What advantages did Voldemort gain by splitting his soul into seven fragments? Did this make them special or more powerful in any way? The only positive thing that I can see is that there are more that would need to be found to destroy Voldemort, but if that is the case why stop at seven?

 

Seven is a magically powerful number (i think THE most magically powerful?), which i believe is what Tom/Dumbledore say in Half Blood Prince...but I'm not sure where...somewhere around the memory of the Horcrux.

 

I remember JK saying something about seven being a very powerful number in the occult.

Here are some links about it:

http://richardphillips.org.uk/number/Num7.htm


http://www.hpana.com/news.19200.676.html

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-number-seven.html

Enjoy!

 

I remember Tom saying that in HBP, but how does seven being magically powerful number benefit the Horcruxes? Does it make them stronger or more durable? If it doesnt why stop at seven?

 

Hmm, interesting point.
I think, the fact that seven is such a magically powerful number probably lends something to the Horcruxes, perhaps making them more difficult to destroy...which is why Dumbledore ends up with a withered hand?

Or perhaps Tom simply liked the fact that he had the same number of Horcruxes as the most powerful magical number, and he doesn't have more because of that association with power. We know that he has a bit of a...flair for the dramatic

 

What about when Harry destroyed the diary? All he did was stab it with the basilisk's fang and he didn't get hurt by its destruction.

I guess that makes sense, but I think being immortal would be a bit more important to him.

 

True, but it's not like a basilisks venom is some weak attack, it'd probably destroy most things.

here Tom assumes that having seven pieces of soul would make them stronger...so perhaps that actually is the reason...it just makes them stronger.

 

It may be that having them split into 7 makes not the horcruxes themselves stronger, but infact makes Voldemort himself stronger magically.

 

Creating the Horcruxes doesn't seem to have any adverse effects on him, other than losing part of his humanity. Riddle doesn't seem to care much about that, since his power seems to be the same. Why not create 421490814098124 Horcruxes and be truly immortal?

 

I didn't say that it had adverse effects on him...I said it increased his strength...

Anyway, splitting your soul so many times probably makes it weaker after a certain point: remember in HBP, Dumbledore seems to think that Harry's untorn and pure soul is a strength that Voldemort doesn't have, and underestimates, as he was so keen to split his.

Also, you can only make as many horcruxes as people you kill, and Voldemort probably hasnt killed any more than a couple hundred people at the most.

 

and doesn't it have to be a pretty significant kill, or is that just fanon?

 

It doesn't have to be a significant kill, but that's the way Voldemort does his, 'cos he likes to feel special.

 

umm lets see. 7 is a special number. And hide them well enough. Umm if you had one or two if someone found them your screwed. 7 is a little bit more and it would be harder to locate them all without Voldemort finding out. If he found out he could just make more.

 

Leaning away from the "7 makes it extra special" theory, splitting your soul into seven is really the same as having one Horcrux. If your soul is tied to the earth, then who cares about how many pieces are there? You are still 'immortal' as you can be.

Of course, having several Horcruxes is a nice safety feature, just in case one or two (ring and diary) are destroyed, you are still good.

A more pressing question is what happens to the soul fragments when the vessel is destroyed? Do they return to the owner to reassemble a soul? Or are they lost forever?

 

the soul is destroyed as well i presume.

 

they wouldnt be because that is how Im assuming Tom survived 10/31/80.His body was destoryed then.

 

It's be funny if the number of horcruxes was some random number, like 17.

Everyone would be screwed.

It's ridiculous that Dumbledore would base all his assumptions on the unfounded belief that Tom made seven horcruxes.

 

The Basilisk fang may of been able to destroy the diary so easily cause it was from a snake and Voldemort is a parcelmouth. It might be a weakness of sorts.

 

Yeah that would be ironic if Harry found 7 horcuxes and died trying to kill Tom cause there was 17 instead of 7 I would laugh my ass off