragmented that he would not even notice his horcruxes being destroyed, and he presumably didn’t notice the piece that broke off when he tried to kill Harry either. His body being destroyed at the same time also presumably would have served as a bit of a distraction.
The Harry Potter wiki article on horcruxes goes into this in greater detail than I remember, but according to that it was a simplification on Dumbledore’s part to call Harry a horcrux. The article lists him as a “pseudo-Horcrux” and emphasizes that the horcrux-making spell was not used in this case, the fragment of Voledmort’s soul just latched onto the only living thing in the room.
FWIW I consider the whole horcrux thing one of the weaker aspects of the series; the “rules” aren’t that clear and IMHO the concept was introduced way too late for something that would be crucial to the ending. So I’d recommend against spending too much time thinking about it.
Yeah, I personally wouldn’t consider him any type of horcrux, and I’m not sure Rowling had even come up with the idea at that point in the series. I guess he was horcrux-like in the sense that a part of Voldemort’s soul was inhabiting his body, but he was also hosting Voldemort’s consciousness (and his face) in a way that neither Harry nor the proper horcruxes were.
ETA: Killing Quirrell also didn’t seem to harm Voldemort, although Voldemort wasn’t obviously harmed by the destruction of his horcruxes and I guess we have no way of knowing whether Voldemort could have been killed in the end if Quirrell were still alive at that point.
Voldemort didn’t go and kill Harry to create a new horocrux. He did so because of the prophecy that Trelawney had made, about how Harry* would have the power to destroy him. However, because Voldemort had not heard the entire prophecy, it didn’t end up working out the way he planned it.
Also, despite the fragile state of Voldemort’s soul, he was able to create another horocrux later on: Nagini. He did so shortly before the World Cup, after Wormtail kidnapped a Ministry employee, Bertha Jorkins. Voldemort forcibly interrogated her and that’s how they found out about the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Then after that he killed her and used her death to create a horocrux.
*The prophecy could ALSO have applied to Neville Longbottom.
Of course not. He was trying to kill Harry because he perceived him as a threat. But if he had realized Harry was a Horcurx, he should have been trying to keep him alive for as long as possible.
It is not clear to me who had complete knowledge of this prophecy. And it doesn’t matter how much he knew. He knew one of them would have to kill the other, so knowing the exact wording doesn’t make much of a difference, does it?
Dumbledore was the only one who knew the entire prophecy, until he shared it with Harry. Well, Sybil Trelawney may have been aware of it on some level, but IIRC she had no conscious memory of her rare true prophecies. Voldemort only knew what Snape overheard and reported back to him. I’m not sure which specific part he didn’t know about, but I’m guessing it’s the “he will have power the Dark Lord knows not” bit. I think you’re right that this probably wouldn’t have made any real difference to Voldemort, though.
I don’t think this is ever mentioned in the books, but presumably she does. Once Voldemort has been defeated they’re not in any special danger.
From the quote I’ve seen elsewhere, the significance is that making a Horcrux requires cursing the receptacle to become an “evil object,” while Harry clearly was not.
No, Neville killed Nagini, who was the final Horcrux - but Harry killed Voldemort.
The prophecy COULD HAVE applied to Neville as well before Voldemort decided which child to attempt to kill, but once he tried to kill Harry and marked him with the scar, it was definitely Harry that the prophecy referred to, and so Harry was able to take it from the hall.
Technically Voldemort killed Voldemort. The avadakadvra he cast rebounded on him, killing him.
Attempt 1. Voldemort attempts to kill very young Harry, who is protected by his mother’s sacrifice. The curse rebounds and due to Voldemort’s horcruxes, he can’t be killed, so a bit of his soul attaches to Harry (the cat must have run off) as the only living being.
Attempt 2. Voldemort attempts to kill Harry in the forest. Harry decides to go back to his body in a near death experience and the icky bit of Voldemort under the bench is what Voldemort killed.
Attempt 3. Voldemort tries to kill Harry in hogwarts. Voldemort and Harry simultaneously cast killing curse and disarming curse. The killing curse rebounds on Voldemort.