The Burrow: The Sacrifice at the End of Book 7
by A Jupiterian
It is a well known theory that Harry Potter is one of Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes, but what if Lord Voldemort is a Horcrux for Harry Potter’s soul as well? This theory came to me after thinking about how the final moments of book 7, with the murder of Lord Voldemort and/or Harry Potter, would play out. This inevitably led me to analyze the prophecy with new information from book 6.
. . . AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES.
-OotP, pg. 841
Using the concept of Horcruxes, this sentence makes complete sense. If each were the other’s Horcrux, then neither of them could die if the Horcrux still lived in the other. Thus, Harry Potter would have to sacrifice himself in order for Lord Voldemort to be vanquished and/or Lord Voldemort would have to sacrifice himself to murder Harry Potter (unlikely huh?).
But wait, Harry Potter would have had to murder someone to create a Horcrux, right? Let’s begin with how a Horcrux is made. Professor Slughorn tells us that creating a Horcrux requires a murder to split the soul and a spell to encase it.
Two people we know of died the night Harry Potter received that scar: James and Lily Potter. Lord Voldemort killed James Potter while Lily made a run for it with Harry. Then, Lord Voldemort gave Lily a choice. She did not have to die. She chose to die for Harry. Voldemort tells Harry in GoF, pg. 646, Your mother died to defend you as a child. J. K. Rowling tells us that this is most peculiar, as we see don’t see this type of rebounding of a curse occurring with anyone else.
What occurred as a result of this sacrifice that was so unusual? First, it saved Harry Potter from dying; second, the curse rebounded and struck Lord Voldemort; and, I think, her death acted as though it were Harry Potter’s. Lily’s death created a Horcrux which split Harry Potter’s soul and Lord Voldemort accidentally received it when the curse rebounded. One could argue that it wasnt Harry Potter who actually killed Lily, yet I think the implications of this sacrifice may be cause to suspect that her murder did not act in the same way as others. She died for Harry Potter.
There is also cause to believe that the necessary preparation or spell was performed as Dumbledore expresses his concern that Voldemort was still at least one Horcrux short of his goal when he entered your parents house with the intention of killing you (HBP, pg. 506). If Lord Voldemort was intending to use Harry Potter’s death to create a Horcrux, then the spell would have already been prepared.
In addition, another part of the prophecy may have an alternate meaning as well.
HE [HARRY POTTER] WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT.
If Voldemort is Harry Potter’s Horcrux, that would definitely be to Harry Potter’s advantage. Lord Voldemort could not just kill him without somehow destroying Harry’s Horcrux within himself. Also, I think that James death served to create a Horcrux of Lord Voldemort that Harry Potter keeps. I must assume that this was unintentional due to the attempted use of the Avada Kedavra curse upon Harry Potter that night and the repeated attempted murders of Harry throughout the series.
What would be the result of this exchanging of souls? Well, I think Lord Voldemort is going to kill Harry Potter. Then, due to the Horcrux, Harry Potter would still be alive within Lord Voldemort. Thus, I can only hope that somehow Harry Potter will be able to extract his half-soul from Voldemort before Voldemort is killed. Then again, I think it would be more likely that it would be Harry Potter who sacrifices himself knowingly, so that Lord Voldemort can be killed. I think Harry would do so out of his sense of duty to Professor Dumbledore, to his parents, and to the wizarding world.