"Good gracious you two," said Dumbkedore as he looked at both Harry and I. " to what do I owe this late pleasure?" He said pleasantly.

"Sir- we've got it. We've got the memory from Slughorn," said Harrycas he pulled out the tiny phial. For a moment or so Dumnledore looked stunned then his face broke into a huge smile.

"This is spectacular news! I knew you could do it!" Said Dumbledore. I was still catching my breath slightly as he placed the stone pensive on his desk.

"And now," said Dumbledore emptying the memory into the pensive. "Now, we shall know," said Dumbledore. Harry and I entered the pensive him first then me. I felt like I was falling into darkness until my feet hit the floor with a thud. A dormitory scene unfolded before me. A few bits were in Slughorns office and the clock chimed midnight. All the boys left but Tom Riddle. 

"Look sharp, Tom, you don't want to be caught out of bed at this hour-" said Slughorn once he noticed Tom still in the room.

"Sir, I wanted to ask you something-" said Tom.

"Ask away then, my boy, ask away-"

"Sir, I wondered what you know about... Horcruxes?" Said Tom. Slughorn slowly learning looked at Tom.

"Project for defense against the dark arts, is it?" Asked Slughorn obviously trying to seem less nervous than he was.

"Not exactly sir... I came across the term while reading and I didn't fully understand it-" said Slughorn.

"No... Well... You'd be hard pushed to find a book at Hogwarts that will give you details on Horcruxes. Tom that's very dark stuff, very dark indeed," said Slughorn.

"But you obviously know all about them, sir? I mean a great wizard like you- sorry, I mean if you can't tell me- I just knew if anyone could tell me, you could- I just thought I'd ask," said Tom obviously sucking up to Slughorn for information.

"Well, well, it can't hurt to give you a overview of course," said Slughorn nervously fiddling with the top of the crystallized pineapple. "Just so you understand the term. A Horcrux is the word used for in which a person has concealed a part of their soul," he said slowly.

"I don't understand how that works, though, sir," said Tom.

"Well, you spilt your soul you see," said Slughorn stating the obvious. "And hide part of it in a object outside of the body. Then, even if ones body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. But of course, in such a form..." I looked over at Harry who looked lost in thought.

"Few would want it, Tim, very few. Death would be preferable,"

"How do you split your soul?" Asked Voldemort with hunger now in his eyes.

"Ohh.." I whispered quickly and quietly.

"Well," said Slughorn now sounding uncomfortable. "You must understand the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, it is against nature,"

"But how do you do it?"

"By an act of evil- the supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing rips the soul apart. The wizard upon creating the Horcrux could use it to his advantage. He would encase the torn piece-"

"Encase? How?"

There is a spell, do not ask me, I don't not know! So I look as though I have tried it- do I look like a killer?" Said Slughorn now seeming bothered.

"No, sir, of course not-" said Tom quickly. "I didn't mean to offend..."

"Not at all, not at all offended. It's natural for wizards to have curiosity for magic..."

"Yes, sir. What I don't understand, though- just out of curiosity- I mean, would one Horcrux be much use? Wouldn't it be better, make you stronger, if you had your soul in more pieces? I mean, for instance, isn't seven the most powerful magical number, wouldn't seven-"

"Merlins beard Tom! Seven? Isn't it bad enough thinking of killing one person? And in any case... Bad enough to divide the soul... But to rip it into seven pieces-" Slughorn looked deeply troubled and like he regretted ever pursuing the conversation.

"Of course, what we are discussing- all hypothetical. All academic-" said Tom quickly still trying to keep the conversation as if it were normal and not very dark.

"All the same tom, keep quiet what we've discussed- talked about I mean. People wouldn't like to think we've been talking about horcruxes. It's a banned subject at Hogwarts-"

"I won't say a word, sir," said Tom but not before turning and walking towards the door. I looked at his face and saw that it looked very happy and his eyes gleamed scarlet.

"Thank You," said Dumbledore quietly. "Let us go..."

When I got back into the office I saw Dumbledore and Harry sitting down around Dumbledores desk like always. I sat down silently and awkwardly.

"I have been looking for this piece of evidence for a long time. It confirms the theory that I have been working on, and tells me that I am right and that, there is still very far to go..." Said Dumbledore. "Well, I am sure you both know what we just saw. At the same age you are now Harry, give or take a few months, Tom Riddle was already trying to find a way to make himself immortal," said Dumbledore. I glanced at my knees which I saw were shaking slightly due to nerves.

"You think he succeeded then sir?" Asked Harry. "He made a Horcrux and that's when he didn't die when he attacked me? He had a Horcrux hidden somewhere? A bit of his soul was safe?" Said Harry eagerly.

"A bit... Or more," said Dumbledore slowly. I waited for him to continue though he didn't.

"Harry he must have made more than one because, as you know, he used part of his Horcrux to give me another chance at life-" I said. Dumbledore nodded at me.

"Four years ago, I received what I considered perfect proof, that Voldemort had split his soul into two-"

"Where? How?" Asked Harry.

"You handed it to me Harry. The diary, Riddles diary, the one giving instructions on how to open the chamber of secrets-" said Dumbledore.

"I don't understand, sir," said Harry. I sighed impotently as I picked up on what Dumbledore was saying. He gestured for me to calm down.

"The book had been a Horcrux. I could tell since you described the phenomenon that occurs from the memory acting on its own accord,"

"I still don't understand-"

"Well, the book worked as a Horcrux was supposed to- in other words, a fragment of the soul was concealed inside it and kept it safe and prevented the death of its owner. But there is no doubt that Riddle really wanted that diary read, wanted the diary to posses somebody else, so that Slytherins monster would be unleashed again,"

"Quite correct," said Dumbledore, nodding. "But don't you see, Harry, that if he intended the diary to be passed to, or planted on, some future Hogwarts student, he was being remarkably blasé about that precious fragment of his soul concealed within it. The point of a Horcrux is, as Professor Slughorn explained, to keep part of the self hidden and safe, not to fling it into somebody else's path and run the risk that they might destroy it — as indeed happened: That particular fragment of soul is no more; you saw to that.
The careless way in which Voldemort regarded this Horcrux seemed most ominous to me. It suggested that he must have made — or been planning to make more Horcruxes, so that the loss of his first would not be so detrimental. I did not wish to believe it, but nothing else seemed to make sense,"

"Then you told me, two years later, that on the night that Voldemort returned to his body, he made a most illuminating and alarming statement to his Death Eaters. 'I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality.' That was what you told me he said. 'Further than anybody,' And I thought I knew what that meant, though the Death Eaters did not. He was referring to his Horcruxes, Horcruxes in the plural, which I do not believe any other wizard has ever had. Yet it fitted: Lord Voldemort has seemed to grow less human with the passing years, and the transformation he has undergone seemed to me to be only explicable if his soul was mutilated beyond the realms of what we might call 'usual evil' . . ."

"So he's made himself impossible to kill by murdering other people?" said Harry. "Why couldn't he make a Sorcerer's Stone, or steal one, if he was so interested in immortality?"

"Well, we know that he tried to do just that, five years ago," said Dumbledore. "But there are several reasons why, I think, a Sorcerer's Stone would appeal less than Horcruxes to Lord Voldemort.While the Elixir of Life does indeed extend life, it must be drunk regularly, for all eternity, if the drinker is to maintain their immortality. Therefore, Voldemort would be entirely dependent on the Elixir, and if it ran out, or was contaminated, or if the Stone was stolen, he would die just like any other man. Voldemort likes to operate alone, remember. I believe that he would have found the thought of being dependent, even on the Elixir, intolerable. Of course he was prepared to drink it if it would take him out of the horrible part-life to which he was condemned after attacking you, but only to regain a body. Thereafter, I am convinced, he intended to continue to rely on his Horcruxes: He would need nothing more, if only he could regain a human form. He was already immortal, you see . . . or as close to immortal as any man can be.But now, armed with this information, the crucial memory you have succeeded in procuring for us, we are closer to the secret of finishing Lord Voldemort than anyone has ever been before. You heard him: 'Wouldn't it be better, make you stronger, to have your soul in more pieces . . . isn't seven the most powerfully magical number . . .' Isn't seven the most powerfully magical number. Yes, I think the idea of a seven-part soul would greatly appeal to Lord Voldemort."

"He made seven Horcruxes?" said Harry, horror-struck, while several of the portraits on the walls made "But they could be anywhere in the world — hidden — buried or invisible —"

"I am glad to see you appreciate the magnitude of the problem," said Dumbledore calmly "But firstly, no, Harry, not seven Horcruxes: six. The seventh part of his soul, however maimed, resides inside his regenerated body. That was the part of him that lived a spectral existence for so many years during his exile; without that, he has no self at all. That seventh piece of soul will be the last that anybody wishing to kill Voldemort must attack — the piece that lives in his body."

"But the six Horcruxes, then," said Harry, a little desperately, "how are we supposed to find them?"

"You are forgetting . . . you have already destroyed one of them. And I have destroyed another. He also had done the main ordeal to create a Horcrux when he saved Ellie Welther and made Eliza's soul from a piece of his own. He had just leaner we it early from what I speculate and was able to save the soul and mix his own which he had planned to make into a Horcrux into her. I have killed another to..."

"You have?" said Harry eagerly.

"Yes indeed," said Dumbledore, and he raised his blackened, burned-looking hand. "The ring, Harry. Marvolo's ring. And a terrible curse there was upon it too. Had it not been — forgive me the lack of seemly modesty — for my own prodigious skill, and for Professor Snape's timely action when I returned to Hogwarts, desperately injured, I might not have lived to tell the tale. However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for a seventh of Voldemort's soul. The ring is no longer a Horcrux."

"But how did you find it?" Asked Harry. I was now lost.

"Well, as you now know, for many years I have made it my business to discover as much as I can about Voldemort's past life. I have traveled widely, visiting those places he once knew. I stumbled across the ring hidden in the ruin of the Gaunts' house. It seems that once Voldemort had succeeded in sealing a piece of his soul inside it, he did not want to wear it anymore. He hid it, protected by many powerful enchantments, in the shack where his ancestors had once lived (Morfin having been carted off to Azkaban, of course), never guessing that I might one day take the trouble to visit the ruin, or that I might be keeping an eye open for traces of magical concealment.
However, we should not congratulate ourselves too heartily. You destroyed the diary and I the ring, but if we are right in our theory of a seven-part soul, four Horcruxes remain."

"And they could be anything?" said Harry. I leaned forward in my chair."They could be old tin cans or, I dunno, empty potion bottles. . . ."

"You are thinking of Portkeys, Harry, which must be ordinary objects, easy to overlook. But would Lord Voldemort use tin cans or old potion bottles to guard his own precious soul? You are forgetting what I have showed you. Lord Voldemort liked to collect trophies, and he preferred objects with a powerful magical history. His pride, his belief in his own superiority, his determination to carve for himself a startling place in magical history; these things suggest to me that Voldemort would have chosen his Horcruxes with some care, favoring objects worthy of the honor."

"The diary wasn't that special."

"The diary, as you have said yourself, was proof that he was the heir of Slytherin; I am sure that Voldemort considered it of stupendous importance."

"So, the other Horcruxes?" said Harry. "Do you think you know what they are, sir?"

"I can only guess," said Dumbledore. "For the reasons I have already given, I believe that Lord Voldemort would prefer objects that, in themselves, have a certain grandeur. I have therefore trawled back through Voldemort's past to see if I can find evidence that such artifacts have disappeared around him."

"The locket!" said Harry loudly. "Hufflepuff 's cup!"

"Yes," said Dumbledore, smiling, "I would be prepared to bet — perhaps not my other hand — but a couple of fingers, that they became Horcruxes three and four. The remaining two, assuming again that he created a total of six, are more of a problem, but I will hazard a guess that, having secured objects from Hufflepuff and Slytherin, he set out to track down objects owned by Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Four objects from the four founders would, I am sure, have exerted a powerful pull over Voldemort's imagination. 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.

"Do you think that's why he really wanted to come back to Hogwarts, sir?" said Harry. "To try and find something from one of the other founders?"

"My thoughts precisely," said Dumbledore.

"But unfortunately, that does not advance us much further, for he was turned away, or so I believe, without the chance to search the school. I am forced to conclude that he never fulfilled his ambition of collecting four founders' objects. He definitely had two — he may have found three — that is the best we can do for now."

"Even if he got something of Ravenclaw's or of Gryffindor's, that leaves a sixth Horcrux," said Harry, counting on his fingers. "Unless he got both?"

"I don't think so," said Dumbledore. "I think I know what the sixth Horcrux is. I wonder what you will say when I confess that I have been curious for a while about the behavior of the snake, Nagini?"

"The snake?" said Harry, startled. "You can use animals as Horcruxes?"

"Well, it is inadvisable to do so," said Dumbledore, "because to confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business. 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. 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 un- usual amount of control over her, even for a Parselmouth."

"So," said Harry, "the diary's gone, the ring's gone. The cup, the locket, and the snake are still intact, and you think there might be a Horcrux that was once Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's?"

"An admirably succinct and accurate summary, yes," said Dumbledore, bowing his head.

"So . . . are you still looking for them, sir? Is that where you've been going when you've been leaving the school?"

"Correct," said Dumbledore. "I have been looking for a very long time. I think . . . perhaps . . . I may be close to finding another one. There are hopeful signs."

"And if you do," said Harry quickly, "can I come with you and help get rid of it?"

Dumbledore looked at Harry very intently for a moment before saying, "Yes, I think so." I bit my life slightly trying to process what was being said that now both Harry and Dumbledore understood but not me. I was missing information.

"I can?" said Harry, thoroughly taken aback.

"Oh yes," said Dumbledore, smiling slightly. "I think you have earned that right."

Harry felt his heart lift. It was very good not to hear words of caution and protection for once. The headmasters and headmistresses around the walls seemed less impressed by Dumbledore's decision; Harry saw a few of them shaking their heads and Phineas Nigellus actually snorted.

"Does Voldemort know when a Horcrux is destroyed, sir? Can he feel it?" Harry asked, ignoring the portraits.

"A very interesting question, Harry. I believe not. I believe 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. Perhaps, at the point of death, he might be aware of his loss . . . but he was not aware, for instance, that the diary had been destroyed until he forced the truth out of Lucius Malfoy. When Voldemort discovered that the diary had been mutilated and robbed of all its powers, I am told that his anger was terrible to behold."

"But I thought he meant Lucius Malfoy to smuggle it into Hogwarts?"

"Yes, he did, years ago, when he was sure he would be able to create more Horcruxes, but still Lucius was supposed to wait for Voldemort's say-so, and he never received it, for Voldemort vanished shortly after giving him the diary. No doubt he thought that Lucius would not dare do anything with the Horcrux other than guard it carefully, but he was counting too much upon Lucius's fear of a master who had been gone for years and whom Lucius believed dead. Of course, Lucius did not know what the diary really was. I understand that Voldemort had told him the diary would cause the Chamber of Secrets to reopen because it was cleverly enchanted. Had Lucius known he held a portion of his master's soul in his hands, he would undoubtedly have treated it with more reverence — but instead he went ahead and carried out the old plan for his own ends: By planting the diary upon Arthur Weasley's daughter, he hoped to discredit Arthur and get rid of a highly incriminating magical object in one stroke. Ah, poor Lucius . . . what with Voldemort's fury about the fact that he threw away the Horcrux for his own gain, and the fiasco at the Ministry last year, I would not be surprised if he is not secretly glad to be safe in Azkaban at the moment."

"So if all of his Horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort could be killed?"

"Yes, I think so," said Dumbledore. "Without his Horcruxes, Voldemort will be a mortal man with a maimed and diminished soul. Never forget, though, that while his soul may be damaged be- yond repair, his brain and his magical powers remain intact. It will take uncommon skill and power to kill a wizard like Voldemort even without his Horcruxes."

"But I haven't got uncommon skill and power," said Harry quickly.

"Yes, you have," said Dumbledore firmly. "You have a power that Voldemort has never had. You can —"

"I know!" said Harry impatiently. "I can love!"

"Yes, Harry, you can love," said Dumbledore, who looked as though he knew perfectly well what Harry had just refrained from saying. "Which, given everything that has happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing. You are still too young to understand how unusual you are, Harry."

"So, when the prophecy says that I'll have 'power the Dark Lord knows not,' it just means — love?" asked Harry sounding a little let down. I was running these things through my head now looking at the ground below my chair.

"Yes — just love," said Dumbledore. "But Harry, never forget that what the prophecy says is only significant because Voldemort made it so. I told you this at the end of last year. Voldemort singled you out as the person who would be most dangerous to him — and in doing so, he made you the person who would be most dangerous to him!"

"But it comes to the same —"

"No, it doesn't!" said Dumbledore, sounding impatient now. Pointing at Harry with his black, withered hand, he said, "You are setting too much store by the prophecy!"

"But," spluttered Harry, "but you said the prophecy means —"

"If Voldemort had never heard of the prophecy, would it have been fulfilled? Would it have meant anything? Of course not! Do you think every prophecy in the Hall of Prophecy has been fulfilled?"

"But," said Harry, bewildered, "but last year, you said one of us would have to kill the other —"

"Harry, Harry, only because Voldemort made a grave error, and acted on Professor Trelawney's words! If Voldemort had never murdered your father, would he have imparted in you a furious desire for revenge? Of course not! If he had not forced your mother to die for you, would he have given you a magical protection he could not penetrate? Of course not, Harry! Don't you see? Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back! Voldemort is no different! Always he was on the lookout for the one who would challenge him. He heard the prophecy and he leapt into action, with the result that he not only handpicked the man most likely to finish him, he handed him uniquely deadly weapons!"

"But —"

"It is essential that you understand this!" said Dumbledore, standing up and striding about the room. "By attempting to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out the remark- able person who sits here in front of me, and gave him the tools for the job! It is Voldemort's fault that you were able to see into his thoughts, his ambitions, that you even understand the snakelike language in which he gives orders, and yet, Harry, despite your privileged insight into Voldemort's world (which, incidentally, is a gift any Death Eater would kill to have), you have never been seduced by the Dark Arts, never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of Voldemort's followers!"

"Of course I haven't!" said Harry indignantly. "He killed my mum and dad!"

"You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!" said Dumbledore loudly. "The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort's! In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven, when you stared into a mirror that reflected your heart's desire, and it showed you only the way to thwart Lord Voldemort, and not immortality or riches. Harry, have you any idea how few wizards could have seen what you saw in that mirror? Voldemort should have known then what he was dealing with, but he did not!
But he knows it now. You have flitted into Lord Voldemort's mind without damage to yourself, but he cannot possess you without enduring mortal agony, as he discovered in the Ministry. I do not think he understands why, Harry, but then, he was in such a hurry to mutilate his own soul, he never paused to understand the incomparable power of a soul that is untarnished and whole."

"But, sir," said Harry,"it all comes to the same thing, doesn't it? I've got to try and kill him, or —"
"Got to?" said Dumbledore. "Of course you've got to! But not because of the prophecy! Because you, yourself, will never rest until you've tried! We both know it! Imagine, please, just for a moment, that you had never heard that prophecy! How would you feel about Voldemort now? Think!"

"I'd want him finished," said Harry quietly.
"And I'd want to do it."

"Of course you would!" cried Dumbledore.
"You see, the prophecy does not mean you have to do anything! But the prophecy caused Lord Voldemort to mark you as his equal. . . . In other words, you are free to choose your way, quite free to turn your back on the prophecy! But Voldemort continues to set store by the prophecy. He will continue to hunt you . . . which makes it certain, really, that —"

"That one of us is going to end up killing the other," said Harry.

"Yes."

There was a thick silence in the room.

"Marvalo-" I mumbled. "Marvalo... Tom... Tom Marvalo Riddle..." I said as I finally looked up at both Harry and Dumbledore.

Harry looked at me like I was so late which I was. To be honest the last few words I had heard were very dramatic but I was okay with them because I had always kind of known them in the back of my mind. "Voldmorts family?" I asked.

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