Harry Potter Horcruxes List: 8 Questions Answered
Any Harry Potter fan will be able to tell you which Horcruxes Voldemort created but not many understand that there is a lot of lore tied to the Horcruxes that was not explored in the movies. In this article, we will give you the ultimate Harry Potter Horcruxes list.
Horcruxes are items wizards create that help them preserve a part of their soul in case their physical body gets destroyed. There are 8 Horcruxes in the Harry Potter universe: Tom Riddle’s Diary, Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring, Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup, Salazar Slytherin’s Locket, Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem, Nagini the Snake, Harry Potter himself and Professor Quirinus Quirrell.
Even if your knowledge regarding Horcruxes is thorough you still may have some questions about the way they work or you may just be looking for some answers about the things that were not explored enough in the movies. Either way, if you want to know keep reading.
What is a Horcrux?
A Horcrux is an object that enables its creator to preserve a part of their soul via the usage of extremely dark magic. After it was created, the soul will live on inside the object, making the wizard immortal as long as the Horcrux exists. If the physical body gets destroyed the Horcrux can be used to regain a physical body. The soul inside the Horcrux will remain in the form the wizard was at the point of its creation.
The part regarding immortality is what Horcruxes are known for, however, they can also be used as weapons. Because the part of the soul inside the object exists on its own, it has the ability to affect the people surrounding it.
The Horcruxes were recorded to affect the carriers immensely. The best example of this is the way Slytherin’s locket affected the trio while they were searching for the remaining Horcruxes.
This effect is mostly exhibited through the darker thoughts the carrier will experience. This also affects the way they use magic. At one point it enabled the Trio to cast a Patronus.
Given that the part of the soul still has some magical abilities it can also possess emotionally weaker people. This is what happened to Ginny Wesley during the events of the second movie. If this happens the life span of the person will be severely decreased.
To create a Horcrux you need to split your soul in order to have a part of the soul ready for storing into an object. The splitting of the soul can only be achieved through murder. This act has to be intentional, as a non-deliberate murder will not separate the soul.
The act of murder was deemed as the evilest act a wizard can commit. Once the act is committed, the soul will be severely damaged and at that point, the wizard needs to use a separating charm to remove the damaged part from the rest of the soul.
Not much is known about Horcruxes because wizards avoided any kind of Dar Arts. The only known source of information about creating Horcruxes is contained in the book named “The Secrets of the Darkest Art”.
The first wizard who managed to create a Horcrux was Herpo the Foul. He was studying the soul and the ways in which murder affects it beyond the point of any other wizard thus far. The only other known wizard who successfully created a Horcruxes was Lord Voldemort.
Once the Horcrux is created it will naturally inherent properties that will make them more durable. To enhance this effect the creator will usually pair the Horcrux charms or curses to ensure the most possible protection.
In order to destroy the Horcrux, it needs to be damaged beyond the point of any physical or magical reparation. When this happens the object will usually start oozing a dark liquid that resembles blood, or will release a scream.
Once the Horcrux is destroyed the port of the soul in it will get destroyed as well. The wizard will sense that the part was destroyed. However, this wasn’t the case with Lord Voldemort, because his soul was split so many times.
There are only a few recorded things that successfully destroyed a Horcrux such as a sacrifice of love, the Killing curse (when Horcrux is a living thing), Basilisk’s venom, and goblin wrought silver which is the material Godric Griffindor’s sword was made of.
This extremely dark magic may sound appealing; however, it does not come without consequences. Creating a Horcrux requires meddling with the soul which is affecting the Fundamental Laws of Magic.
Splitting the soul is most closely tied with Adalbert Waffling’s first Fundamental Laws of Magic. The darker your acts regarding your soul get the greater the consequences you receive will be.
This law directly leads to the first consequences. Once the soul is split there is no chance of its reconciliation. The most important part of this rule is the fact that the wizards who created a Horcrux will be forever trapped inside the Limbo and will be unable to return to the physical world as a ghost.
Another consequence is dehumanization. It is usually not as prominent as it was with Lord Voldemort. The books suggest that Tom Riddel’s appearance was not affected after creating the first few Horcruxes as it was noted that the only way his appearance was affected when he returned to Hogwarts was having hollow cheeks.
It is uncertain if his most recognizable features, red eyes, and the nose, were the effect of the Horcruxes or if they appeared as a side effect of his resurrection.
The last side effect is best exhibited with Lord Voldemort. His own soul was so unstable that once he killed Lilly Potter it separated itself as latched onto Harry without him casting the spell.
What are the 8 Horcruxes?
The eight Voldemort’s Horcruxes are:
- Tom Riddle’s Diary
- Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring
- Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup
- Salazar Slytherin’s Locket
- Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem
- Nagini the Snake
- Harry Potter
- Professor Quirinus Quirrell
The eight Horcruxes refer to Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes. He initially wanted to create six of them because he believed in the magical power regarding the number seven.
Because of this and his understanding that the soul can not be separated infinitely he refused to replace any destroyed Horcruxes.
However, due to his instability, he accidentally created another one when he tried to kill Harry Potter. Since there was no actual determination to create the Horcrux Harry is not a true Horcrux.
He was the wizard that went the furthest with this form of magic. He created most of them and had the deepest understanding of their working as he was aware of their usage as a weapon. Many wizards, including Dumbledore, considered him to be the wizard that was the closest to becoming immortal.
He first learned of Horcruxes while attending Hogwarts as a student. It is not clear how but many people believe he wandered into the restricted section of the Hogwarts library. As a precaution, Dumbledor later removed all of the books containing information about the Horcruxes and relocated them into his office.
After gaining a general understanding of it, Voldemort decided that he will go through with this to enable him to become the greatest wizard in history and rule over the Wizarding world.
His first idea was to collect all four items belonging to the founders of Hogwarts. Although he was successful at first he ultimately couldn’t find Godric Griffindor’s sword seeing as it will only present itself to true Gryffindors, leading him to give up.
He got more information from his Defense against the Dark Arts, Horace Slughorn. He filled him in on what he was aware of, believing it was only academic curiosity. Later, when he learned of what he was doing with the knowledge he blocked the memory of what happened and refused to tell Dumbledor what happened.
Voldemort only used the items that were valuable to him and made sure to keep them well concealed. All throughout the story, we can see examples of him getting irritated when one would get destroyed. The best examples were him getting mad at Lucius Malfoy after the diary was destroyed or when he killed all the goblins working in Gringotts after the Cup was stolen by the trio.
He ultimately had seven Horcruxes. The first was his diary which he left in the possession of Lucius Malfoy who later gave it to Ginny Weasley, enabling Voldemort to possess her to reopen the Chamber of Secrets.
The next one is Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring which he often wore but ultimately enchanted it and left it hidden in the Gaunt shack in the Little Hangleton.
He hid Salazar Slytherin’s Locked in the Cristal Cave where it would be stolen by Regulus Black and Kreacher and stolen in the Black household until Mundungs Fletcher who later gave it to Dolores Umbridge.
Helga Hufflepuff’s cup was stored in the Lestrange family vault in Gringotts. It was protected by a dragon and a Theif Downfall which had to be activated by the goblins. Inside the vault, everything was under Geminio and Flagrante curses, which caused everything to be hot to touch and multiply whenever it was touched.
He created Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem Horcruxs while he was in Hogwarts and hid it in the Room of Requirement, believing it will remain hidden forever.
Nagini was probably the Horcrux he felt the most attached to. He found a companion in her. They met while he was in Albania and Nagini was fully transformed. She chose to remain with him because Voldemort could talk to her and in return, she became his Horcrux.
The last one was Harry but he did not intend to create him and was not aware of it until their final encounter.
Who did Voldemort kill for each Horcrux?
Voldemort created his first Horcruxes on June 13th, 1943. He was still attending Hogwarts and had just learned he was the descendent of Salazar Slytherin which led him to open the Chamber of Secrets. He taunted Salazar Slytherin’s Basilisk to attack Moaning Myrtle. After she died he used his severed path of the soul to create Horcrux and place it in his personal diary.
The second one was Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring, which he created in October 1943 in the family home in Little Hangletone. He killed his own father, Tom Riddle SR., via the Killing curse. He made the ring his new Horcrux but was not aware it contained the Resurrection stone.
After that, anytime between 1946 and 1979, he killed a random muggle and created Salazar Slytherin’s Locket and Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem after killing an Albanian peasant in 1946. The same year he killed Hepzibah Smith, the woman he was living with, and created Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup.
He created Nagini in 1994 while he was in Albanian in search of knowledge and like-minded wizards, which were willing to help him in the quest to take over the wizarding world. He achieved this after killing Bertha Jorkins.
Lastly, he created Harry Potter in 1981 in Godric’s Hollow. He tried to kill him after killing both Lilly and James but was not successful. Again, he did create a Horcrux, but Harry was not a true Horcrux because there was no intention on Voldemort’s part.
When did each Horcrux get destroyed in the Harry Potter movies?
Most of the destruction was shown in the movies; however, there is one that we did not see. Albus Dumbledore was the first one to learn about Voldemort’s Horcruxes and then set out to find and destroy them.
The first Horcrux he found was Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring. After much effort, he destroyed it in 1996 in his office, using Godric Griffindor’s sword.
The first Horcrux that gets destroyed during the movies is Tom Riddle’s Diary. Harry destroyed it using the Basilisk’s fang in 1993 when he encountered Voldemort’s soul in the Chambers of Secrets during the second movie.
After that Ron destroyed the locket in the forest of Dean during their search for Horcruxes. He managed to do this by using Godric Griffindor’s sword after Harry opened the locket using parseltongue. This happened during the first part of Deathly Hallows.
Hermione destroyed Helga Hufflepuff’s cup during the Battle of Hogwarts in the Chamber of Secrets. She did not know how to destroy it, hence she decided to use the basilisk fang knowing that it has already once destroyed the Horcrux.
Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem got destroyed the same day, during the confrontation between the trio and Draco Malfoy. Crab cast a fiendfyre inside the Room of Requirement but could not control it resulting in the diadem getting destroyed accidentally.
Nagini was slain during the Battle of Hogwarts in the front yard by Neville using Godric Griffindor’s sword. Many believe that Nagini could have been destroyed with regular weapons since she did not have any additional protection.
And lastly, Harry was killed by Voldemort himself via the killing curse. All the remaining Horcruxes got destroyed during the second part of Deathly Hallows.
Why didn’t the basilisk fang kill Harry’s Horcrux?
A question many wondered was why Harry’s Horcrux wasn’t destroyed when he was bitten in the second movie. Tom Riddles’s diary along with other Horcruxes got destroyed immediately but Harry did not die immediately.
Harry was only bitten once while the diary was stabbed several times. This allowed Harry to survive for some time after he was bitten. The Basilisk’s venom is powerful but it allowed Fawkes to show up and heal Harry with its tears.
The bottom line is that since the diary was stabbed several times it was beyond any possibility of magical or physical repair, but since Harry was bitten only once which did not cause irreparable damage.
Did Hermione know Harry was a Horcrux?
Although the movies would have you believe Hermione did not know about Harry being a Horcrux, the books tell a different story.
During their search for other Horcruxes, Hermione noticed that Harry started to resemble Voldemort more as each day passed. Paired up with the fact that Harry’s scar started hurting more and he had consistent nightmares.
Given that Hermione is one of the smartest witches in the entire franchise and she started researching Horcruxes as soon as she learned about them it is likely that she knew.
Who knew Harry was a Horcrux?
Since Voldemort, himself did not know he accidentally created a Horcrux while trying to kill Harry it is understandable that only a few wizards knew about this fact.
Besides Hermione, Dumbledore also managed to figure out that Harry was a key to taking Voldemort down. To ensure Harry gets killed at the right moment and, Dumbledore revealed this information to Snape shortly before he was killed.
What if Voldemort knew Harry was a Horcrux?
There is no way we can for sure know what Voldemort would do in this situation. There are two options. He would either kill Harry to destroy the Horcrux and then kill Harry himself.
However, it is more likely that he would capture him and ensure he stays alive because he lost most of his Horcruxes through the course of the story. It was known Voldemort was aware of the fact that he cannot split his soul to no end and going off of that it is possible he would make use of the Horcrux he accidentally created.
