In the Harry Potter saga, Lord Voldemort manages to stay alive thanks to very powerful black magic: Horcruxes. To create them, he must kill. But who are all his victims? We take stock.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: the noose is tightening
Released on our screens almost thirteen years ago to the day, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth part of the cinematographic saga adapted from the work of JK Rowling. Directed by David Yates, the film represents a turning point in the saga with both the tragic disappearance of Dumbledore, and the discovery of the existence of Voldemort’s Horcruxes.
It is in fact thanks to a new character introduced in this film, Professor Horace Slughorn, that Harry manages to discover the dark secret of the black mage. To do this, he had to convince the professor to let him access a memory buried in his memory, which he then poured into the pensieve. For the first time, we discover how the man who was once called Tom Riddle managed not to die:
In killing, Tom Riddle split his soul into pieces, and then used a spell to encase each part in an object . He did this seven times (the magic number according to him). Because of his megalomania, he chose an object with high symbolic value each time.
Each Horcrux has its victim
- Son journal intime : Mimi Geignarde
At the age of sixteen, to maintain who he was at that time, Tom Riddle killed Mimi Whiner with the Basilisk in the girls’ bathroom. This is his first Horcrux. Once he becomes Lord Voldemort, he entrusts the item to Lucius Malfoy . The latter, not knowing its importance, then slips it into the belongings of Ginny Weasley, who finds herself possessed by the object. Harry manages to destroy it with a Basilisk fang in The Chamber of Secrets.
- The Gaunt Ring: Tom Riddle Sr
During his sixth year at Hogwarts, Tom Riddle visits the house that belonged to his grandfather, Elvis Marvolo Gaunt. There he meets his uncle, Morfin, who tells him that his father is in fact a Muggle. The man also introduces himself as a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and shows him the Gaunt ring as proof. Tom Riddle, enraged to learn that he has muggle blood in his veins, kills his own father, Tom Riddle Senior, as well as his paternal grandparents and transforms the Gaunt ring into a Horcrux without knowing that it is set of the resurrection stone.
It is Albus Dumbledore who destroys this Horcrux with the sword of Gryffindor. The ring is briefly seen in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince . It is this ring that condemns Dumbledore to death (he wanted to use the Resurrection Stone but did not know that it was a Horcrux).
- Salazar Slytherin’s Locket: A Muggle Wanderer
After finishing his studies, Tom Riddle worked for a while at Barjow and Beurk as a salesman. It was there that he heard about Hepzibah Smith, a rich witch, heir to Helga Hufflepuff who owned two valuable objects: Salazar Slytherin’s locket and Helga Hufflepuff’s cup .
He decided to poison the old woman and stole the two objects. He killed a Muggle wanderer in order to transform the locket into a Horcrux. He then hid it in a seaside cave, where Harry and Dumbledore discovered it years later. But it was a replica. The real one was on Dolores Umbridge’s neck.
After recovering it, it is finally Ron who manages to destroy it with the sword of Gryffindor in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1.
- Hufflepuff Cup: Hepzibah Smith
Along with the Slytherin locket, Tom Riddle stole the Hufflepuff Cup from Hepzibah Smith. He killed the latter to transform it into a Horcrux. Once he became Voldemort, he entrusted the cup to the Lestranges, who hid it in their vault at Gringotts. After infiltrating (in disguise) the bank in The Deathly Hallows Part 2 , Hermione, Ron and Harry seized the cup. It was then Hermione who destroyed it with a Basilisk hook found in the Chamber of Secrets.
- Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw: an Albanian peasant
The Gray Lady of Hogwarts, Helena Ravenclaw, revealed to Tom Riddle that the diadem was hidden in a “hollow tree” in a forest in Albania. After his schooling, he took it and hid it in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts . He made it into a Horcrux after killing a peasant he met on his way. It was during the Battle of Hogwarts that the Horcrux was accidentally destroyed by Crabbe who cast a Fiend and destroyed the room and the diadem (and him with it).
- Nagini : Bertha Jorkins
Bertha Jorkins was a civil servant in the Ministry of Magic. Voldemort killed her shortly after meeting her in Albania. It was Neville Longbottom who destroyed the Horcrux by cutting off Nagini’s head during the Battle of Hogwarts with the sword of Gryffindor. A cult scene present in the last film.
- Harry Potter : Lily Potter
Lily Potter, Harry’s mother, sacrificed herself by interposing between the master of darkness and her little boy when Voldemort wanted to kill him at Godric’s Hollow. A piece of Voldemort’s soul was then nestled, without his knowledge , in the body of his enemy (hence his famous scar). It was the dark mage himself who destroyed this last Horcrux by killing Harry in the Forbidden Forest (before he miraculously came back to life).