I am thinking of writing a story and while I have written quite a few notes and scenes (though many are usually changing as my thoughts change) I just now thought of having the main character interact with a horcrux at some point.

While in the books it is mentioned that the container must be destroyed (by Hermione at least, as far as I can remember) and all of Voldemort's items are destroyed, Harry himself is not destroyed. Rather Voldemort's curse removes Harry's soul as well as his own horcrux from Harry's body and Harry is lucky enough to be able to return to his unharmed body.

So there is at least one incident where the horcrux is destroyed while the container remains unharmed. To me it seems probable that a killing curse would also be successful against Nagini, however I am not sure about the rest of the horcruxes that are not bound in a living body. Well, apart from the Diary, which I feel that had it regained a body by killing Ginny, then killing by any means the new body of Diary-Riddle would be the end of him and he would not be able to return to the Diary.

So far, due to lack of imagination I suppose, I have only thought of somehow utilising the killing curse as a way to forcibly remove the soul from the container, but I suppose that this could be an incomplete method and would require some other spells or ritual to take advantage of a momentary effect that the killing curse may have on the horcrux so as to completely remove the soul and destroy it. Perhaps moving it to another container? Or perhaps the killing curse is enough?

What are your thoughts?

 

I've come across Dementors as a way to suck the Horcrux dry somewhere I'm pretty sure. You could probably also go crazy with exorcisms and such, but that kind of magic doesn't quite fit HP magic.

Maybe you could get the Horcrux to completely possess someone, transfering the soul from the container to the person? The possibilities are endless here.

 

I am not quite certain on how Dementors are going to be dealt with in the story, so I am a bit reluctant to use them for that. However they are "soul sucking" creatures so there is some merit to the thought. Is the soul destroyed afterwards though? i don't know.

That's perhaps not a bad thought, especially if the horcrux completely possesses an animal instead of a person. Voldemort was able to flee from the dying Quirrell so that would suggest that perhaps the horcrux can too?

 

Voldemort fleeing from the dying Quirrell was not a horcrux destruction. Quirrell agreed to host 'the big piece' of Voldemort's soul in his own body without the aid of a horcrux. I would think that if a horcrux managed to completely take over a human being, like Ginny, the soul fragment would have to move from the object to the human, tying the life of the soul fragment to life of the human.

 

Harry was destroyed, as in he literally died, which destroyed the soul piece, since it was dependent on Harry as a container. Harry's soul on the other hand was fully unharmed, since he is an actual person and his soul was not reliant on the body to exist, so it unlike Voldemort's soulpiece could return through the connection between Harry and the magic of Lily in Voldemort's blood.

Thats the problem, if you geniuenly want to destroy a horcrux, there is no going around the destruction of the container.

Spoiler: Relevant Quote

“But even if we wreck the thing it lives in,” said Ron, “Why
can’t the bit of soul in it just go and live in something else?”
“Because a Horcrux is the complete opposite of a human being.”
Seeing that Harry and Ron looked thoroughly confused,
Hermione hurried on, “Look, if I picked up a sword right now, Ron,
and ran you through with it, I wouldn’t damage your soul at all.”
“Which would be a real comfort to me, I’m sure,” said Ron.
Harry laughed.
“It should be, actually! But my point is that whatever happens
to your body, your soul will survive untouched,” said Hermione.
“But it’s the other way round with a Horcrux. The fragment of
soul inside it depends on its container, its enchanted body, for
survival, It can’t exist without it.”
“That diary sort of died when I stabbed it,” said Harry, remembering
ink pouring like blood from the punctured pages, and the
screams of the piece of Voldemort’s soul as it vanished.
“And once the diary was properly destroyed, the bit of soul
trapped in it could no longer exist. Ginny tried to get rid of the
diary before you did, flushing it away, but obviously it came back
good as new.”

I do not think the Killing Curse is going to work here, since it just physically destroys objects, and I assume Voldemort would have made protection against it, since the horcrux would otherwise be way too easy to destroy.

As for just seperating the soul pieces from the object, I think there are two ways.
The first is having the creator of the horcrux feel regret to merge back their soul with the horcrux.

Spoiler: Relevant Quote

“Yes,” said Hermione with a hollow smile, “but it would be
excruciatingly painful.”
“Why? How do you do it?” asked Harry.
“Remorse,” said Hermione. “You’ve got to really feel what
you’ve done. There’s a footnote. Apparently the pain of it can
destroy you. I can’t see Voldemort attempting it somehow, can
you?”

The second would be having someone get emotionally close to the horcrux, since the soul could then leave the horcrux into the bodies. Though from the sound of it, the container would still keep both the soul piece and the master soul alive.

Spoiler: Relevant Quote

“Hang on,” said Ron, frowning. “The bit of soul in that diary
was possessing Ginny, wasn’t it? How does that work, then?”
“While the magical container is still intact, the bit of soul inside
it can flit in and out of someone if they get too close to the
object. I don’t mean holding it for long, it’s nothing to do with
touching it,” she added before Ron could speak. “I mean close
emotionally. Ginny poured her heart out into that diary, she made
herself incredibly vulnerable. You’re in trouble if you get too fond
of or dependent on the Horcrux.”

One other potential method I could think off, would be Time Magic to return it to a state of before it became a Horcrux. Though I think no specific spell would be good enough to do so without ridiculus risk, there is that magical bell in the room of time in the Department of Mysteries that managed to transform a Death Eater's head into a baby head .

Spoiler: Relevant Quote

The Death Eater had snatched up his wand, which lay on the floor beside the glittering bell jar. Harry ducked down behind another desk as the man turned; his mask had slipped so that he couldnʹt see. He ripped it off with his free hand and shouted: ʹSTUP—ʹ
ʹSTUPEFY!ʹ screamed Hermione, who had just caught up with them. The jet of red light hit the Death Eater in the middle of his chest: he froze, his arm still raised, his wand fell to the floor with a clatter and he collapsed backwards towards the bell jar. Harry expected to hear a dunk, for the man to hit solid glass and slide off the jar on to the floor, but instead, his head sank through the surface of the bell jar as though it were nothing but a soap bubble and he came to rest, sprawled on his back on the table, with his head lying inside the jar full of glittering wind.
ʹAccio wand!ʹ cried Hermione. Harryʹs wand flew from a dark corner into her hand and she threw it to him.
Thanks,ʹ he said. ʹRight, letʹs get out of —ʹ
ʹLook out!ʹ said Neville, horrified. He was staring at the Death Eaterʹs head in the bell jar.
All three of them raised their wands again, but none of them struck: they were all gazing, open‐mouthed, appalled, at what was happening to the manʹs head.
It was shrinking very fast, growing balder and balder, the black hair and stubble retracting into his skull; his cheeks becoming smooth, his skull round and covered with a peachlike fuzz…
A babyʹs head now sat grotesquely on top of the thick, muscled neck of the Death Eater as he struggled to get up again; but even as they watched, their mouths open, the head began to swell to its previous proportions again; thick black hair was sprouting from the pate and chin…
ʹItʹs Time,ʹ said Hermione in an awestruck voice. Time…ʺ
The Death Eater shook his ugly head again, trying to clear it, but before he could pull himself together it began to shrink back to babyhood once more…

 

It's worth mentioning that the ring horcrux wasn't totally destroyed by Dumbledore striking it with the sword of Gryffindor. The weapon was magically potent enough to break the horcrux connection to the ring without completely annihilating its other magical properties as the Resurrection Stone, even though the sword cracked the stone in the process.

 

I think 'completely destroyed' may be basically the same as 'totaled' in the insurance industry. If you can't use it again, it's totaled. I doubt the basilisk fang completely destroyed the cup; it was probably just dissolved from the venom enough to where they could see it was no longer inhabited.

 

I'd they the ring was still completely destroyed, just because a fragment of it is still funcitonal despite being damaged, doesen't mean the Rin isn't now gone.

It's not like you could use it and the other parts of the ring to repair it.

 

But Dumbledore could still wear it as a ring. Insofar as a ring normally just adorns your fingers, it was technically still functional in that regard.

 

I thought the only reason it was still on his hand was because it was cursed to be irremovable.

 

I just looked again at the scenes where it's shown , and this seems weirdly vauge. It seems like the ring was still a horcrux when Dumbledore wore it, despite the damage to the ressurection stone, since when he claims to have destroyed a horcrux he shows Harry his hand without the ring(I think that what he did, since harry doesen't describe the presence of the ring), I assume he broke it afterwards. Later Snape also notes that Dumbledore broke the ring, and asked him if he did so, thinking it would stop the curse.

 

Thanks everyone! And thanks @aAlouda for the detailed response with the book extracts. While thinking about this and your answers (and searching the forums for other threads as well, and looking at Taure's comments) a major story arc for the main character came to me, and while I initially shied away from this idea, I have realised now that it really fits with the rest of the story - even if I do not like it. I even wrote two whole scenes today including the resolution (instead of studying for my exams).

I have never written anything before (apart from essays and articles) and I am super pumped about this one as it has been slowly taking shape in my head this year and has resulted in quite a few written notes and scenes.

The biggest issue I have right now is that I am as yet fuzzy on what exactly I want to say with the story, and for that I am afraid I'll have to do quite some studying and thinking. My hope is for something similar to hpmor - I know you guys hate it here - but not like the heavy propaganda that that story achieves through Harry as the author's mouthpiece. I just wish for the story to be a learning journey, for me as much as those who read it, about how our world works, how our societies work etc. But it still is going to be a story primarily, not anything as heavy handed as hpmor.

And the second biggest issue is that I am waiting for Taure to at least finish Victoria Potter's third year as my story will be an AU of his story (but not too much of an AU, I'd like the story to only diverge when it has to).

 

But his excuse when Snape asked him about why he broke the ring was that he was delirious with pain and hoped that breaking it would break the curse. I always took that to mean that exchange happened right after Snape treated Dumbledore and delayed the curse's progress. And given Dumbledore stressed to Harry that he got really close to death before Snape intervened, I doubt that he could have afforded to wait around before dealing with it, so...

 

@Sorrows Well, if it is an enchanted item, like many of Voldemort's horcruxes, then that explanation wouldn't cover how the enchanted item still works as intended. Anyhow, I've already discovered what I'm going to do and believe it is quite consistent with HP magic (and specifically with Taure's take on it), it fits really well with the rest of the story so I've got this covered.

Other stuff I am still trying to figure out and searching through old posts (I don't like DLP's search very much).