I find myself in Hermoine's court on this one. How could he do this to the elves? Surely he could help them if they found poison, but it seems risky and unfair to the elves.



I think this is kind of a misleading statement by Dumbledore, but that he means he only knows of someone creating 1 horcrux (splitting their soul in two), outside of what they're finding out about Voldemort. Sure other wizards have killed loads of people, but not made horcruxes each time. Grindewald would be a good example of that, though I got the impression he made inferi do most of the dirty work.

His statement blurs the line between ripping a soul and creating a horcrux, to me. You can kill someone, rip your soul, and then it either heals or doesn't. Unless you set out meaning to create a horcrux when you commit the murder, you just have to face the remorse or personal justification for what you've done.



Back to what I was saying above. I would think that the remorse for killing Bellatrix and Voldemort would be pretty easy for them to get over and their souls would mend fairly quickly from those kills, since they'd feel justified in making them. Harry has had quite a while to reconcile himself to killing Voldemort, after all.











I think you're right on your count, because you have to count Voldemort in his original body. My problem here is that they destroy something that he had already used, by this logic. I'm unclear too on if it would still useful to him in some way if he had already reclaimed the soul fragment from it.

I think Dumbledore had guessed that Harry was the final horcrux and likely assumed that Voldemort had used one to stay alive the first time around. His suspision that Voldemort is still around, from book 1, and his delving for memories involving him imply as much. So, he gave Harry this task knowing one could be a waste of time. Better safe than sorry in his mind.

Edit: I find myself remembering that Dumbledore mentions that the diary is almost treated as a throw away (1st attempt). Maybe he intended to use that as he did, in the school, and make a replacement with Harry? Just a thought.

Doesn't the squeeling baby thing in the train station chapter of DH confirm that Harry had indeed been a horcrux?



I enjoyed the irony here. Doubly so, once he finds out who the Prince is. It's a good twist that he's been protecting him the whole book, only to find out that it's Snape he's been protecting.

Honestly though, some of those spells should have indicated that he was not a goody 2 shoes. Snape again blurring the lines and showing that a "good guy" does not necessarily have to be a "nice guy." Also, somewhat ironic from this is that Lupin knows the connection between these spells and Snape (from comments in DH about sectumsempra). Harry could have found out who the prince was by asking some of the people he knew and trusted that were at Hogwarts with him.