I just finished reading this book over lunch and I'm reeling a bit. It's a very emotional book, the ending is a very profound turning-point for Harry and was difficult to read without breaking down into tears.
This book was one of which I remembered least in the entire series. There are very distinct things that happen in each of the first three novels. The fourth was my favorite before the last book was released. And I prefer the movie of the fifth book over the book itself. I think I must have read Half-Blood Prince so quickly after it had come out that I didn't absorb anything from it.
This time I did. It is so vastly different from the movie. I loved this book so much and enjoyed every second of it. Slughorn, Potions, the Half-Blood Prince, Felix Felicis, Dumbledore's private Lessons with Harry.
What I love most about this book was how deep Harry and Dumbledore delve in to the psyche of Voldemort. We learn so many things about him, first about his mother and grandfather and uncle, then about the child Tom Riddle, and then the teenager, the adult, and then finally the monster he becomes.
Harry and Voldemort are alike in so many ways yet so dissimilar at the same time. Both orphans, raised in unpleasant environments, owning little, nothing belonging to them. But for two children to grow up in similar circumstances, Harry and Voldemort turn out to be the two complete opposite sides of the same coin.
Reading about Voldemort's early obsession with objects, trinkets, of which he stole from other children at the orphanage was creepy. I know it's kind of creepy in the movie, but it's creepier reading about it. That leering, excited smile that Tom has when he is overly enthused turns his perfect features in to a mask of ugliness.
Attending Hogwart's at the behest of Dumbledore, he is a top student, Prefect, and Head Boy. He seemed to far exceed Harry in academic capacity, but had no friends. Those that associated themselves with Tom did so out of fear and coercion or because they were weak themselves and wanted to be associated with a strong leader.
Harry is completely the opposite. He knows love. He has friends that love him deeply. Tom loved no one, and no one loved him. Only one person on the planet ever cared for Tom, and that was Dumbledore.
Reading memories of Tom's time at Hogwarts was enlightening all over again. Just like Harry, Tom felt that Hogwarts was his first real, and only, home. But no two people were ever as different as Harry and Voldemort were.
While reading these memories I found that one thing the movie lacked was the emphasis on Horcruxes. There were only a few brief mentions of them. They were actually much more important in this book than I remembered. So I started thinking about them again and, when reading about the memory of Slughorn's in which Tom asks about Horcruxes, I realized there was something very important here.
Tom wanted to know if it was possible to split his soul into seven pieces, since seven is such a magically strong number. Slughorn, aghast, didn't quite elaborate on this, only stuttering about killing that many people to achieve such ends and that no wizard has ever done something like that.
This idea embedded itself at that time into Tom's mind. He was hell-bent on creating seven pieces of his soul using six horcruxes and the remaining seventh piece of his soul in his body. He had already started on this adventure, for by that time he had created his first Horcrux: his grandfather's ring.
Tom had returned to Little Hangleton prior to his fifth year at Hogwarts. He murdered his Muggle father and grandparents. This was a very significant death for him and with it, he turned the ring into a Horcrux.
The second Horcrux was his diary, using the death of Moaning Myrtel during his sixth year at Hogwarts after successfully opening the Chamber of Secrets.
At this point, his Horcrux count is already at 2.
So I decided that, while reading the rest of the memories, I'd piece together exactly when each Horcrux was created so I can see if Voldemort ever reached his goal of six Horcruxes (seven pieces of his soul).
Shortly after leaving Hogwarts, and after being denied a teach position at the school by Dippet as well as Tom himself turning down a few Ministry positions, Tom is stated to have disappeared for a few years. It is at this time that an Albanian peasant was murdered and Ravenclaw's Diadem was turned in to a Horcrux.
Horcrux Count: 3
Tom returned to London and went to work at Borgin and Burkes. He was being repeatedly sent to an old woman named Hepzibah Smith at the behest of the shop owner to obtain powerful magical artifacts from her home, of which she was loaded.
The last time he visited her, she showed him her two most prized treasures: a gold cup with the symbol of a badger on it, Hepzibah claimed it was Helga Hufflepuff's, from whom she was descended; a locket with a serpentine S on it, Hepzibah claiming it to be the locket of Salazar Slytherin himself.
Again, Tom's passion for trinkets and trophies seizes him and he must have them, especially because he felt he had a right to the locket since it was originally his mother's. Two days later, Hepzibah was found dead, and the case was similar to the death of the Riddle's (Tom's father and grandparents). Tom had modified Morfin's memory to make him believe he had killed them, and he confessed. Tom had modified Hokey's, Hepzibah's house-elf, memory to make her believe she had poisoned Hepzibah by mistake, and she confesses.
After doing a little digging, I determined that the cup was turned in to a Horcrux first using Hepzibah Smith's death. Tom later found a Muggle tramp, killed her for what appears to be no good reason, and turned the locket in to a Horcrux at that time.
Horcrux Count: 5
When I got to this point, reading Harry and Dumbledore's theories on further Horcruxes, I continued to piece the puzzle together. He has undergone most of his physical transformation due to the ripping apart of his soul and looks not much like his former self. He returns to Hogwarts once more to ask for a teaching position, and Dumbledore sees right through this. However, after Dumbledore and Harry revisit this memory, Dumbledore's conclusion was that Voldemort's desire was to return to the school and remain in an attempt to search for two more items to turn in to Horcruxes, when in all actuality, he only required one. And on top of that, the whole reason he returned was to simply hide the Diadem in the room of requirement.
Voldemort, at that point, is one Horcrux shy of seven pieces of his soul (six Horcruxes). Many years after achieving the fifth Horcrux, Voldemort sets out with information from a prophecy Snape overheard, to kill Lily and James Potter, and their one-year-old son, Harry.
He kills James, then Lily. He turns his wand on Harry, and the Killing Curse rebounds upon Voldemort, tearing his body to pieces. There is nothing left but that sixth, now seventh, fragment of his soul, and so he flees.
There is a phrase in the sixth book that makes me laugh at this point. Harry and Dumbledore are discussing the night of Harry's survival, and Dumbledore states:
"He seems to have reserved the process of making Horcruxes for particularly significant deaths. You would certainly have been that. He believed that in killing you, he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined. He believed he was making himself invincible. I am sure that he was intending to make his final Horcrux with your death. As we know, he failed ..."
Wrong.
Voldemort unknowingly succeeded in his plan in creating a sixth Horcruxes, achieving seven pieces of his soul, by turning Harry himself in to a Horcrux.
Horcrux Count: 6
However, Voldemort's physical body is ruined. He doesn't regain his body until after one Horcrux is destroyed. So now we venture down that time-line.
Eleven years later, during Harry's second year at Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets is reopened through the powers of Voldemort's diary. Ginny Weasley was being controlled by the diary, carrying out its bidding, and creating quite a mess. Harry destroys the diary with a basilisk fang, shattering that piece of Voldemort's soul.
Horcrux Count: 5
Two short years later, Voldemort returns to his full body, but not before he creates Nagini-The-Snake-Horcrux with the death of Bertha Jorkins.
Horcrux Count: 6
Voldy then gains his full body back at the end of that school year during the final Triwizard Tournament test. It is here that Voldemort, with a full body back, and six Horcruxes, is at the height of power.
And all through Order of the Phoenix, Harry feels it. He can feel it seething within him, raging, nearly exploding with desire to rip and tear apart Dumbledore when he they make eye contact for the first time the entire book.
At the end of that summer, as Harry prepares to enter is sixth year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore finds the ring and, with the help of Professor Snape, destroys it.
Horcrux Count: 5
And wouldn't you know it, Harry is no longer a moody prat for an entire book! Actually, he seems to be quite a reasonable young man considering his godfather, the last remaining "family" he could have, was murdered only a few months ago.
/facepalm
The rest of the Horcruxes are destroyed in a random fashion, each by a different person as they are found (and an implement is available with which they can destroy a Horcrux). The actual locket is finally retrieved after about half of Deathly Hallows passes.
Horcrux Count: 4
They obtain the Cup and destroy it as soon as Ron and Hermione can obtain a basilisk fang.
Horcrux Count: 3
Harry finally remembers that he saw the damn Diadem in the Room of Requirement his previous year at school, and Crabbe's Fiendfyre spell destroys it.
Horcrux Count: 2
Harry, now with the Resurrection Stone in hand, willingly faces his death, having learned that he is a Horcrux and is killed by Voldemort.
Horcrux Count: 1
Neville remembers Harry's instructions, and when all hope was lost, PULLED GRYFFINDOR'S FUCKING SWORD OUT OF THE SORTING HAT and chopped off the head of Nagini.
Horcrux Count: 0
Harry, returned from the dead, kills Voldemort with his (Voldy's) rebounded Killing Curse, again, but this time ol' Voldy's left with no Horcruxes and actually dies.
The end.
Needless to say, I love this damn book and am very glad I reread it because a lot of stuff makes even that much more sense.
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