How do Horcruxes work? [closed]

Question

A few questions regarding the Horcruxes.

1. Had Voldemort actually succeeded in using a Horcrux, would he come back the same age (biologically and/or aesthetically) he was when he made the Horcrux, or the age he would biologically be if he had never died (half died)?

2. If Harry was a Horcrux, then in the graveyard, when Wormtail added Harry's blood to the potion to bring Voldemort back, didn't that technically use up the Horcrux inside of Harry? So in Deathly Hallows when Voldemort kills Harry, shouldn't Harry have actually died rather than just have the Horcrux inside him destroyed, seeing as it was technically used in the Goblet of Fire?

Answer 1

You are confusing the Horcrux with some kind of 'one-shot' or invokable magical talisman. Its function is not triggered by death, but rather its existence precludes death.

In general, for a person to die and their spirit to move on, it must ALL move on; the Horcrux functions by holding a portion of their soul in a safe, earthbound container. Until it is destroyed (destroying or freeing the soul) the person who created it cannot die in a permanent sense.

To quote Slughorn:

"Well, you split your soul, you see, and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. But, of course, existence in such a form... few would want it, Tom, very few. Death would be preferable."

The number of them was not meant to give Voldemort seven tries, as much as to make it that much less likely that all of them could be found and/or destroyed.

The Horcrux also does not provide the creator with a new body or any way to return to life.. its existence simply prevents the creator from being able to truly die -- coming back to life is the creator's problem.

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Incidentally, it's not a new idea, having been seen in Mythology (Koschei the Deathless, for example), Dungeons & Dragons (a 'Phylactery') and other sources. Its method of functioning varies; sometimes it keeps the owner from dying by rendering their physical form 'unkillable', in others it recreates the body after it is destroyed. Sometimes it simply keeps death from being final by holding the soul, as is the case with HP.

See this TvTropes link (warning; you can lose hours on TvTropes) for a list of examples.

Answer 2

Had voldemort actually succeeded in using a horcrux, would he come back the same age (biologically and/or aesthetically) he was when he made to horcrux, or the age he would biologically be if he had never died (half died)?

Well, Voldemord DID succeed in "using" his Horcruxes - to wit, the rebounded Avada Kedavra from Harry-baby did NOT kill him as it should have; and instead merely destroyed his body.

Therefore, we know exactly what would happen when Horcruxes are "used" successfully - Voldemort's soul (remaining part) hung around body-less, until it could re-obtain the body by either drinking Elixir made from Philosopher's Stone, OR by special body creation potion that Wormtail brewed in HP4.

Whether that potion produced a bodt that was the same as when Voldemort "died" is not really covered in canon, but presumably it looked similarly enough that Death Eaters easily recognized Voldemort, and main features (eyes, no nose) remained.

If Harry was a horcrux, then in the graveyard, when wormtail added Harry's blood to the potion to bring voldemort back, didn't that technically use up the horcrux inside of Harry?

First of all, Harry was not technically speaking a Horcrux (JKR stated so), despite what Dumbledore said to Harry. He merely contained the soul fragment without being a Horcrux.

Second, even discounting that, the "horcrux" was the part of Voldemort's soul that lodged inside Harry.

Using Harry's blood in no way affected that part of the soul, and it continued residing inside Harry up until Voldemort destroyed it with his second Avada Kedavra in HP7 in the forest.

Answer 3

Had Voldemort actually succeeded in using a Horcrux, would he come back the same age (biologically and/or aesthetically) he was when he made the Horcrux, or the age he would biologically be if he had never died (half died)?

The prime task of Harcrux was to evade death. So yes, Voldemort succeeded in using Horcrux as Killing Curse failed to kill him. As for the age, it has never been mentioned in the canon. But, in my opinion, age is not defined when you use dark magic.

If Harry was a Horcrux, then in the graveyard, when Wormtail added Harry's blood to the potion to bring Voldemort back, didn't that technically use up the Horcrux inside of Harry? So in Deathly Hallows when Voldemort kills Harry, shouldn't Harry have actually died rather then just have the Horcrux inside him destroyed, seeing as it was technically used in the Goblet of Fire?

1. Harry was never a Horcrux. And, there was no worm Horcrux etc inside Harry. A Horcrux is an enchanted object used to keep part soul. Harry just kept part soul of Voldemort. Technically, he wasn't a Horcrux of Voldemort. See this.
2. Harry's blood was added in the insurrection process to by-pass Lily's protection. It had nothing to do with the insurrection.

Answer 4

The soul fragment stays the exact same as when it was placed inside the object of choice. Tom Riddle's diary, for example, held the soul fragment of 16-year old Tom Riddle. While it would be able to learn new memories, it would be clueless to the events other parts of Voldemort's soul has experienced. I deduce this from the fact that Voldemort's soul has been in pieces for so long that they became disconnected over time and that's why Voldemort couldn't feel his Horcruxes being destroyed.

What Horcruxes do is keeping the piece of soul inside the body earthbound. This is because a soul cannot move on unless there's no pieces of the same soul inside Horcruxes. If the pieces of soul inside the Horcruxes have all been destroyed (pieces of soul inside Horcruxes can actually perish opposed to pieces of soul inside the body), then the last piece of the soul will be forever trapped in limbo. This is depicted as a mutilated baby, powerless to move and destined to suffer for eternity.

In other words, as long as your Horcruxes remain intact, you can die over and over without losing any part of your soul (granted you can conjure up a new body every time that happens). At the flipside of the coin, once a Horcrux is destroyed, there's no way to retrieve the lost piece of soul, which means that the maimed soul in question can't go to the afterlife, instead confining the broken soul to limbo.

There are ways to "glue" back the soul together but it requires heavy remorse and that only helps reconciling the soul. It can't fix a soul where pieces put in Horcruxes have already perished. Not because it's impossible, but because the person in question has lost too much of his/her humanity to be able to feel real remorse (and not just wanting to repair your soul for selfish reasons).