Why destroy horcruxes

In addition to this, Voldemort attempts to kill Harry at the beginning of The Deathly Hollows using a different wand not the one that is connected to Harry's but this also fails. When Voldemort finally "succeeds" at killing Harry Potter, he is using the Elder wand. This leads me to believe that the Elder wand can be used to destroy a horcrux. This theory makes sense when you consider the origin of the Elder wand It was created by death itself , and the fact that the previous attempts to destroy a horcrux using the Avada Kedavra curse failed.

However, when Ron attempts to kill Nagini with the Killing Curse , it ricochets off of her. This is most likely because Nagini was an intentional Horcrux, while Harry was not. You must put the Horcrux beyond the power of magical reconstitution, magic can't repair certain damage, Basilisk Venom, Fiendfyre, it's suggested that there are other Substances even more dangerous than Fiendfyre that will work but no details are given, and certainly there are curses that leave indelible damage and in the case of the living death is beyond the power of magic to repair so killing curses or mortal wounds.

In the case, that we never see, of a Horcrux made from an object of a sensitive magical nature, like a wand, pure physical damage, and not much of it would probably be enough since such objects are generally irreparable through the use of magic. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How many ways are there to destroy a Horcrux?

Ask Question. Asked 8 years, 3 months ago. Active 3 years, 5 months ago. Viewed k times. Improve this question. Actually, it is implied in the books that Hermione did learn a lot about Horcruxes, including what could destroy them. Create a free Team What is Teams?

Learn more. When did each Horcrux get destroyed in the Harry Potter movies? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 8 months ago. Active 3 months ago. Viewed 1. Improve this question. I thought the first horrocrux was Professor Quirrel. Remember Harry was the horrocrux never ment to be so, technically, there were eight horrocruxes. No, Quirrel was possessed by Voldemort, but not a horcrux.

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Lord Voldemort's had only seven Horcruxes: Tom Riddle's diary. Helga Hufflepuff's Cup. Improve this answer. Community Bot 1. Vijin Paulraj Vijin Paulraj 20k 38 38 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Slytherin's locket was not destroyed until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Obviously, Voldemort was a Slytherin, but even the dark wizard Herpo the Foul had a pet Basilisk, ironically the same creature responsible for destroying most of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

The first moment the power of the Basilisk was revealed was in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Harry used the fang to destroy, unbeknownst to him, the Horcrux that was Tom Riddle's diary. The venom would then go on to power the sword of Gryffindor as well as used to destroy Hufflepuff's Cup via fang. A controversial point to be sure, but Quirrell easily could be considered a pseudo-Horcrux.

He served as a vessel for Lord Voldemort's soul. Although the anatomy of this relationship was far different than say Harry or Nagini, there is no denying that the two were deeply connected in nearly the same level. Because of this, Quirrel might be seen as the first of Voldemort's Horcruxes to be destroyed. But unlike most of these other vessels, Quirrell was destroyed not by the killing curse or a Basilisk's fang.

Instead, it was the protective charm of love that defeated the duo. Obviously, this didn't work on traditional Horcruxes, but this moment is a hallmark moment in understanding the complexity and mystery of the Horcrux mythos.

Matt Berger is a writer, comedian, actor, Paddington enthusiast, and Corgi dad. By Matt Berger Published Jun 13, Share Share Tweet Email 0. Related Topics Lists harry potter. While she wore the locket Horcrux, the evil Dolores Umbridge grew stronger. Likewise, Salazar Slytherin's locket slowly gained power when it was in the possession of Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the months prior to its destruction.

It can be theorised that the locket gained somewhat less power from them not enough for Riddle to fully manifest but still enough to speak and create illusions because Harry, Ron, and Hermione were actively resisting the locket's influence instead of embracing it as Ginny had done with the diary. Even Slytherin's locket was fairly inert when it was initially discovered in a cabinet in the drawing-room at 12 Grimmauld Place.

It displayed no powers and gave no indication that it possessed superior magical properties. Horcruxes also possessed some last line of defence against destruction. The fragment of soul within the Horcrux seems to be able to sense impending threats and can act to defend itself. For instance, Slytherin's locket viciously taunted Ron Weasley with visions of his deepest fears in the hopes of preventing him from stabbing it with Godric Gryffindor's sword , and even attempted to strangle Harry Potter when he was close to obtaining the Sword with the intent of piercing the locket.

Aside from its self-defence mechanism from the soul fragment, a Horcrux is usually enchanted by the creator to have other forms of defences to prevent destruction. Marvolo Gaunt's ring contained a deadly curse that would kill anyone who touched it. To create a Horcrux was to divide one's soul — the " essence of self " — and it was therefore in the creation of a Horcrux that one fell prey to Adalbert Waffling 's first Fundamental Laws of Magic , which essentially stated that tampering with one's soul inevitably resulted in grave side effects.

Creating Horcruxes was considered perhaps the most dreadful act possible. One of these such side-effects was the "dehumanising" effect the mutilation of one's soul was said to have. The more Horcruxes one created, the less human they became, both emotionally and physically; for example, in the house-elf Hokey 's memory, Tom Riddle was initially shown to be hollow-cheeked but otherwise normal, [23] though ten years later his features look as if they have been burned and blurred, and his skin was extremely white.

Lord Voldemort after his transformation. One should note that it is unclear whether the red eyes and slit-like nostrils that Voldemort had after he was reborn were caused by having more Horcruxes than he did than when he applied for the Defence Against the Dark Arts post a second time, [23] whether they were characteristics of a person who had been resurrected with the help of serpents which had continued to play key roles in his revival , or whether due to any other alterations he had made to himself.

Dumbledore speculated that Voldemort underwent other dangerous transformations, as well as creating Horcruxes which resulted in Voldemort's hideous appearance. A third side effect of Horcrux creation was that the master soul itself became unstable even with creating just one Horcrux.

For example, the creation of Voldemort's sixth "Horcrux" of seven — Harry Potter — is known to be the direct result of this. The rest of Voldemort's mutilated soul fled. After mangling his own soul through many Horcrux creations, the fragments of Voldemort are trapped in limbo for eternity. The final known side-effect of Horcrux creation was a possible inability to move on from limbo after death.

This was seen when Voldemort's Killing Curse destroyed the part of his soul that resided in Harry Potter. This broken and mangled piece of soul [25] was forced to exist in the stunted form of a flayed and mutilated baby that Harry saw in King's Cross during his visit to limbo, unable to return to the land of the living as a ghost, and unable to move on to the afterlife because his soul was maimed and corrupted.

The same fate was implied to have been suffered by Voldemort's "main" soul piece, the one that inhabited his body; it is unknown if this was a standard fate meted out for all Horcrux creators, or if it was unique to Voldemort due to the number of his Horcruxes.

Regardless, reconciliation apparently cannot occur after death, as the soul's state at death remains forever, so the greatest of all consequences incurred by Horcrux creation may be the possibility of eternal limbo of the soul.

Voldemort's soul fragments also appeared to possess only the awareness and intelligence of the infant they appeared to be. Lord Voldemort , obsessed with immortality and unable or unwilling to understand the importance of the soul's well-being, went further than any wizard known to history, creating seven — although he wanted six Horcruxes to have a seven part soul.

He accidentally created a pseudo-Horcrux when he failed to murder Harry Potter in , [8] and later made his pet snake Nagini into his seventh Horcrux. As a student named Tom Riddle at Hogwarts in the s, he learned of Horcruxes through books in the Restricted Section , including Secrets of the Darkest Art , and sought out Potions Master Horace Slughorn for further information about creating more than one, of which no book would have any record.

Albus Dumbledore removed those books from the Hogwarts Library soon afterwards, although later he suspected that Slughorn had given information to Riddle about Horcruxes, as Slughorn refused to reveal the true account of what really happened.

Voldemort did understand that his soul had a limit to how many times he could split it, as he ceased creating any more Horcruxes once he intentionally reached his desired six and refused to create any replacements for the ones that were destroyed.

Dumbledore later assigned Harry to retrieve the stored memory of it during the school year, in which Harry was able to get it through the use of Felix Felicis. Having split his soul multiple times, it became extremely unstable that upon his Killing Curse's first rebound on him, Voldemort's already maimed soul split apart and attached to the only living being in the room at the time: Harry Potter. It was also the creation of so many Horcruxes that led Voldemort's humanity to deteriorate severely.

As Voldemort's soul fragments have been separated from him for so long, he could no longer feel them should they be destroyed. This was part of Dumbledore and Harry's quest to determine, locate, and destroy, in secret, what they believed to be as many as four of Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes two had already been destroyed. Hermione was able to summon the books on the subject to her from the Headmaster's office at the end of the — school year to aid them in their research on Horcruxes.

Although Voldemort had six true Horcruxes not including Harry in total, no more than five existed at one time because Tom Riddle's diary was destroyed before Nagini was turned into a Horcrux. Concerning Nagini, it is not known if she had to have been killed by Godric Gryffindor's Sword or if any other means, such as a regular sword killing her, would have destroyed the Horcrux. However, as Albus Dumbledore stated, using a living being as a Horcrux was a risky business, due to it being able to move around and think for itself.

It is also unknown what would happen if Nagini had died a natural death, or if that were possible, since Horcruxes have mechanisms in place to prevent destruction. All of Voldemort's Horcruxes were made from objects that had extreme monetary, historical or in as much as he could feel sentimental value, in his desire to secure his position as the greatest sorcerer in history, and that only noteworthy items could live up to his standards and have the honour of housing a fragment of his precious soul.

As such, he had originally made it his desire to collect four items of the four founders of Hogwarts ; he found only three, and gave up after failing to find Gryffindor's sword, but made Horcruxes out of other items that had sentimental value to himself, if not as a priceless artefact of the Wizarding world.

Believing that the number seven is the most powerful number when it comes to magic, Voldemort intended to split his soul into seven pieces, with six Horcruxes housing one fragment each and his body containing the seventh.

He hid these Horcruxes in special locations and kept their existence and purposes from absolutely everyone. However, his arrogance had also inadvertently let him leave behind subtle hints of their whereabouts, leading to their destruction.