Voldemort's Immortality - how concrete is it?

[crystallised_pineapple]

it was gryffindors wasn't it?

yeah i agree i don't think the hat would help distroy the horcruxes but maybe it would help to find them....i don't know i'm just thinking out loud lol

[Lelie]

i didn't think that the whole bit with dd's hand and the ring was properly explained. there must be more to the story than we know, as that wasn't really a very "thrilling tale." the sorting hat has something of each of the founders in it i believe... but i could be really off on that. it was originally gryffindor's though. i wonder how a horcrux is really made (other killing someone and splitting your soul). would it have been possible for LV to send a part of his soul into something (like the hat) in dd's office that day without dd realizing it?

[Fweegal]

I'd love to see Harry bringing a chatty annoying hat with him on his travels.
I'd say that thing must get claustrophobic from being indoors all the time. Imagine how thrilled it'd be to get outdoors!

[Froggs]

I was under the impression that the object chosen for the Horcrux needs to be in the vicinity of the person getting killed, I guess I just thought that made sense. But even if that is not true, I bet the enchantments put on Hogwarts would protect the school from such dark magic...maybe...

[Lelie]

i have no idea. when i was reading i just sort of took the horcruxes for face value without really thinking. now i'm beginning to see that was a bit of a mistake!
well, dark magic has to be able to be done at hogwarts, or else the chamber of secrets probably wouldn't exist and fake moody wouldn't have been able to use the unforgivable curses on the spiders. i would also count sectusempra as dark magic... i mean, splitting someone open isn't exactly something flitwick was teaching them!
i guess that doesn't mean there isn't SOME sort of protection from dark magic on the castle. i am beginning to doubt it's reputation of being a safe stronghold. seems like everyone in the last 6 years that has wanted to get into the castle for any reason has managed it. voldemort (through quirrell), tom riddle, sirius, barty crouch jr, draco and the death eaters... that's not a very good advertisement for safety if you ask me!

[Froggs]

Yup, you're right, I doubt I would send my kids there with a reputation like that!

[dibble2]

And now Dumbledore's gone, so there's not much of a reason for Voldemort to hold off on attacking the castle, unless you count a few hundred underage wizards as a threat. Oh, and Dumbledore being killed in that very school probably doesn't do much for the safety reputation either.

[Mistress Siana]

Apparently, the way the Horcruxes are protected follows a pattern. You have to weaken yourself in order to get it, you have to use it. The only way to get the potion away was to drink it, so I suspect that the only way to remove the ring from whereever it was kept was to put it on and thus suffer from the curse. The diary seems to have been an exception, but it was made when Riddle was only sixteen and possibly not the one that was guarded best. Apart from that, it served the purpose of preserving his megalomaniac teenage self, so I guess he counted on somebody touching it. But I strongly believe that it must be fatal to try and touch the other ones.

And personally, I'm still suspecting Fawkes. There must be somewhat of a connection as Tom has a feather from Fawkes in his wand. And the way I interpret Voldemort's character, he definitely has somewhat of an obsession with Dumbledore, so I think he's likely to to have tried to use something from him.

[xtreme_matt32]

i have a quesiton..
if somebody who made a horcux was not killed, but died of old age or an illness, would the horcrux still take effect, seeing htey werent killed?

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

A person with a horcrux wouldn't die of old age or an illness. That's why it's called the next step to immortality.

[Mistress Siana]

Yeah, look at Voldemort, I don't think he's aging (or even sleeping, eating, drinking) like normal humans do. Given he looks like a snake, he probably sheds his skin whenever it begins to age and grows a new one...seriously, I don't he'd ever die from old age.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

I'm thinking he doesn't need t oeat, sleep etc. simply because he doesn't have to. There's no reason he would shed his skin though, however snake-like he is.
Argh, I had a point to make when I clicked reply, ummm...
Oh yeah, Lord Voldemort's immortality, just like all things that are professed as giving immortality, is not for certain, obviously.

This has been shown to us the entire series, through the Philosopher's Stone and the horcruxes.
Nothing can guarantee eternal life.
So... not very concrete at all as far as that goes.

You know, if you had 1000 years to defeat Voldemort, it would actually be quite simple.
Every few years you'd one or two people would go and have a crack at one of the horcruxes. As has been revealed, destroying one isn't that hard. Both of them may die, but they would not die in vain, because in another 100 years, another will come along etc.

It'd take a long time, but eventually I think you could locate them all and destroy him. Given a long time-frame, it's actually not that set in stone survival.

The one advantage Voldemort has had though, and anyone would have, would be:

That virtually nobody knows about them.

[Mistress Siana]

I wasn't serious about Voldemort shedding his skin. That would be too gross, hm?

You have a point, but it brings up new questions. If Voldemort knows of a Horcrux being destroyed, does he make a new one, then? Does his idea of a seven-part soul mean that there have to be seven parts, or that the original soul should be divided into seven parts? That's quite a difference, because the first option would mean that he'd make a new one as soon as one is destroyed. How many times can you split a soul, anyway?

On a completely unrelated note, I wonder if Voldemort would ever get tired of immortality, I mean, ever? After maybe a few hundred years, I mean, long after he's achieved everthing he dreamed of and gained all the knowledge he wanted, would he ever feel it's time to go on? Is he human enough for it? Could he ever reach a point at which he would decide to destroy his own Horcruxes and die? If so, how long would it take him to reach that point?

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

Probably long enough for him to extinguish all hope in the human race .

Hmm, but remember what DUmbledore said: That Voldemort probably won't feel the loss of one of his horcruxes. That it is probably only in his final moments, that he will realise his loss.

[Mistress Siana]

Yes, but he knows, for instance, that the diary has been detroyed because Lucius told him. Then, depending on how much information Snape gave him about the ring, Dumbledore's injury and his condition in the Astronomy Tower, Voldemort should be able to guess Dumbledore was hunting his Horcruxes as well. Does he just accept that and hope the rest will remain safe, or does he want to replace the lost one(s)?