The 7 Horcruxes (in order of creation)
1. Tom Riddle's diary
- Created: during his Hogwarts schooling, around 1943 (his fifth year)
- Murder: Moaning Myrtle (Myrtle Warren), killed by the Basilisk he summoned from the Chamber of Secrets
- Entrusted to: Lucius Malfoy in the 1980s (without telling him what it was)
- Discovered: by Harry in Chamber of Secrets (book 2)
- Destroyed by: Harry, with a Basilisk fang
The diary is both the first Horcrux created and the first destroyed. It allows Voldemort to partially possess Ginny Weasley for an entire school year, via interactive writing. Important detail: it can act independently from Voldemort, making it a rare "autonomous" Horcrux.
2. The Gaunt ring
- Created: around 1943, after murdering his paternal family
- Murder: his Muggle father Tom Riddle Senior (and paternal grandparents)
- Detail: set with the Resurrection Stone: one of the three Deathly Hallows, without Voldemort knowing
- Hidden: in the ruined Gaunt house, protected by multiple curses
- Destroyed by: Albus Dumbledore, with the Sword of Gryffindor
The ring is cursed. Dumbledore, upon finding it, can't resist the temptation to use it; he wants to speak to his lost sister Ariana. He slips the ring on, and the curse starts killing him. Snape manages to slow the effect but dooms Dumbledore to die within the year. This sequence explains his "dead hand" blackened throughout book 6.
3. Slytherin's locket
- Created: at an uncertain date, after stealing the relic from Hepzibah Smith
- Murder: Hepzibah Smith (former owner)
- Hidden: in a seaside cave, protected by Inferi and a potion of despair
- Destroyed by: Ron Weasley, with the Sword of Gryffindor (book 7)
The locket's journey is among the most convoluted. Voldemort hides it in a cave. Regulus Black, a young Slytherin who understood the horror of Horcruxes, replaces it with a fake with Kreacher's help. He dies doing so. The original locket ends up… around Dolores Umbridge's neck at the Ministry. Harry, Ron, and Hermione retrieve it during their Ministry infiltration in book 7. It then exerts a dark influence on them during the camping, until Ron destroys it after overcoming his personal fears, in a cathartic scene.
4. Hufflepuff's cup
- Created: shortly after the locket, with its own murder
- Murder: Hepzibah Smith (whose murder served to create the cup; the locket became a Horcrux through a different murder, that of an anonymous Muggle)
- Hidden: in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts
- Destroyed by: Hermione Granger, with a Basilisk fang (book 7)
The cup is retrieved after the spectacular Gringotts escape on dragonback, one of the most memorable sequences of book 7. Hermione destroys it in the Chamber of Secrets with a fang pulled from the Basilisk corpse killed in book 2. Notable moment: at that precise moment, she and Ron kiss for the first time, carried by the emotion.
5. Ravenclaw's diadem
- Created: around the mid-1960s, during Voldemort's wandering years
- Murder: an Albanian peasant encountered during his travels
- Hidden: in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts, in the corner where generations of students piled their lost belongings
- Destroyed by: indirectly Harry, but it's the Fiendfyre (uncontrollable magical fire) summoned by Crabbe that consumes it (book 7)
The diadem is among the hardest Horcruxes to locate. Voldemort thinks himself clever to hide an artefact at Hogwarts; he believes no one would ever find an object in the Room of Requirement. Harry finds it thanks to a clue given by Helena Ravenclaw (the Grey Lady), the founder's daughter, who herself had stolen the diadem from her mother centuries earlier. Fiendfyre ends up killing Crabbe and destroying the entire Room of Requirement.
6. Nagini
- Created: after regaining his body (book 4, 1995)
- Murder: Bertha Jorkins, Ministry employee, kidnapped and tortured before being killed
- Detail: a living Horcrux, extremely rare, one of the few known cases with Harry (accidental)
- Destroyed by: Neville Longbottom, with the Sword of Gryffindor (book 7, culminating moment)
Nagini is unique. Voldemort keeps her by his side at all times, convinced her physical presence is enough protection. She's also his conduit: he sees through her eyes, uses her to kill Severus Snape. Neville kills Nagini mid-Battle of Hogwarts, in both the book and the film, with a burst of courage that seals his transformation into hero. Lore note: the Fantastic Beasts trilogy reveals Nagini was a Maledictus: a cursed human doomed to progressively turn into a serpent forever. A detail added after the books, controversial among fans.
7. Harry Potter (accidental)
- Created: 31 October 1981, at Godric's Hollow
- Murder: Lily Potter (and attempted on Harry)
- Detail: unintentional fragment, lodged in the surviving baby, Voldemort doesn't know
- Destroyed by: Voldemort himself, in the Forbidden Forest (book 7)
When Voldemort casts Avada Kedavra at baby Harry, the curse rebounds because Lily Potter sacrificed herself; the old blood magic protects Harry. But part of Voldemort's soul, already weakened by recent Horcrux creations, splits off in the following fraction of a second and attaches to the only living creature nearby: Harry. This explains everything strange across seven books:
- The scar that hurts when Voldemort is near or angry
- Parseltongue that Harry can't really have learned
- The shared visions that become a manipulation tool in book 5
- The mental link that lets Voldemort trap Harry at the Ministry
The central twist of book 7: to defeat Voldemort, Harry must let himself be killed so the soul fragment is destroyed. He does so in the Forbidden Forest. Voldemort, casting his Avada Kedavra, destroys the fragment he had placed in Harry, without knowing. Harry survives because Voldemort took his blood (book 4), creating a magical link that makes him a "backup container".
