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Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said about Voldemort moving beyond

“usual evil.”

“Isn’t there any way of putting yourself back together?” Ron asked.

“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?”

“No,” said Ron, before Harry could answer. “So does it say how to destroy

Horcruxes in that book?”

“Yes,” said Hermione, now turning the fragile pages as if examining rotting

entrails, “because it warns Dark wizards how strong they have to make the enchantments

on them. From all that I’ve read, what Harry did to Riddle’s diary was one of the few

really foolproof ways of destroying a Horcrux.”

“What, stabbing it with a basilisk fang?” asked Harry.

“Oh well, lucky we’ve got such a large supply of basilisk fangs, then,” said Ron.

“I was wondering what we were going to do with them.”

“It doesn’t have to be a basilisk fang,” said Hermione patiently. “It has to be

something so destructive that the Horcrux can’t repair itself. Basilisk venom only has one

antidote, and it’s incredibly rare –“

“– phoenix tears,” said Harry, nodding.

“Exactly,” said Hermione. “Our problem is that there are very few substances as

destructive as basilisk venom, and they’re all dangerous to carry around with you. That’s

a problem we’re going to have to solve, though, because ripping, smashing, or crushing a

Horcrux won’t do the trick. You’ve got to put it beyond magical repair.”

“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.”

“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 too long, it’s

nothing to do with touching it,” she added before Ron could speak. “I mean close


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 696


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Right over their heads and a ladder slid down to their feet. A horrible, half-sucking, halfmoaning | Emotionally. Ginny poured her heart out into that diary, she made herself incredibly
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