PS/SS – Burning

Harry’s scar begins to burn for the first time.

GoF – Visions

Harry’s scar burns him for the first time in three years and he begins to have visions.

DH – Own Worst Enemy

Harry has been told repeatedly by other characters that his scar was the result of the killing curse (Avada Kedavra). However, the narration tells us several times that the killing curse does not leave any physical markings or traces upon the dead body. To conclude that the killing curse is what left Harry with his trademark scar is incorrect. What if the scar was a result of the clash between the curse and the old magic protecting Harry? That is a possibility, but it does not account for the pain that emanates from Harry’s scar due to Voldemort’s presence or the mental link they share.

Harry’s scar did not begin to bother him until his first year at Hogwarts. Why did it begin to hurt ten years later? If the killing curse clashing with the protection of Lily’s love (old magic) could cause a regular scar, Voldemort (the person who cast the spell) should not be able to invoke pain from it. After the Dark Lord’s rebirth in GoF, he was able to inflict pain on Harry, through his scar, by merely touching him. Then in OotP, when Voldemort possessed Harry’s body in the Ministry of Magic, Harry again experienced excruciating pain emanating from his scar. Isn’t the pain a warning that Voldemort is gaining strength? Again, a regular scar wouldn’t even make this correlation and if this statement were true, it doesn’t add up.

If Harry’s scar is a warning sign, then his scar should have begun hurting when the deluded form of Voldemort took residence in Quirrell’s body (which would have been before Harry’s first year). Harry’s scar did not inflict him with pain during CoS, PoA, (Voldemort was not strong enough for either) or HBP (Voldemort reportedly disconnected the mental link). Harry did however feel pain emanate from his scar during PS/SS (the soul fragment is reawakened by the presence of Voldemort), GoF (the mental link between Voldemort and Harry was established through Voldemort’s gain in strength due to Wormtail’s return), and in OotP (Voldemort was using the mental link he shared with Harry to his advantage as a means of gathering information and manipulation). So what really happened to Harry’s scar during his first year that made it begin to hurt?

Harry’s scar seemed to have laid dormant for ten years until it sensed that Voldemort was near, or more importantly, it seemed to sense it’s origin—the soul fragment that resides in Voldemort—awakening it from its slumber. What makes Voldemort’s soul fragment important? Since Voldemort is the source of origin (the other fragments were broken from his “core”) he acts as a beacon or calling point for all his other soul fragments. Does this mean that when a Horcrux is destroyed, the soul fragment returns to Voldemort? No, it does not. Using the definition given by Slughorn: “[a] Horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul” (HBP 497); we can see that an object with a concealed soul is a Horcrux. Thus destroying a Horcrux is to destroy the soul fragment encased in the spell (to date unknown), within the object, not the object itself. How do I know that the soul fragment has to be encased in a specific spell in order to be concealed within an object? During the conversation between Slughorn and Tom, Slughorn let’s slip this bit of information:

“By an act of evil—the supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing rips the soul apart. The wizard intent upon creating a Horcrux would use the damage to his advantage: He would encase the torn portion—”
“Encase? But how—”
“There is a spell, do not ask me, I don’t know!” said Slughorn, shaking his head like an old elephant bothered by mosquitoes. “Do I look as though I have tried it—do I look like a killer?” (HBP 498)

Take for instance Riddle’s diary and Marvolo’s ring. It’s true the diary suffered large holes from where Harry pierced it with the Basilisk’s fang and the ring ended up with a cracked stone, but the Horcrux was destroyed without destroying the objects entirely.

Yes, Harry’s is a Horcrux—an accidental Horcrux. Looking back to the definition, Harry himself does not have to die in order to destroy the Horcrux, only the soul fragment which resides in his scar. On the night that Voldemort went to Godric’s Hollow, his only intent was to kill Harry—not Lily and James—because the first half of the prophesy stated he was the Dark Lord's equal (or at least Voldemort saw him as such). Up until that day Voldemort had only created five Horcruxes, not six. Why had Voldemort only created five Horcruxes? After having heard the prophecy (the portion Snape overheard), Voldemort decided to use Harry’s death in order to complete his quest for immortality, merely satisfying his thirst for poetic irony. Harry, the baby he had foreseen to be his rival and potential downfall, was to be used to ensure that his reign lasted forever. This is further strengthened by Dumbledore in HBP:

“—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.—” (HBP, 642)

In HBP, Dumbledore told Harry what he theorized to be the remaining Horcruxes: Hufflepuff’s cup, Slytherin’s locket, Nagini, and an item that belonged to Gryffindor or to Ravenclaw. Gryffindor can be ruled out because the only known item is his sword, which is located in the headmaster’s office at Hogwarts:

“—I cannot answer for whether he ever managed to find anything of Ravenclaw's. I am confident, however, that the only known relic of Gryffindor remains safe.”

Dumbledore pointed his blackened fingers to the wall behind him, where a ruby-encrusted sword reposed within a glass case. (HBP, 641)

What could have been/still is Ravenclaw’s object? Each Hogwarts founder’s item correlates to what they value. Godric Gryffindor valued courage, which is often associated with heroes in arms, thus the sword. Salazar Slytherin valued ambition which is often associated with egocentrism, thus the locket (a carrier of portraits which center on the self). Helga Hufflepuff valued loyalty, which is often associated with friendship, thus the cup (a quaich). The quaich (“friendship cup”) is a small cup with two handles used in Scottish tradition as a drinking vessel shared among friends during visitations and at weddings. The description of Hufflepuff’s cup in HBP matches the description of a traditional quaich (pictures found HERE). This means that Ravenclaw’s item has a correlation to knowledge, which is often associated with education.

As for Nagini, when Voldemort went to the Potter’s household, he brought an unknown artifact with him, intending to make it his sixth Horcrux from Harry’s death, but the process was interrupted. As a result, Harry accidentally became Voldemort’s sixth Horcrux. The five Horcruxes that he had completed before going to the Potters were: the diary, Marvolo’s ring, Slytherin’s locket, Hufflepuff’s cup, and an item of Ravenclaw. It is unknown which “trophy” Voldemort intended to use for his sixth Horcrux but it most likely was left behind in Godric’s Hollow, amidst the rubble that once was the Potters’ home. Dumbledore theorized that during Voldemort’s return to power, he had made Nagini one of his Horcruxes:

”—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 particular 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. She underlines the Slytherin connection, which enhances Lord Voldemort’s mystique; I think he is perhaps as fond of her as he can be of anything; he certainly likes to keep her close, and he seems to have an unusual amount of control over her, even for a Parselmouth.” (HBP, 506)

The most interesting thing about this quote is the death Voldemort apparently used to make Nagini a Horcrux: “an old Muggle man.” Looking back at GoF (Nagini’s introduction into the series), Voldemort does in fact kill an old Muggle man, Frank Bryce, while Nagini is present at the old Riddle House in Little Hangleton.

And then the chair was facing Frank, and he saw what was sitting in it. His walking stick fell to the floor with a clatter. He opened his mouth and let out a scream. He was screaming so loudly that he never heard the words the thing in the chair spoke as it raised a wand. There was a flash of green light, a rushing sound, and Frank Bryce crumpled. He was dead before he hit the floor. (GoF 15)

On the surface the death appears to be the same as any other caused by the killing curse: the flash of green light and rushing sound. Except unlike all the others (in Moody’s class, the graveyard, the MoM, and in the tower at Hogwarts) and much like Halloween ’81, it is only assumed that the words spoken were “Avada Kedavra”. Yet to this day it’s only an assumption.

Harry’s scar (where the sixth soul fragment is contained) only reacts when in contact with its origin (Voldemort), whether physically or mentally, but does not react in any way when in contact with the other Horcruxes. When he has been in contact with Voldemort, his scar feels as though it is going to split open. Why would his scar feel as though it was going to “open” if not due to the soul fragment connection with its origin? When Harry has encountered the other Horcruxes, he has not felt any pain in his scar—his soul fragment has not reacted in any way toward the other fragments. While he handles the diary, meets the “memory” of sixteen year-old Tom Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets, and destroys the diary, his scar does not hurt. When he is near Nagini in the graveyard, his scar does not hurt. When he unwittingly comes across Slytherin’s locket at 12 Grimmauld Place, his scar does not hurt. When Harry saw Marvolo’s ring, Dumbledore had already destroyed the soul fragment so it cannot be stated that his scar did not react to the Horcrux since the Horcrux had been destroyed. But it can be assumed that had the ring still retained the soul fragment, Harry’s scar would have not had a reaction, based on the previous Horcrux encounters.

Further more, during the conversation between Dumbledore and Harry; the older wizard states that “Voldemort is now so immersed in evil, and these crucial parts of himself have been detached for so long, he does not feel as we do.” (HBP, 505) This means that the Dark Lord will be unaware of the destruction of the fragments of his soul, thus becoming ignorant to his growing mortality. Voldemort was only able to survive because he had shattered his soul and locked away the separated the pieces, granting himself temporary immortality. Since Voldemort’s soul was not intact on Halloween ’81, he was unable to cross over. This forced him to drift in limbo between the land of the living and the spiritual realm, until he found other means of cementing himself further into the land of the living. Why isn’t Voldemort’s immortality permanent? The Horcruxes are simply objects anchoring him to this world. Once all of the Horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort will only have a small shred of his soul left as his anchor to this world, making him mortal once more and able to fully cross over.