The young Tom Riddle asked Professor Horace Slughorn about Horcruxes, and posited that splitting your soul into seven pieces would make one stronger. Slughorn was understandibly mortified. On to my theory.

Each Horcrux is weaker than the one that came before it. I am of the belief that Horcruxes are actually quite easy to destroy without a ton of magical protection (the diary v. the ring, for example). The reason for this is that the split soul is weak to begin with.

How would each Horcrux be weaker? Because each one contains progressively less and less amount of soul, the smallest bits being in the person (Voldemort) and the last Horcrux he has made. To get a better visualization of this, get a piece of paper. This piece of paper will represent a soul. Tear it in half. Treat one half as a "Horcrux" and set it aside, then rip the remaining paper in half. Again, treat it as a Horcrux, and set it aside. Continue the process until you have made six "Horcruxes" and have one bit of soul left for the body. See how each "Horcrux" is progressively smaller? So the easiest Horcrux to destroy (I'm telling you, the diary was one of the last ones made) would be the one made last. Then the next to last one...you get the idea. And please keep this topic on How Strong or Weak Horcruxes Are...I am open to any and all debate!!

CZAR!

Wow this is a brilliant theoryI can't believe no one (NOT EVEN DD HIMSELF!) thought of this! It is true what you said about the Horcrux and you can only split it so many times before there is none left.
Like Slughorn said it is bad enough splitting it once but to do it repeatedly is very dangerous. Maybe he meant that they get weaker and after all half a sole is so much less powerful than a full sole. LV should wactch is back he isnt as smart as he thinks he is!

That's a very nice theory, mate. Just one correction to it. The diary was not the last made Horcrux, it was the first one, because the memory that came out of the diary was a 16-year-old Tom Riddle, so that piece of soul was separated from the rest when LV was 16, and I believe that once you've separated a piece of your soul it has to immediately be encased somewhere else, so it would be the first, not the last Horcrux.

Well, an object can be halved an infinite number of times, I remember learning that in physics. And the story seems to leed us to believe the the more you split your soul, atleast until you get to seven, the stronger the even of the horcrux are. So I don't think any of the horcrux are going to be weaker then the others. And if anything, the ones that were made first would be the weaker ones, regaurdless of the size of the soul-bits inside of them.

Like I said in another post it proved more difficult for DD to distroy the ring horcrux than for Harry to distroy the diary.

Well that is easily explained by the fact that the diary needed to be easily accessible to people. For this reason, as DD points out, Voldy probably expected for it to be destroyed.

The diary horcrux is different from any other horcrux from the way it was created, to it's very purpose. Because of this I don't think we can compare it to the other horcruxs in this situation.

Fair points all around Solorund, and I was aware of the laws of physics when I thought this up-I am not saying that a soul could only be split x-number of times. However, Dumbledore did say that Voldemort underestimated the strength of a pure, untarnished, whole soul. To kill weakens the soul, it is what causes the split to begin with. Splitting it more, and worse, dividing it beyond repair by making Horcruxes is an aberration of nature. Conceding that the diary was a special Horcrux to begin with, the smaller the piece of a soul going into an object, the weaker the piece of soul, conversely meaning that what Voldemort has left in him is very, very weak at best.

Maybe the diary was weak because Voldemort made it with his first kill. Being it his first kill, he was not used to the consequences that he would face, therefore the first split was the most drastic. After the first kill/split, he would have, in a word,"grown used to killing" thereby not weakening his soul as much as it did the very first time he had experienced it.

Plus, as in any hobby, the first time you do anything, you won't do it perfect. It takes "practice". So maybe the diary, being the first horcrux, was the weakest because Voldemort didn't know how to make it properly.

Those are my two theories as to why the diary, being the first horcrux, is the weakest.

All of this discussion is based around the idea that soul is the main ingredient of power. Who is to say that if Voldemort has a weak soul, he will be a weaker wizard? His soul and his power may have no correlation. Also, if the horcruxes are getting progressively easier to destroy, who cares? Harry isn't going to destroy them in the order that they are made, so the difficulty will be random like it has been so far. (The diary was easy, then Dumbledore got injured destroying the ring, then the locket (although it wasn't destroyed by Harry or Dumbledore) was extremely difficult just to get to) It is a good theory, and I understand what you are trying to say, but if it is right, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Hmm...Czar, I've never really thought about the entire concepts of horcruxes in that way, being that the power of the horcux declines as more and more are made...It does make quite a lot of sense, especially this:

I'm am going to jump on this one and agree with it. I do beleive the more youdivide something the weaker it gets. However, I also beleie that as a novice of splitting the soul, the diary was a trail and error basis. The horcrux was made BUT THE PROTECTION AROUND THE HORCRUX was weak. It's not the strength of the horcrus that makes it difficult for someone to desstroy it, its the protection spells that keep it safe that are easy and difficult. Teh diary had no real outer protectio, it was able to be opened, flaried around to anyone who touched it. I think as VOldy got older, his horcruxes amy have goten weaker, but the protestion got stronger. This is why the locket can't be opened, and the DD had such a hard time bypassing all the protection spells to destroy the ring. I believe by determining how hard it is to destory the horcruxes won't be based on which half it is, but by how much voldy knew to protect those horcruxes to begin with. THis could also give a time line, the younger the more feeble and weak and the older the more wise and strong.

I tend to agree with Padfoot: The relative ease or dificulty in destroying a horcrux is not inherent in its being composed of a smaller (ergo, weaker) piece of soul (although I did find it a very interesting theory!), but rather in the defences surrounding it.

Case in point: the Diary was left in the open for Ginny to find, whereas the locket (although fake) was very well protected indeed. I would perhaps advance the idea that the defenses would be a reflection of the skill Voldemort had achieved at the time he hid the respective horcruxes, but I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't have revisited the hide-outs to "update" the defences after achieving his most amazing powers...

Conceivably, some of the horcruxes will be easier than others to destroy, but I cannot say that I would agree that this would be due to the horcrux having been "weakened" because the soul fragment was from an already fragmented soul.

Cheers!

Maybe some of you forgot but the reason he left the diary around was becuase its purpose was to show someone else how to open the chamber of secrets. Czar, though yer theory sounded good whomever it was that pointed out that the diary was made first kind of ends it. I also dont believe one has the option of how much of their soul they encase in a horcrux. I dont know, it just doesnt sound like that would be one of your options,...with seven being the most powerful magic number, i would imagine 7 equal pieces would sound more reasonable.

Perhaps I'm the only one, but I think I read the whole power-from-dividing-one's-soul-into-seven pieces entirely differently from the way I've seen others talking about it. Let's see if I can explain my point of view clearly... I got the impression that Voldemort just believed that it would make him more powerful to have his soul in seven pieces. That by splitting his life-force into seven pieces, regardless of the sizes of those pieces, he would gain a sort of boon to his power. I wasn't really under the impression that it had much effect to the actual Horcruxes themselves, as I was thinking along the lines that each one is only protected so well as the extra protections that Voldemort set around them. For that matter, I'm not sure whether Voldemort's soul is literally split in half everytime he murders. We don't really know for sure how much might be split, so it may be a half, or it may be less. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we really know.

However, following your theory, which I think is really interesting regardless... how is the diary such a weak Horcrux? That diary came disturbingly close to making a brand-spanking-new body for Voldemort using Ginny's life-force, all on its own (though, of course, my personal belief is that this was strongly assisted by the fact that Riddle had seperately-from-the-soul-piece imprinted his consciousness into the diary, but still...). Who cares how easy it was for Harry to destroy it? I think if there's an indication of a greater amount of power in that soul-piece, it may be that near victory.

I feel like there may be more to say about all that, or a better way to say it, but I'm very, very tired and this is as clear-minded as I get right now.

Sorry, I really should have been clearer about the diary...I thought that it was destroyed rather easily, considering it housed a piece of Voldemort's soul. Granted, I didn't know that at the time, but after HBP, I did. I suppose that the "destroyability" factor of a given Horcrux could be tied to the actual object itself...The cup and locket, as I recall, were both said to have special properties of their own.

The plitting of the soul doesn't happen every time you kill someone, it happens to need a death to be created and Voldy picked and chose who's death was worthy of splitting his soul. That or he didn't split it until he had a horcrux to hide it in. Anyway

I'm sorry Padfoot, but you were incorrect when you said, "The splitting of the soul doesn't happen every time you kill someone,...." According to the explanation given by Slughorn, " By an act of evil-the supreme act of evil. By commiting murder. Killing rips the soul apart.

Therefore Voldemort has commited at least six murders to have six horcruxes. He may have commited more but only used six for His needs. The six we know about are, the three Riddles, Hepzibah Smith, and the Potters. That's six. The others killed in the books I believe were killed by Peter Petigrew using Voldemorts's wand.

I understand that the soul may split everytime a murder takes place, however, I seriously doubt he will or did stop killing at six. In other words, his converation with Slughorn tells us that seven parts is what he wanted to do because seven is a very powerful number. If his soul did split more than six times, he probably found away to keep the parts he didn't use intact to his own entity. In other words, the ones he didn't use, he simply placed back, like replacing a memory.

WOW, now that I am writing this out, I definitely disagree with it. HMMM. well, uh, how many people did he kill then? If he knew that he wanted to split his soul seven times, and create six horcruxes, plus himself, then di dhe intend to stop killing? would continueing to committ murder weaken him in any way? Would he get greedy and create more and more horcruxes to further his attempt to immortality. This is a bit confusing. When I read the passage I was under the assumption that he controlled when his soul was split and when he wanted to create a horcrux. I guess reading it again, you're right, your soul does split everytime you committ a murder.

Back to the strength topic, if his soul is splitting every murder, wouldn't the horcruxes he chooses to create be a little less of himself and therefore be less powerful. A soul can only split so many times until it is so insignificant small that is has no impact or effect on the overall outcome. Question is, how many people has he killed, how big were the soul parts that he created the horcruxes with, how strong is the horcrux and how strong are the defenses around the horcrux.

One last question, I know that I agreed in an earlier post that the horcrux strength is not what matters, but the defenses around the horcrux that is the problem, but if each soul piece is half of the previous one and contains less of Lord Voldermort himself, than would his connection and power over that piece be less than a larger piece with more of himself, therefore defenses around the smaller pieces would be more extensive than the last? I ask this because the diary was strong enough that the soul peice was able to produce a figure of Tom Riddle himself, and had the power to manipulate Ginny and all. And the ring blackened DD's hand but no further damage. could it be that his power over the horcrux's lessons the smaller the piece is?

what do you all think?????

I haven't posted here in a while, but since I started this, I'll add some more of my thoughts to it.

First, Sawh, I personally don't think that Moaning Myrtle's death would split Tom's soul; doesn't make it any worse, and while he certainly would have gotten around to killing her (Mudblood, as I understand it), I don't think Tom specifically orchestrated and/or performed the deed. That, I believe, is key in the splitting of the soul; the demonstration of the Avada Kedavra curse in GoF is great as a guideline. You need a whole lot of hatred, and clear intent in order to perform the curse effectively. Which is why I'm inclined to believe that individual murders are the soul-splitting ones. That doesn't make mass murder better by any means, but someone who committs mass murder, as a general rule, does not know and is not personally tied to his or her victims. I could keep going on this (writing a HUGE paper on Ethics for Philosophy as we speak), but I'll stop there. Moving on.

To address what was actually your first question, Sawh, we don't know the order in which Voldemort made his Horcruxes. However, it is possible to hazard a guess at the order based on how available they were to Voldemort at the time. The diary is presumably the first one made, followed by the ring, the locket and cup, something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, and Nagini. Again, this is an assumption, it is in no way confirmed, nor should it be construed to be.

Moving on to the strength of Horcruxes themselves, I agree with the point that was made much earlier about the defenses surrounding Horcruxes. Naturally, those matter, and if the rest of the Horcruxes are guarded as heavily as the locket was, then Harry and Co. are in trouble. For the purposes of my theorizing, however, I don't give a hoot about the defenses around a Horcrux. I am concerned only about the Horcrux itself, and how easy or hard they may be to destroy based on how much or how little the soul bit that is inside of it is. As I have stated before, what makes sense to me is that when a soul split occurs, the soul splits in half (piece of paper analogy). When a Horcrux is made, half the soul goes into the Horcrux, and half stays where it is supposed to, inside the body.

Padfoot, I liked the point you made about the strength of Voldemort's connection to his Horcruxes, and I'll tell you why: Harry wonders about the same thing. Because the advantage here is the element of surprise; Voldemort has to stay ignorant as long as possible to increase the chances of Harry's success. I think the connection (or lack of it) that Voldemort has with his Horcruxes is directly related to how strong the Horcrux actually is. More important is the strength of the soul when it was whole. I would wager that a soul's strength, when it is whole, varies. A weak soul, once split, becomes weaker still. To split it seven ways would border on ridiculous. A split soul is weak, encased in an object it doesn't belong...I would further wager that destroying the actual Horcrux is as easy to destroy as the object itself, but it is the defenses that cause the soul-bit to enter an innocent 11 year old girl, that blacken the hand of a Headmaster, that weaken said Headmaster, that lead to his death. The Horcrux, I think, is nothing by itself.

I'm tired, so if any portion of that didn't make any sense, let me know and I will clarify it later. Peace.

Czar, i agree with you remarks about as the soul splits, less of voldermort resides in that soul piece as it gets smaller. Some say that the defenses around the diary were lacking so this theory could not be correct. However, the diary drove Ginny to madness and forced her to write in blood and almost devoured her completely. I'd have to say that the horcrux had a very strong hold on Ginny and (if the bigger the horcrux, more voldy control theory is correct) his so called memory/soul was able to amost materialize without De's help. Unlike what had happen with Pettigrew being useful to reinstate Voldy. In other words, the lesser the soul piece, the more aid Voldy will need to come back. This to me means that Voldy has less control and strength in the horcruxes he needs help with than the ones that he can control better, like the diary. The Rind almost killed DD, because Snape had to save him, and the locket only weakened DD and did not almost kill him. So I'd say the horcruxes are getting weaker and this is where the time line comes into play.

1) Whatever horcrux he used to reinstate hinmself and find Quirrel. This horcrux is tricky,we saw the soul part in SS on possessing Quirrel, but where it came from I am not sure, but this had to be one of the strongest horcruxes because he didn't need help to float his way to Quirrel or to drink unicorn blood. He was sustaining without physical form and without help (used quirrel a little I guess), so I'd say that this was the most powerful and the first one he used. This is the one he is using now!!

2) The Diary: had a ghostlike image replica of himself and was able to control Ginny

3) Ring: Almost Killed DD - Snape saved his life

4) Locket: didn;t kill RAB or DD, mostl ikely just weakened RAB and it did weaken DD.

As for what comes next: I think it is logical to say that the next thing he got his hands on probably the cup (5).

6) I am not sure if Nagini is truely a horcrux, but if she is Voldy does possess her and has a very strong hold over her, she even nursed him. I would say it was pretty powerful it she was one because of the control, but as a living thing, maybe she is just that natuarally obedient. Since I don't think she is a horcrux I am not going to include her in my personal thing but to satisfy others, let's just say she is number six. If not her, than something from Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. In this situation, which ever one it isn't, fore instance if this one is from Gryffindor, that number 1 above was from Ravenclaw or visa versa. One would think that the strongest horcrux would have been made from something of Gryffindors because that house was his rival, but you never know.

The seventh (7) was himself obviously, he was destroyed in Godric's Hollow

So by this, Harry only has Voldy himself (horcrux Number1), the cup-number 5 and horcrux number 6 to destroy (that;s if the locket is destroyed, if not Harry needs to destroy this one too. Harry will most likely follow the path of RAB and destroy the locket first, then the cup, then number six and finally Voldermort.

Hope I was clear enough, If not feel free to ask as many questions as you would like.

Amen to that Padfoot, except for one, tiny detail i disagree with.

I think we have a fundamental difference of thought on the purpose and operative function of a Horcrux (or Horcruxes, as the case may be). I believe I am right in assuming that you believe Voldemort's original soul, the one that he was born with, that he split into pieces, that resided inside his body at the time of Operation Kill The Potters no longer exists, and that in order be "lower than the meanest ghost," he had to access a Horcrux (which one is entirely irrelevant), and extract his own soul from it. It is in this way then, that I believe you think a Horcrux works to make their maker immortal.

I disagree, obviously (because I already said I did). I am of the firm belief (while also remembering that this is literature of the Fantasy/Fiction persuasion) that a Horcrux works as an anchor, binding what I shall now dub the "Living Soul" to this earth, opposed to whatever a soul is supposed to do in Potterverse when a wizard or witch dies. Voldemort existed, for a time, as only a soul, and the reason that it sucked so much was because not only was he a part-soul, but body and soul were never meant to be separated during life, and that once the body dies, the soul is supposed to go do its own thing, and a wizard or witch chooses to stay dead or leave an imprint of themselves lying around. Voldemort's body died, and his soul didn't because there was still part of him here. A body was magically reconstructed for him, and voi las! Evil Incarnate is reincarnated.

To tie this back to the point at hand, if I am wrong (surprisingly, it has indeed happened) and what you said is correct, then getting rid of Voldemort won't actually be very difficult, unless the power he would regain is directly proportional to the size and strength of the soul-bit he gets back. If on the other hand, I am right, then finishing the jerk off is much more difficult, and as Harry has already surmised, he must destroy ALL the Horcruxes just to get to Voldemort (this series is SO set up for an anti-climactic ending...not a bad one, just anti-climactic). You can Avada Kedavra the guy to death (pun FULLY intended!) and it's all for naught, because he won't actually die. I think I made a point in there somewhere that is germane to the conversation, but I'm not sure anymore. Hm. I will work on that.

For now just remember, its Spring Ahead, Fall Back (Daylight Savings Time)

Voldemort chose to have 7 "soul parts" in total: 6 horcruxes and the one currently in his body. He chose the number 7 because it is a magical number, and lucky too. If he creates another horcrux, he will have 8 soul pieces in total (even though some are destroyed)...and on and on...

Also, we must assume that everybody starts out with 100% life/soul, theoretically. Every time you kill somebody, a bit of soul tears off and is lost, unless you contain it in a Horcrux. Voldemort has killed many people as of now...therefore he has less than 100% life...lets say 70% more or less, for our purposes. If he splits the leftover soul in 7, assuming all pieces are of equal percentage, he will have 10% of the origional 100% contained in each Horcrux. If he creates another horcrux, the percent will go down, and down, and down, until he has no more soul left! Plus, the pieces of soul that he is "horcruxing" will be extremely weak if theya re using a percentage of the 10% piece of soul

Sorry about the complexity of that response...if you dont get it, just ask and I will try to explain it a little easier lol

Still not convinced?? Well, think of it from the perspective of the story and JK Rowling...this is not a wild goose hunt, and I'm sure that JKR has enough sense than to make LV just keep on producing more and more Horcruxes!! The whole 7th book will be about Harry destroying a horcrux, LV's DEs following him and telling LV when to make a new one, and it will go on and on forever!!

Criticism and comments welcome...any questions, just ask!
Remember, this is just my personal opinion, it may not be 100% true!

_daviD

We've all been assuming that a soul weakens when it is divided, that it becomes smaller somehow. Some have been saying that tearing it would divide it in equal parts, others say that the part that is torn off would always be the same "size". I'm not sure of either proposition. What if the division has nothing to do with size or strength except in the sense that the division itself is a violation of a natural law?

For me, only these things are certain:
- A divided soul is a damaged soul. Whatever life is procured by using a Horcrux is less than the life of a natural being. So Voldemort, seeking eternal life, is getting something else, becoming more like a soulless being, a creature like a Dementor. (perhaps that is why Dementors perform their Kisses, stealing souls and hoping to regain what they don't have themselves?)
- Voldemort is no longer "whole" and never can be whole again, because some of his Horcruxes have been destroyed. Even unifying his soul, therefore, has become impossible. The best thing that could happen to him is that he would die, but that is the thing he most emphatically doesn't want to do. Having relinquished his humanity, he has weakened himself, because he will not be able to understand the power that people like Lily, Harry and Dumbledore possess.
- Horcruxes can operate as separate entities with a will of their own (the diary), presumably when given a special mission at the time of their creation. The diary-Riddle was able to do what it did concurrently with a weak Voldemort hiding in Albania, apparently without Voldemort knowing.

I'm still puzzled about how the Horcrux magic works at the time of "death". I'm trying to figure out what the author means with "soul" and what she thinks those pieces would be: for me a soul is undividable - to divide it would place yourself outside the natural order of things. It's a nice idea (but also terrible) that killing with the AVK spell could maim the soul this way, it seems like a good punishment, if unnecessarily harsh.
Perhaps the strength of the Horcruxes is less important than the question whether they had been given missions, which death(s) had channeled their forging, whether they are surrounded with protective barriers or not. I think I'll have to wait for the writer to reveal more in book 7... all these speculations are making my head ache.

Ok, Reading your theory on the soul surviving after the body is destroyed makes sense, and that would mean his soul could linger everytime his body is destroyed as long as he had horcruxes around to keep him connected to the living world, preventing him from moving on. SO your saying the point of creating the horcruxes wasn't to increase his powers or make him stronger but simply to act as a liason between his initial soul and the six parts that reside in the horcruxes.

Picture six strings holding up a ball, when one is cut, the ball lowers. The more horcruxes that are destroyes ( i.e. The more strings that are severed) the weaker the hold on the initial horcrux to keep it in the world of the living. Once all the horcruxes are destroyed and all that is left is Voldy, once destroyed he will have no ties left and will no longer be able to remain, because he will no longer have anything holding onto him. I am assuming this is what you mean by

Czar that is a very very good theory, probably true. But there are some flaws for example as already been said the Diary was the first Horcrux, a 16-year-old Riddle.. notice that it couldnt be weak for a Horcrux is a very strong dark object. I believe Harry destroyed it in some way easy because it has been around for a while, it had been mistreated by two people, Lucius and Ginny. And Harry did destroy it with a Basilik's Fang, to me that is a very strong magical object, from a very strong magical animal. The ring for example almost killed Dumbledore, and it was made later from the Diary. I believe what Dumbledore meant that there is nothing stronger than a whole soul wouldnt be for the Horcruxes, but for Voldemort himself. Because he is the one that the soul is leaving leaving him with less.
To me a Horcrux is not weaker than the one before it, to me is always being powered by the fact of how it came to exist... from the Death of a Person.

I am going to reiterate the fact that I agree with the anchor theory, however I must re-imply that I believe that the first of his soul (the diary) that was split was the largest and most powerfully connected to voldermort. It was the first split, 1/2 half the original. Now, only 1/2 the original is left in Voldy. Split that in half, and 1/4 the original is placed in the second horcrux and voldy only has 25% of his soul residing in his body. continuing to do so, 1/64 would be in the six horcrux and 1/64 or 0.016% of himself inhabits his body. Meaning that the first horcrux represents more of tom Riddle than what is in his body now. Which probably explains why the diary was almost able to create it's own body, because more of his soul was present and therefore had more power then the parasite we saw in SS. And with the ring destroyed and locket MIA, there are only three for Harry to find, and he knows of one, the cup, so only two are a mystery top him, unless DD is right and Nagini is one, than only one is oblivious to Harry. and with the left over horcruxes possessing less Voldy and less power, i think the protection around them will be harder to penetrate. The locket if correct has been circling the community lately between Grinwauld place, mundungus and perhaps aberforth, so I say the defenses aren't that strong, just powerful enough to stop the common witch or wizard. I think the cup and the other two will be much harder to find and destroy.

Well I hope this doesn't give you a headache, I was simply trying to show the strength table of the remaining horcrux and still staying true to Czar's theory about the horcruxes being an anchor, i really like this one.

Ok, I've read the first 2 pages of this thread and I have some questions.

If, as it has been said, the pieces of the soul are smaller as it is continuously split, and thus less powerful, wouldn't the piece of the original soul left in Voldemort himself be one of the smallest of the lot? Wouldn't this make him less powerful and some of his horcruxes more powerful than he himself?

This doesn't make sense to me. That's why I'm wondering if we are getting magical power mixed up with death when Tom talks about the horcruxes making him stronger.

I didn't think that he meant stronger to mean more powerful, but simply stonger in the sense that having all your soul in one body leaves you mortal and thus weaker, more suseptable to death (forever) ~ his greatest fear.


I'm seeing his D.A. power, his magical power, as separate from his mortality, even though he is using his D.A. powers to acheive immortality, the number of soul pieces has no effect on how powerful he is as a wizard, but is merely a reflection of it.

I'm still not fully understanding the anchor theory. Tom feared death, so if his soul was divided into parts, if one part was destroyed the others would exist thus keeping Voldemort alive on Earth. Great, but does that then mean he must retrieve a horcrux in order to remain alive, or is its mere existence all that is necessary?

Oh, and I was thinking about the difficulty in destroying the horcruxes. I imagine that if, as it has been mentioned, that the souls in the horcruxes can act on their own, as the 16-year-old Tom preserved in the diary had, then maybe the strength of the soul matters if the soul can fight against whatever is trying to destroy it.
Hope that made sense.

P.S. Love the avatar Accio Xbox! May the Force be with you.

About the anchor theory...

As I understand it, there are basically two schools of thought on how Horcruxes work. The first (the one that I would not refer to as the anchor theory, but that I hereby dub the back-up theory) is that when Voldemort is killed, then he would have to retrieve another one of the remaining Horcruxes and/or somehow activate it, to continue living. This is not the theory that I subscribe to. For one thing, I don't think it entirely feits with what we know about Horcruxes or how they are described. Furthermore, it would not truly provide Voldemort with any sort of immortality. Instead, it would provide him with a given number of extentions on life. The Horcruxes would not be acting as anchors, but back-ups (hence the name). I don't think Voldmort would be satisified with this method for "immortality."

The second theory is what I would actually call the anchor theory. With this theory, the many different Horcruxes, being confined in phsycal objects, are tied to the mortal realm. And when the body is killed and the soul in that body released, it then cannot pass through the veil, as it would normally be inclined to do (or dwell in ghost-form, one or the other) becuase there would be pieces of it still tethered to the mortal realm. He would not have to then seek out another Horcrux and activate it because the peice of the soul that was in teh body would still be in the mortal world, just without a body. This is how I believe Horcruxes to work. This would provide an actual sense of immortality, so long as those Horcruxes remain protected, Death could never take you. No matter what. It wouldn't matter if people followed you around and AK'ed you every time you gained a new body, because unless the actually took out the Horcruxes, you would never die.

did that make sense? I hope so. I think that understanding how this works is important, and we really need to come to an understanding of that much before we can get very far with any other Horcrux theory.

Haha, ok..I have a theory that Is a slight variation of the anchor theory and and has sort of always been my natural inclination to how a horcrux works. And I think it's probably going to get really tricky but I'll try my best to explain it.

Alright, so assuming that the anchor theory is correct, we must ask ourselves why and how the souls are anchored. I believe it is one of two reasons why the "living soul" is anchored by the other bits of the soul-bits. So you can better understand the concept of "death" and what it means to the soul, I will have the veil represent death in my theory. I believe the living soul is anchored to this side of the veil:

1). Because the veil recognizes it as incomplete and refuses to let it pass until it is whole. (I'll elaborate on this later).

or

2). Because it is not in the nature of the living soul to approach the veil until it is whole.

As you have probably noticed, in both cases the soul can not cross the veil because it is not "whole". To explain my idea of "whole" a new concept must be introduced, and the concept is the idea of a soul-bit not only being a fraction of the original soul, but also a fraction of the soul as a whole. I know this probably makes no sense whatsoever so I will explain.

Firstly you need to realize that there are two fractions taking place here. The first is the fraction that displays the proportion of a soul-bit in relation to the original soul. The second number is the fraction the displays the proportion of the soul in relation to the soul as a whole Now, Let's say I create 3 horcruxs. This means I have my soul in 4 peices and their relation as fractions to the original soul is going to be 1/2 for the first hocrux, 1/4 for the 2nd horcrux, 1/8 for the 3rd horcrux, and 1/8 for the portion of the soul residing in my body. Likewise, the proportion of these souls in relation to the soul as a whole, the first horcrux is 1/2 of the soul, the second is 1/4, the third is 1/8 and the portion residing in my body is also 1/8.

Now, let's say you destroy one of my horcruxs...let's say you destroyed the first one. The the original soul fraction for all the soul bits stays the same. The second horcrux is still 1/4 of my original soul, the 3rd is still 1/8 of my original soul, and the living soul in my body is still 1/8 of the original soul. However, the soul as a whole fraction has changed for each of the horcruxs, and here's why. With the destruction of the first horcrux, 50% of my soul is gone...it is no more, it does not exist. My soul no longer has the potential to be 100% of what it once was, it is unobtainable for my soul to be whole, as it once was, again. So "whole" is redefined for my soul because only half of my soul exists, and you can only obtain what exists so the 50% of my soul I have left is now defined as my "soul as a whole", or my whole soul. Because thesoul as a wholefraction is a proportion of the soul-bit in relation to the whole soul, and because the whole so has decreased, the soul as a whole fraction must also change. The second horcrux's soul as a whole number was 1/4 because it was 1/4 of the soul as a whole. Now- however, since 1/2 of my original soul has been destroyed- it is 1/2 of the soul as a whole. Likewise, my 3rd horcrux is is now 1/4 of my soul as a whole, and my soul living inside me is 1/4 of my soul as a whole.

Now, if you destroy my second horcrux too, the 3rd horcrux is still 1/8 of my original soul, but it is now 1/2 of my soul as a whole. The same can be said for the living soul residing in me.

So, why is this important? Because, as I said earlier, I believe that it is either the veil's inclination to only let "whole" souls through, or it is the souls naturally tendency to only go through the veil when it is "whole". And a soul is only whole when it approches the veil with its soul as a whole number totaling 1 or 100% of the whole soul.

So, if you are still following me up to this point, you're probably saying to yourself "but the soul as a whole number will always total 1 or 100%." Yes, that is true, and that's when horcruxs come into play. It is my belief that when a murder is commited the part of the soul that is split off is split into non-existence. So if I go out and kill someone, the living soul in me is 1/2 of my original soul, but 100% or 1/1 of my whole soul because the severed peice of my soul was severed into non-existence and no longer exists. So if I am killed, there is no problem...I simply go through the veil as usual. When I make a horcrux, however, I do not split my soul into non-existence, I split it into an object which holds it. Because of this, if I am ever killed, when I approach the veil I will not be allowed to pass because the peice of my soul that approches will not be whole, it will only be 1/2 of the whole (the other half being the bit stored in the horcrux). Thus, I can not truly die, and I end up being this vapor soul type thing that Voldemort was... forced to stay on this side of the veil until the horcrux is destroyed (thus destroying the soulbit inside of it) which would allow me to approuch the veil as "whole" because though I would be only 1/2 of my original soul, I am 100% of my whole soul.

As I stated earlier it might also be that a soul cannot even approuch the veil unless it is whole. So, If I had a horcrux made I would have to, again, wait until my horcrux is destroyed and then I would be able to approach the veil and truly die.

If Harry can destroy all Voldys horcruxs and then kill him, Voldemort will then approach the veil and die because he will be 1/7 of his original soul, but 100% of his soul as a whole, and the soul as a whole number is what determines whether or not you truly die, AKA pass through the veil.

That is how I think a horcrux works.

Wow solarund, that was pretty elaborate. From a mathematical and logical stand point, you assessment makes sense. However, to those who didn't follow, i understand why, it was sort of complicated wasn't it. However, i find that your theory in addition to the anchor theory could be quite correct. In fact, I don't see how it could work any otehr way without having holes in the design. This way all the edges, nooks and crannies are covered. very well put, and I agree that only a whole soul can approach, after all yo ucan only die once and I think the veil would be confused to let seven pieces of the same person through. VEry well thought out.

I would just like to mention something real quick, it's more directed at Traz-ak. A few months ago we were in a discussion about horcruxs in one of the threads and you asked me to post my thoughts on how they work in such ( i think it was whatever thread we were using the coffee mug analogy in but I'm not really sure) and I never really responded. That was quite some time ago so I don't know if you remember that, but my previous post pretty much sums up what I think are the the logistics of a horcrux...though i dont know how much good that does you now, seeing how you asked me for it about 3+ months ago

Oh, I was named. Yeah, I actually do remember that Solorund. And I see your theory (hard as it got at points to follow), but I think I may disagree. Not so much because I don't think your theory works. I think it does. It's just not exactly how I see things. I really want to, and should, get into my thoughts, but now's not a good time for me to delve too deeply on such complicated subjects, so: raincheck. I just wanted to make sure you knew: I did read the post, and I do have a response (of course) on the matter at hand, and I'll reply as soon as I can.

somebody said that because he has split his sould so many times it makes LV weaker. (sorry cant remember your name sorrry) but like DD said he still has his brain so he can still kill you in an instant. Although DD said something about LV doesnt know the power of a complete soul.

so maybe that will equal out the battle LV may be better at duellin but H has the power only a complete soul can have included with love.

i aint really helpin here im makin it more confusin

All righty then... I've decided to finally get back around to discussing this, because if I put it off any longer, I'll probably forget all about it (or just never get around to it at all; same difference)...

Rather than quote the whole theory, I'll just direct the attention of whoever reads this to several posts above this where Solorund explains his theory on the fractioning of Horcruxes and how this pertains to why a person's soul cannot cross the veil when it has been split to make Horcruxes...

[I'll give you a sec' to go read that, if you haven't already... ... ... ... ... ... Done then? Good. Let's proceed...]

I think that Solorund's theory is all-together possible. I can't really say that it's not the way of things, because there's nothing wrong about it so far as I can see. He and anyone else is free to believe that that is the way it functions. I just see things a little differently.

First off, I think it's worth pointing out that we will probably never know for sure exactly how and why the Horcrux fucntions. Whether it's by Solorund's Method (a good title for it, I think, so I'll refer to it as such from here on out) or the Traz Viewpoint (so SM and TV, if I mention them again, I think) or any other theories (AOT I guess, but we won't be mentioning those again in this post, assuming such alternate theories exist, because even assuming that, nobody's put forth another idea as of yet anyway)... That's kind of a long tangent, so I'll start the sentence again, so I won't lose myself (or you)... Whether it's by SM or TV, there's really no burden on JKR to walk us through how and why souls that have pieces split off into Horcruxes actually work. We might get a few more details concerning the general matter. But there's really no pressing need on JKR's part to explain to us why those souls can't cross the veil. They just can't. Which most likely leaves us to guessing in either case.

If Rowling were to go into specifics about it, however, I tend to doubt that she would explain it to us by way of SM. And the reason for this is that Rowling, by her own admission, doesn't really think in those mathematical terms. As it happens, neither do I. My theories on the matter are decidedly more philosophical than scientific.

So why do I think that a soul that has a piece or pieces of it split off into Horcruxes can't cross the veil? Well, that's relatively simple to me. I think that soul pieces in the Horcruxes still bear some loose connection to the primary soul-piece still residing in the body (or in Vapormort's case, just floating about...). Think of it like an invisible, ever-extendable piece of string that connects those pieces of soul. There's a connection there. Now, I know what you might say. Voldemort can't feel the soul pieces of his Horcruxes, nor tell if they are destroyed. But I don't think that that interferes with the theory. You don't actually feel your soul in such simple terms in any case. You can't just take a look at your soul (ripped into pieces or not) and say, "Yep, there's my soul... Isn't it pur-ty?" But that doesn't mean the soul isn't there. It's just... well, it's perhaps on another plane of existence. And on that plane, those pieces can be connected, even though their separated. Does that make sense to you? It works almost like a very literal anchor. As long as those connections remain intact, then the soul obviously can't cross the veil.

As always, I'm not really sure if I'm explaining this right, but... well, that's generally the way I see it. And I tend to think that this would be closer to the way Rowling would explain it as well. It may not be spot on, but I think her thoughts would be more or less along the same general path. Also, if it were to be explained (in or out of specific canon), this would make for a simpler, easier to follow explanation, and I really can't think that that's a bad thing. Again not to say that SM is inaccurate. For all any of us know, that could be exactly the way it functions. I just prefer to see it differently.

One note on Solorund's Method, though (which also connects back to the main point of this thread as well)... I would like to point out that we don't actually know for sure that when the soul splits, that it split's into equal halves. It might. But we don't know that. It could be that smaller portions of the soul split off from the rest each time. Personally, I would opine that the portion of the soul that splits off may be equal to the amount of pain and anguish that murder has as an effect on the soul. Take for example, if one were to kill someone close to them, it may pain them greater than if they were to kill a complete stranger (perhaps). And in Voldemort's case, it may not even pain his soul nearly a great amount at all to commit murder (though I would suggest that the soul, being the purest form of life, would always feel at least some pain at the murder of another, even if the individual whose soul it is does not necessarily recognize it). But of course, that's just my own theory, based on my own outlook on life. Take it or leave it, depending on your own views.

I totally understand what you are saying traz. And I also think you are right about what Rowling's take on it would be. Actually, if I had to pick a soul theory I think I would choose yours over mine. Actually, what your theory is, is actually what my original conception of soul logistics in the HP world was. I only stumbled upon my own theory when trying to define what the "loose connection to the primary soul" was. If that makes any sense.

WOW TRAZ, That is pretty much my anchor theory idea (originally Czar's), about how all the sub-soul pieces are connected to the primary one in some form or fashion. I think I used the ball and string explanation to describe it as well. But to clear it up into even simpler terms. (If you have seen the CHimpmunks movie where they travel around in a hot-air ballon this may make perfect sense). OK

You have a centerpiece, like a giant rock in the middle of a volcano at the entrance or opening plane. THis large rock is being held up by six long ropes tied to the outerring of the volcano mouth (representing the bond to the earth plane) as well as one rope from the main soul to earth (no soul to soul connection). When One rope is severed (i.e the soul and horcrux are destroyed), the rock begins to sink lower to the lava level (or death plane). As you sever more and more Ropes, the primary sinks lower and lower, getting closer to death. Once the last one is destroyed, the rock is on its own with only it's one rope clinging to earth with no bond. Once that rope is severed (Voldy destroyed) then the Rock (primary soul) has no where to go but plummet to its death. Now keep in mind, there is no Rope in real life, this is just metaphorical to describe the connection between The prmary soul and the coressponing sub-soul units. Another way to describe it would be to draw a brainstorm flow chart, the brain in the middle and six sub thoughts, erase the sub thoughts, all you have left is the brain, erase the brain and there is nothing left. Now remember Voldy can't feel his horcruxes being destroyed so by cutting all his ties, he will be ignorant to know that his next death will be permanent.

I hope this helped clarify the anchor idea. If not I will try to explain further next time.

Now how does this tie in with Solarund's Mathematical approach. Well, When each soul piece is destoyed, or each anchor is cut, that piece of soul dissipates, is destroyed, nothing left. So it is no longer part of the overall soul left on earth, therefore is not counted toward's the whole soul needed to cross over the veil. (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64 and 1/64 (what's left of the one inside of him ~ 0.0015625 %)) So if one is destroyed, lets say one of the smallest at 1/64 - then the fractions of the whole soul left changes -you only have 98.44% left of the original soul.. SO now the 1/2 horcrux that is left is 1/2 of 98.44, same for 1/4 and so on. This is a different perspective of Solarund, but the idea is the same, figuatively speaking anyway.

Let's hope this wasn't to confusing, I was just trying to show that Solarund and Traz's ideas fit together, one from the non-mathematicall stand point and one from the mathematical standpoint. I must agree with TRaz, that math is not soemthing JK will take the time to discuss if she does mention how they work, she will take to metaphorical approach.

i diddnt think the horcrux actually had any power i thought dumbeldore hurt his hand getting around the spells guarding the horcrux and the diary diddnt have any guarding it thats why it wasnt that hard to destroy and i was under the impression that jk made the diary one of the horcruxes to give harry one less to destroy