Horcrux

A '*horcrux* is a canonical type of dark artefact used to hold a fragment of the creator's soul, so that they may survive death; this fragment will stay intact as long as the vessel carrying it does. In order to produce a soul fragment that can be stored in a horcrux, the creator must commit murder, but the rest of the process is not described.

## Canonical information

Main article: **Horcrux** at *The Harry Potter Wiki*
There are only two known creators of a horcrux: Herpo the Foul in Ancient Greece and Tom Riddle, later known as Voldemort. The latter in fact created six, splitting his soul into the magically powerful number of seven pieces; he may have been the first to conceive the idea of creating more than one.

Even most practitioners of the Dark Arts seem to despise and/or fear the concept of the horcrux, and so there is very little information available on them. They are mentioned briefly in *Magick Moste Evile*, and *Secrets of the Darkest Art* is the only known book to give detailed information about their creation and use; it was available in the Restricted Section of Hogwarts Library until Dumbledore became Headmaster and moved it to his office. It also states that it is possible to reunite a soul fragment with the main soul if the creator feels genuine regret and remorse for the act made to create it, but that the process of doing so is extremely painful and potentially fatal.

Objects used to create horcruxes become extraordinarily durable, and appear completely impervious to most known magical and physical methods of destruction. The known ways of destroying a horcrux are:

* Basilisk venom
* Fiendfyre
* The Killing Curse (at least on a living horcrux; whether it is effective on objects is not known)
* The touch of sacrificial love

The soul fragment housed within a horcrux will retain the personality of the creator at the time of its creation and the ability to think, and also gains certain magical abilities such as to influence the mental state of people in its vicinity and even fully possess them if they develop emotional ties to it; in the latter case it will slowly drain their life force, which it can use to communicate, move, manifest a physical body and even work magic if it gains access to a wand.

In order of creation, Voldemort's horcruxes are:

* T. M. Riddle's diary (Myrtle Warren killed in June 1943)
* Marvolo Gaunt's ring (Tom Riddle Sr killed in August 1943)
* Salazar Slytherin's locket (A muggle tramp killed sometime between 1946 and 1979)
* Helga Hufflepuff's cup (Hepzibah Smith killed sometime between 1946 and 1979)
* Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem (an Albanian peasant killed sometime between 1946 and 1979)
* (Harry Potter (Lily Potter killed on 31 October 1981) was not intentionally made into a horcrux, and may be referred to as a *pseudo-horcrux*)
* Nagini (Bertha Jorkins killed in the summer of 1994

## Non-canonical information

### *The Code*

In this story, originally published starting in 2006 (i e before *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*), Tom Riddle's Special Award for Services to the School trophy is one of the horcruxes; after using a fake copy as bait to catch a Death Eater, Dumbledore destroys it with a Killing Curse. It is also said that a *soul-fracture* (the result of the murder, but before the soul fragment is fully separated) can cause "weakness, fatigue, insomnia, and other such somatic complaints [and] also negatively impact magic-casting", but that the creation of a horcrux removes these problems, and it is speculated that a horcrux placed in a powerful object that has magical energy of its own will let the creator leech off that energy and grow more powerful. Further, even before the trophy horcrux is destroyed, Voldemort performs a ritual to reclaim the horcrux stored in Nagini, giving him a notable increase in power.

### *The Girl Who Loved* and *Violence Inherent in the System*

In this Sailor Moon crossover story, love-based Lunar Avatar magic is capable of destroying the soul fragment of a horcrux without damaging its container; the one in Harry simply disappears unnoticed the first time he transforms into his senshi form after falling into the Spring of Drowned Sailor Moon. Once they learn about the concepts of horcruxes, Sailor Mercury has no trouble finding them by scanning for Voldemort's power signature and soon all but Helga Hufflepuff's cup are taken care of; Mary Riddle brings it with her to her final confrontation with Harry, and it is cleansed at the same time as she.

### *Ignore the Dementor*

When one of the dementors ordered to kiss Harry during the summer before his fifth year manages to catch him, it only consumes the fragment of Voldemort's soul and instead transforms Harry into a dementor himself (albeit with the ability to possess his now soulless body, allowing him to mostly hide this state of affairs). As such he eats most of the other horcruxes as well as Voldemort's main soul, finding them extremely delicious (although Nagini is instead killed by Neville's high elf magic during the final battle).

### *The Power of Seven*

Here, the soul fragment in Harry is destroyed by him performing a soul bond ritual with seven different witches. Meanwhile, Dumbledore manages to overcome the curse placed on Marvolo Gaunt's ring, whereupon the fragment in it in turn manages to snare him by pretending to be the soul of Gellert Grindelwald pulled back from the dead by the Resurrection Stone, and eventually possesses him. The main fragment abandons his reconstructed body for Dumbledore's, planning to "reluctantly" accept the role as Minister that will no doubt be offered to him after having once again emerged victorious from battle with a Dark Lord. However, since he no longer uses a body that incorporates Harry's blood, this means he is no longer immune to the touch of sacrificial love...

## References

1. ↑ *The Code*, Chapter 16
2. ↑ *The Code*, Chapter 25
3. ↑ *The Code*, Chapter 26
4. ↑ *The Code*, Chapter 12
5. ↑ *The Code*, Chapter 8
6. ↑ *The Code*, Chapter 20
7. ↑ *The Code*, Chapter 24
8. ↑ *The Girl Who Loved*, Chapter 5
9. ↑ *The Girl Who Loved*, Chapter 6
10. ↑ *Violence Inherent in the System*, Chapter 19
11. ↑ *Violence Inherent in the System*, Chapter 20
12. ↑ *Violence Inherent in the System*, Chapter 21
13. ↑ *Ignore the Dementor*, Chapter 1
14. ↑ *Ignore the Dementor*, Chapter 2
15. ↑ *Ignore the Dementor*, Chapter 11
16. ↑ *Ignore the Dementor*, Chapter 3
17. ↑ *Ignore the Dementor*, Chapter 10
18. ↑ *Ignore the Dementor*, Chapter 19
19. ↑ *Ignore the Dementor*, Chapter 23
20. ↑ *Ignore the Dementor*, Chapter 24
21. ↑ *The Power of Seven*, Chapter 2
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 *The Power of Seven*, Chapter 78
23. ↑ *The Power of Seven*, Chapter 20 (last scene of the chapter)
24. ↑ *The Power of Seven*, Chapter 29
25. ↑ *The Power of Seven*, Chapter 79