Eight: The Magically Neutral Number

Eight: The Magically Neutral Number

An editorial by Tricia Phillips and Kati Lebioda

J.K. Rowling herself will congratulate our genius. Ready all you Harry Potter fans? Can you take it? Can you even imagine the possibility that there are not seven, but eight pieces to Voldemort's soul?

Wait a minute, you may say, does that make Voldy stronger or weaker? Or does it do both? Eight is not the most magically powerful number, which would make him weaker, but no one knows that there are eight. Everyone will think there are seven and assume Voldy is mortal. Would that not make him more powerful?

Well guess what. We're not talking about whether this makes him stronger or whatever, but we're just going to talk about how this incredibly amazing theory.

Background Information

Everyone on the planet is pretty sure that there are seven Horcruxes. Well, six, and the seventh piece of his soul is in himself. We can trace four: Voldy, the ring, the diary, and Slytherin's locket. People have been speculating that he wanted something from the four houses, which gives us something from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor. Slytherin is covered by the locket. Now this would be seven, would it not? However, as Dumbledore pointed out prior to his death, Nagini is most likely a horcrux as well. For all of those who can count, that would make eight and the beginning to our theory.

On a complete side note, it would have been smarter for him if he used a nice rock. Who would be able to trace a rock for heaven's sake? Oh no, Voldy has to be egotistical and make everything large, shiny, and completely traceable, when he could have, just as easily, used six rocks and thrown them into the bottom of the ocean or something. Then he would be immortal. End of series.

It is widely accepted that Voldy fancied the number seven. His conversation with Slughorn about horcruxes in the first place and how it would be more powerful to have seven pieces, seven being the most magically powerful number, is proof enough. It's under every major theory for book 7, so it seems redundant to include the quote in this one.

Back to the theory. It is known he wanted something from each house {he likes shiny things, remember?}.

"The remaining two, assuming again that he created a total of six, are more of a problem, but I will hazard a guess that, having secured objects from Hufflepuff and Slytherin, he set out to track down objects owned by Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Four objects from the four founders would, I am sure, have exerted a powerful pull over Voldemort's imagination." HBP, pg 505, U.S. Edition

Hufflepuff's object, being the cup, is also accounted for, giving us a total of five pieces of his soul, out of the assumed seven. Ravenclaw's object is unknown, however J.K. Rowling has confirmed that the Sorting Hat, when it talks on its own, comes from the founders themselves. (The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview J.K. Rowling: Part Two) Asking the Sorting Hat about relics would give us, not only Ravenclaw's but Gryffindor's as well.

Dumbledore believes that the only known relic of Gryffindor's is the sword, which is safe. However, Slytherin has multiple relics, and Salazar was the first to leave out of all the founders. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Gryffindor as well would have more than one relic. Moreover, Dumbledore doesn't even know of Ravenclaw's object, so it is also possible he doesn't know of another Gryffindor. Assuming that there is another relic, this would give us the following horcruxes: 1-Voldy, 2-the ring, 3-the diary, 4-Slytherin's locket, 5-Hufflepuff's Cup, 6-Ravenclaw's object, and 7-Gryffindor's lost relic. However, since Dumbledore believed that Gryffindor couldn't provide a relic for Voldy, he accounted for the seventh piece by counting the snake, Nagini. This is feasible, as you will soon see.

The Story

Voldemort has created his five horcruxes: the diary, the ring, Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's Cup, and Ravenclaw's thing. He has tracked down the lost Gryffindor relic and decided that he wants to use a particularly significant death to create this horcrux.

"He seems to have reserved the process of making Horcruxes for particularly significant deaths. You would certainly have been that. He believed that, in killing you, he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined. He believed he was making himself invincible. I am sure that he was intending to make his final Horcrux with your death." HBP, pg 506.

Voldy travels to Godric's Hollow with the Gryffindor relic. It is too coincidental that the Gryffindor relic is used with the death of the son of two well-known Gryffindors in Godric's Hollow, of all places. Using Harry's death to create his final horcrux would be ideal: he is destroying the only 'real' threat to his rise to power.

Dumbledore and Voldy alike believe that the spell failed. Upon returning to Godric's Hollow, Harry will most likely discover a Gryffindor relic among the ruins of his home, abandoned after the spell. However, it is under heavy suspicion that Harry is indeed a Horcrux. The Changeling Hypothesis (which can be found here) has an incredibly good theory as to how Harry became a horcrux. If you do not wish to read its entirety, which is strongly suggested, here is a brief summary:

There is a single spell that simultaneously kills the intended target to split the caster's soul, but also inserts the piece of soul into the desired object to become a horcrux. The theory states that the object would have to be behind the caster so that as the victim is killed, the power released comes back at the caster and the soul is split and pushed out of the caster and into the object. Because Lily died to save Harry, her love created a shield around him. When Voldy cast the Horcrux spell, it bounced off of the love shield. This caused the spell to act like it was the caster and standing in front of Harry and destroy Voldy. However, because Voldy was the caster, his body was killed and soul was split. Because of his other Horcruxes, half of his soul continued to live on and was the part that fled to Albania. The remaining part that would have gone on to be in the horcrux was sent to Harry because it was as if Harry's love shield cast the spell which would mean that Harry was the intended object. This may not make a lot of sense to you, but there are some very handy diagrams in the explanation and much more detailed. We suggest you go read it.

That Harry is a horcrux is further proved by the prophecy itself: "he will have power the Dark Lord knows not". Harry, essentially, has the power to make Voldy mortal, and Voldy has no idea that he has that power.

Due to the unfortunate circumstances, Voldy is still one Horcrux short, or so he believes. He then creates his 8^th soul-split and puts the piece in Nagini. However, Dumbledore is incorrect:

"As we know, he failed. After an interval of some years, however, he used Nagini to kill an old Muggle man, and it might then have occurred to him to turn her into his last Horcrux." HBP, pg 506.

Dumbledore thinks he has it all figured out. Well guess what. He doesn't. Voldy couldn't have decided to turn Nagini into a Horcrux post muggle man because we know from Priori Incantatem in GOF that Harry witnessed the murders from Voldy's wand in reverse. The only person he killed post-muggle-man was Cedric. It is feasible, however, that he used Bertha Jorkins, who was the only other person killed after the Potters, because she provided vital information to allow him to return to his former body. Moreover, the diary fed itself into another being. The snake, via the milk used to feed Voldy, could also provide strength to his 'self'. After all, the snake is a living thing, and J.K. Rowling has stated that, in CoS, if Ginny had died, and Tom had escaped the diary, it would have "strengthened the present-day Voldemort considerably." --JKRowling.com. Well, why would it have strengthened him? One must question what happens to the soul after a Horcrux is destroyed. It is our belief that the soul returns the body, or original soul. If the body can be destroyed, but the soul remains because parts of it remain on earth unharmed, then the soul is not destroyed. It wanders. When the diary was destroyed, essentially, half of Voldy's soul returned to him--the soul with the magical powers and memories. It was half of his soul, because the diary was his first Horcrux. While destroying the Horcruxes may help Voldy regain his powers and strength, it also pushes him along the path to mortality.

Conclusion

So, now what? Voldy turned Nagini into a Horcrux, Harry is one {as opposed to a Gryffindor object}, Ravenclaw's object, Hufflepuff's cup, Slytherin's locket, the ring, and the diary. There are eight pieces to Voldy's soul, and only we, the readers, know. Will Harry figure it out before he sacrifices himself, leaving Ron and Hermione to battle a still-immortal Voldy? Only time will tell...