Chapter Twenty-Three: Horcruxes
In chapter twenty-three of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry finds out that he’s got to kill seven pieces of evil soul to defeat Voldemort. Well, that should be easy and not involve camping at all!
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Harry hauls ass to Dumbledore’s office like he’s Cher Horowitz going to the ladies room
to tell him he’s got Slughorn’s memory in his little sweaty paw and we jump right back into Slughorn’s group meeting of only teenage boys who use bribery and sugar to get on his good side and errrrr….why is 1940’s Slughorn in particular kind of an….err…creep, shall we say? Yeah, let’s go with creep.
Time for more controversial opinions! So Slughorn answers TRidz’s questions about Horcruxes, what it is and if seven is the best number to commit murder and split your soul, and…I know we’re supposed to be horrified that Slughorn told TRidz this but honestly, what is wrong with some curiosity? Don’t many of us read true crime books, but would absolutely never commit a crime like that ourselves?
Now, if Slughorn had actually told LV how to create a Horcrux that would be disturbing to me. But just to discuss what they are? Eh. I’m not that mad at Slughorn. He was a teacher. He thought he was teaching.
We get a lot of explanations about the Horcruxes, what they probably are, and that the diary was one. Dumbles finally explains that his hand withered because he destroyed the ring Horcrux, and DumblesPotz discuss how Harry’s ability to love has given him the tools necessary to defeat Voldemort. It does make you wonder how much more dangerous an evil wizard or witch who does have some ability to love at least one person would be. Then what weakness would they have?
This is all very interesting on first read, but to recap it’s deathly dull so let’s celebrate with Harry his ability to regain control over his own narrative of being the one to kill Voldemort!
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Why is the 1940’s Slug Club all male?
Is what Slughorn told Riddle that bad?
If Voldemort had the ability to love, would he be more dangerous? Or would he not be Voldemort if he could love?
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