Horcrux H Hunt

> There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good...
>
> Harry Potter to Voldemort regarding the destruction of all the Horcruxes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The **Horcrux hunt** was a mission started by Albus Dumbledore and given to Harry Potter in ***June*** of ***1997*** to find all of Lord Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes and destroy them. Albus Dumbledore began this quest in ***July*** of 1996 when he sought out and destroyed ***Marvolo Gaunt's Ring*** located in the ***Gaunt shack***. After his death at the hands of Severus Snape during the ***Battle of the Astronomy Tower***, the mission fell to Harry Potter to complete.

## Event Known Information

### Date

***July*** ***1996*** – ***2 May*** ***1998***

Harry was joined by Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and they set off in the ***aftermath*** of ***Bill Weasley*** and ***Fleur Delacour***'s ***wedding***. The hunt was difficult and took a mental and emotional toll on the trio. They eventually destroyed all of the Horcruxes by ***2 May*** ***1998***. The hunt ended with the ***death*** of Lord Voldemort at the hands of Harry Potter at the end of the ***Battle of Hogwarts***.

## History

### Background information

#### Creation of the Horcruxes

> Sir, I wondered what you know about... about Horcruxes?
>
> Tom Riddle asks about Horcruxes to his potions teacher, Horace Slughorn, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Obsessed with immortality from a young age, Lord Voldemort created a series of Horcruxes in an effort to prevent his death. A Horcrux is a vessel into which one places a piece of one's soul to protect one from mortal death. Tom Riddle created his first Horcrux around the age of 16, and this became known as Tom Riddle's Diary. He used the death of a Muggle-born student named Myrtle Warren to create it, whom he had killed with Slytherin's Basilisk, while she was in the girls lavatory.

   The following school year, Tom asked Horace Slughorn, his Potions professor, about Horcruxes and learned that it was indeed possible to create more than one. Over the ensuing years using the murders of Muggles and wizards alike, he created four more Horcruxes. These were ***Marvolo Gaunt's Ring***, Slytherin's Locket, Hufflepuff's Cup, and Ravenclaw's Diadem. He believed seven to be a magically powerful number and wished to create a seven part soul, but he seemed to save the creation of Horcruxes for murders he considered significant.

   As of Hallowe'en 1981, he had a six part soul with five finished Horcruxes, but the process had rendered his remaining soul very unstable. That evening, Lord Voldemort went to destroy Harry Potter, whom he believed to be the subject of a prophecy. This prophecy predicted that Harry may be the one with the power to destroy him. When Voldemort's unstable soul was struck with his rebounding curse, a part of it shattered off, and attached itself to Harry. Sometime after his resurrection, Voldemort created a sixth intentional Horcrux by turning his snake, ***Nagini***, into a Horcrux. As of this point, he had a seven part soul, due to the prior destruction of Tom Riddle's diary.

#### Quirrell as a temporary Horcrux

Main article: Quirinus Quirrell

> What is this magic?!
>
> Quirrell reacting to Harry's hands in the Underground Chambers, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)

Quirrell was able to penetrate the first six chambers that protected the Philosopher's Stone with mild difficulty, including the chamber in which he himself put a Troll. He reached the final chamber only to find the Mirror of Erised, and was unable to figure out how to take the Stone from it, going so far as to consider smashing the mirror.

   Eventually, Harry alone managed to reach the last chamber, and was surprised to meet Quirrell instead of Snape. Quirrell non-verbally bound Harry and summoned a wall of fire behind the door to prevent him from escaping, then, on Voldemort's command, forced Harry to look into the mirror. Harry saw his reflection with the Stone in his own trousers' pocket, and felt it indeed being transferred to his real pocket. When Harry lied about what he saw in the mirror, Quirrell unwrapped his turban to reveal Lord Voldemort's face, bound to the back of his head. Quirrell and Harry struggle for possession of the Stone.

    Quirrel's life ended then, when Voldemort forced him to attempt the murder of Harry Potter (deducing that Harry had the Stone and being unable to persuade him to give it willingly). Unfortunately, the body Quirrell and Voldemort were both sharing manifested in burns and blisters during his fight with Harry due to the protective power Harry's mother left in his skin when she died for him. It was consequently burned so horribly that Quirrell collapsed and died (Voldemort, however, was merely dispossessed and fled). However, despite being effectively turned into a living Horcrux — like Nagini — for the last year of his life, Quirrell did not ultimately lose his soul, having even tried to put up feeble resistance on occasion (in spite of the fact that Voldemort was far too strong for him).

### Albus Dumbledore discovering the secret

#### Harry destroying Tom Riddle's diary

> Funny the damage a silly, little book can do. Especially in the hands of a silly, little girl.
>
> Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)

    In 1993, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was under siege from an unseen terror. The Chamber of Secrets had been opened once more and the terror within unleashed upon the school's population. After several students had been petrified, Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger managed to solve the mystery. After discovering a few cryptic clues and a mysterious diary, they realised that the monster that had been petrifying the students was a Basilisk and that the entrance to the Chamber was located in Myrtle Warren's bathroom. Unfortunately, Hermione also became a victim of the Basilisk before they could solve the mystery.
When Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber by the monster, Harry and Ron went to find her. They attempted to give their information to Gilderoy Lockhart, who had been tasked with finding Ginny, only to find out that he was fraud and that he was about to flee the castle. At wand point, Harry and Ron took Lockhart to Myrtle's bathroom and discovered the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. After the three of them entered the Chamber, Lockhart attempted to erase the memories of Harry and Ron. The wand backfired, causing Lockhart permanent mental damage and a cave in. While Ron created an exit through the rocks, Harry ventured deeper into the Chamber.

    Harry discovered Ginny laying on the ground and was informed by Tom Riddle, the boy from the mysterious diary, that she was almost dead. When Harry tried to warn Tom of the great danger, Tom explained that he was the great danger, being the boy who would become Lord Voldemort. He then summoned the Basilisk from the depths of the Chamber. Harry was able to kill the Basilisk with the aid of Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix. However, Harry was badly injured by a Basilisk fang. Fawkes healed Harry's wound, but Riddle was still about to kill Harry with his own wand.

    At that moment Fawkes swept Riddle's diary into Harry's hands, and Harry stabbed the diary with a fang. He did this instinctively, without any prior knowledge that it would destory the diary. Riddle disappeared, and Ginny's vitality was restored. She explained to Harry that she had been setting the Basilisk on the student population, because she had been possessed by Tom Riddle through the diary. When Harry, Ron, Ginny, Lockhart, and Fawkes triumphantly returned to Minerva McGonagall's office, Harry explained everything that had happened including the diary's possession of Ginny to Dumbledore.

    Harry's description of the events and the diary's part in said events piqued Dumbledore's interest. He had been suspicious of Voldemort's experiments with dark magic for years. After years of careful consideration, Dumbledore had come to the conclusion that Voldemort had created Horcruxes to ensure his immortality, but he had no proof. When Harry brought the diary to Dumbledore, he thought he finally had the evidence to confirm his theory. What troubled Dumbledore most of all was the lax nature of the diary's security. As it contained a part of Voldemort's soul, Dumbledore thought that it should have been hidden and not recklessly thrown into danger, risking its destruction. He came to the conclusion that Voldemort must have created more than one Horcrux, but once again he had no proof.

##### Harry's sacrifice

> You were the seventh Horcrux, Harry, the Horcrux he never meant to make.
>
> Dumbledore and Harry speaking in the limbo about the Horcruxes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

    While the battle was still in full swing, Harry, Ron, and Hermione ventured down to the ***Shrieking Shack***. They knew that was where Voldemort was located and believed that ***Nagini*** would be with him. After witnessing Nagini kill Severus Snape, Harry collected a string of memories from the dying man. During a one hour ceasefire, Harry discovered that *he* was an unintended Horcrux from Snape's memories. In order to destroy Voldemort, he had to allow the Dark Lord to kill him. Harry also found out that Severus Snape was loyal to Dumbledore after all, because he had been in love with Harry's mother and that Dumbledore was dying and asked Snape to kill him.

Harry left the castle under his Cloak of Invisibility. Along the way he entrusted Neville Longbottom to kill Nagini. He followed two Death Eaters back to their camp. There, he willingly let Voldemort kill him, fully intending to die. Fortunately, the blood from Harry in Voldemort allowed Harry to survive, while the piece of Voldemort's soul inside him was destroyed.

##### Voldemort's death

> There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me now, Riddle. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good.
>
> Harry Potter and Voldemort's final discussion with each other, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

    A few minutes later, Harry revealed himself and faced Voldemort. He explained everything to Voldemort - Snape's true loyalty, Dumbledore's plan, and the Elder Wand's true master (first Draco, now Harry himself), and even offered Voldemort the chance for trying to be remorseful, which Voldemort refused. Having been told of his mistakes, Voldemort tried to kill Harry with the Killing Curse once and for all, but all did not go according to plan.

When Voldemort tried to kill Harry with the Elder Wand, Harry's mastery of the Elder Wand (which he obtained earlier by Disarming the previous master, Draco Malfoy) caused the Elder Wand to refuse to harm its true master: the Killing Curse rebounded, the Elder Wand went soaring through the air into Harry's hand, and Voldemort was destroyed once and for all.

## See also

* Horcrux
* Tom Riddle
* Killing Curse

## Appearances

* *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* (film) (First Entire Appearance)
* *Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince* (film)
* *Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (film)*
* *Harry Potter: The \_\_\_ Vault*
* *Harry Potter: The \_\_\_ Vault*

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 *Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince* (film)
2. ↑ *Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (film)*
3. ↑ , Chapter 10 (*Mandrakes; Ron's Howler*)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 , Chapter 16 (*No Longer Safe*)
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 , Chapter 17 (*Duelling-Club*)
6. ↑ , Chapter 18 (*An-Parselmouth*)
7. ↑ *Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (film)*
8. ↑ *Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (film)*
9. ↑ *Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (film)*