Hogwarts Herald

Chapter Twenty-Three of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “Horcruxes.” As Harry returns into the castle the Felix Felicis wears off and finds out that the common room password has changed. The Fat Lady says he can take it up with the headmaster if he wants, but Harry thinks Dumbledore is still gone. Nearly Headless Nick says that he just returned an hour ago, though. As Harry rushes off to see Dumbledore the Fat Lady calls after him that she lied and the password was still tapeworm.

Dumbledore is surprised to see Harry, but happy to hear that he obtained Slughorn’s true memory. They quickly go into the memory. The memory is very similar at first, but then the foggy parts are clear this time. The first foggy part is Slughorn saying he has never been wrong about a student and thinks Tom will become Minister of Magic. The major foggy part is when Slughorn explains to Tom what Horcruxes are. They are a very dark magic. A horcrux is an item that a person puts part of their soul in. Slughorn explains that you split your soul and then put half in the object, so when your body is destroyed you are not actually destroyed, however the existence is worse than death.

Tom continues to ask questions about creating a Horcrux. He asks how you split your soul and Slughorn explains you must do it by committing murder. Slughorn explains you use the damage of the murder ripping apart the soul to encase the torn part of the soul into an item. Slughorn, however, does not know the exact spell.

Tom next asks about splitting the soul more than once, such as seven times because that is the most powerfully magical number. Slughorn thinks that killing that many people is absurd along with the idea of splitting the soul that many times.

Back in Dumbledore’s office Dumbledore explains how he knows Voldemort successfully split his soul more than into just two pieces, as the memory confirms he wanted to do. The first certain proof that Voldemort had at least done this once was Tom Riddle’s diary. The fact that the diary was careless used to reopen the chamber using someone else led Dumbledore to believe there were more Horcruxes, as Horcruxes are supposed to be kept hidden and safe and that was not possible with the intended use of the diary.

Harry wonders why Voldemort did not create a Sorcerer’s Stone to be immortal rather than the Horcruxes. Dumbledore explains he thinks Voldemort did not because he did not want to be reliant on the elixir of life, but that he had tried to steal it to gain a human body form again because once he regained human form he would not need it, as his soul still existed in fragments.

Dumbledore explains the key to killing Voldemort is to first destroy the six that do not reside in Voldemort and then kill the seventh piece by destroying Voldemort. One of the six has already been destroyed in the diary. A second was destroyed in Marvolo’s ring by Dumbledore. In destroying that one a curse injured Dumbledore’s hand, so we finally know for sure what happened to the hand, although it seemed hinted at that it at least involved the time he found the ring. Dumbledore reveals he found the ring in the ruins of the Gaunt house (i.e. Voldemort’s grandfather’s house).

Thus four Horcruxes remain to be destroyed. Dumbledore suspects them to be objects with powerful magical history. He believes that one is the Slytherin locket and another is the Hufflepuff cup. He thinks two of the relics are from founders or at least what Voldemort wanted them to be. To find relics of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor is why Voldemort came back to ask Dumbledore for a position to teach. Dumbledore thinks he might have found a Ravenclaw relic, but definitely could not have found a Gryffindor one. Thus he thinks the last Horcrux was desperately put in Voldemort’s snake, Nagini, years after he failed to kill Harry, whose death he probably intended to use to make his last Horcrux.

Dumbledore thinks he is close to finding another Horcrux and says Harry can go with to destroy it when the time comes. They then discuss killing Voldemort will take a wizard of uncommon skill and power. Harry does not think he posses either, except he can love, which Dumbledore explains is his power. Harry thinks he must kill Voldemort because of the prophecy, but Dumbledore explains that whether Harry had heard it or not he would still want to finish Voldemort off because of Voldemory killing his parents and Cedric Diggory and the other deeds he knew Voldemort had done.