I can’t find confirmation of this online, and I don’t have the books with me, but I seem to remember Dumbledore telling Harry in HBP that Voldemort had intended to use the murder of baby Harry as means to create his last Horcrux (the planned Horcrux would not have literally been dead baby Harry, of course). Of course, that might have been mere speculation by Dumbledore, or I might be misremembering.
However, if my calculations are correct, Voldemort was still at least one Horcrux short of his goal of six when he entered your parents’ house with the intention of killing you. 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.
It should be noted that “he reserved making Horcruxes for significant deaths” is flat wrong.
How do we know it’s wrong? As far as I can remember, the only two deaths to which we can pin the creation of horcruxes are Moaning Myrtle’s and Harry Potter’s. Myrtle herself wasn’t significant, but she was the casualty of Slytherin’s Basilisk, which Tom Riddle had commanded, which proved that he was the Heir of Slytherin. It was his coming out as the Heir of Slytherin, which would have been very significant to Riddle.
All the sources I’ve found indicate the deaths used to create the Horcruxes are Myrtle (diary) - Riddle Sr. (ring) - an unnamed Muggle tramp (locket) - Hepzibah Smith (cup) - an unnamed Albanian peasant (diadem) - Voldemort himself (Harry) - Bertha Jorkins (Nagini), in that order.
This is the quote I had in mind, from Chapter 23 of HBP:
’He [Voldemort] 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. After an interval of some years, however, he used Nagini to kill an old Muggle man, and it might then have occurred to him to turn her into his last Horcrux.
If Dumbledore is right, then Bertha Jorkins could not have been murdered to make that Horcrux, because she was already dead. Is there an interview where Rowling says otherwise? I don’t see anything on the wiki page (a citation, or other reference) that backs up their claim.
He didn’t; the Harrycrux was accidental, and he killed Bertha Jorkins to make Nagini in ’94.
I can’t find confirmation of this online, and I don’t have the books with me, but I seem to remember Dumbledore telling Harry in HBP that Voldemort had intended to use the murder of baby Harry as means to create his last Horcrux (the planned Horcrux would not have literally been dead baby Harry, of course). Of course, that might have been mere speculation by Dumbledore, or I might be misremembering.
Seems like speculation to me:
It should be noted that “he reserved making Horcruxes for significant deaths” is flat wrong.
How do we know it’s wrong? As far as I can remember, the only two deaths to which we can pin the creation of horcruxes are Moaning Myrtle’s and Harry Potter’s. Myrtle herself wasn’t significant, but she was the casualty of Slytherin’s Basilisk, which Tom Riddle had commanded, which proved that he was the Heir of Slytherin. It was his coming out as the Heir of Slytherin, which would have been very significant to Riddle.
All the sources I’ve found indicate the deaths used to create the Horcruxes are Myrtle (diary) - Riddle Sr. (ring) - an unnamed Muggle tramp (locket) - Hepzibah Smith (cup) - an unnamed Albanian peasant (diadem) - Voldemort himself (Harry) - Bertha Jorkins (Nagini), in that order.
Ah yeah, that list does ring a bell. Right you are, then.
I thought that the Nagini horcrux was made via the killing of Frank Bryce. Don’t have the book with me to check, though.
This being the 21st century, shall we make it up or look it up?
This is the quote I had in mind, from Chapter 23 of HBP:
If Dumbledore is right, then Bertha Jorkins could not have been murdered to make that Horcrux, because she was already dead. Is there an interview where Rowling says otherwise? I don’t see anything on the wiki page (a citation, or other reference) that backs up their claim.
It’s on the talk page. Link is broken, though.
Saved by the Wayback Machine. Thanks. I should have checked the talk page.