Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter Twenty-Three: Horcruxes Summary & Analysis

By the time Harry arrives at Gryffindor Tower, the potion has mostly worn off and the Fat Lady refuses to let him in, saying that the password changed at midnight. However, Nearly Headless Nick is gliding by and informs Harry that Dumbledore has just returned to the castle from a mysterious errand. Harry sprints to Dumbledore’s office and breathlessly presents the memory, earning a wide smile and an exclamation of praise from the headmaster.

Dumbledore empties the memory into the Penseive and he and Harry find again find themselves in the young Slughorn’s office, with Riddle and the other Slytherins sitting around him. Instead of blotting out his words in fog, Slughorn genially predicts that Tom Riddle will rise to Minister of Magic in twenty years – adding that with his “abilities,” it’s clear that he comes from “decent Wizarding stock.”

After the other students leave, Riddle stays behind and asks Slughorn about Horcruxes. The professor is taken aback, but Riddle perseveres, telling Slughorn that he’s turning to him as a wise and knowledgeable wizard. Reluctantly, Slughorn explains that a Horcrux is a physical object in which a wizard stores part of their soul so that, even if he is attacked or killed, he won’t die. However, existence as a bodiless soul is wretched, and the price for performing this magic is terrible: in order to split the soul, one has to commit a murder.

When Riddle presses for more information on the mechanics of this magic, Slughorn becomes irritated, asking if he looks like a person who has tried this. Riddle apologizes, but then proceeds to ask if it’s possible to split one’s soul more than once – for example, to create seven Horcruxes. Clearly repenting of the entire conversation, Slughorn tells Riddle never to speak about this again, especially not to Dumbledore. The student turns away, his face full of sinister and “wild” delight.

Dumbledore and Harry exit the memory. Dumbledore says that this episode confirms his theories: that as a teenager, Voldemort had already figured out how to make himself immortal, perhaps many times over. Dumbledore reveals that four years ago, when Harry handed him Riddle’s magic diary, he realized that since the object was starting to think for itself and give orders to humans, it had to be a piece of Voldemort’s soul. At the same time, the carelessness with which Voldemort treated this Horcrux – allowing it to fall into the hands of a random student – convinced him that there had to be more in existence.

Harry asks why Voldemort didn’t just use a Sorcerer’s Stone to guarantee immortality, rather than this more drastic course. Dumbledore hypothesizes that the Dark wizard wouldn’t want to be dependent on a potion – or the person who brewed it. He prefers to “operate alone,” and Horcruxes allow him to do that. Dumbledore is convinced that, just as Riddle suggested in the memory, Voldemort has split his soul into seven pieces, creating six Horcruxes. This is appalling to Harry, as the objects could be hidden anywhere in the world.

To cheer him up, Dumbledore points out that Harry has already destroyed one Horcrux, the diary, while he has eliminated another – Marvolo’s ring, which he found hidden in the ruins of the Gaunt house. It was in this endeavor that Dumbledore injured his hand, and only because of Professor Snape’s timely magic did he not sustain more serious injuries.

Overwhelmed, Harry points out that any object could technically be a Horcrux. But Dumbledore responds that Voldemort has always been attracted to powerful or significant objects, and that he’s probably taken great care in selecting the ones for his Horcruxes. With a start, Harry realizes that Hepzibah’s locket and cup are probably among them. Dumbledore further hypothesizes that having procured objects belonging to Hufflepuff and Slytherin, Voldemort would have sought two more from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor – although the only known relic of Gryffindor is the famous sword that belongs to Dumbledore.

Even if Voldemort did manage to procure something belonging to Ravenclaw, the remaining Horcrux remains unclear to Harry – until Dumbledore says he’s long suspected that it’s Nagini, Voldemort’s prized snake, whom he always keeps close to him. Astutely, Harry guesses that when Dumbledore leaves the school he’s been searching for Horcruxes, and the headmaster says he believes himself close to finding another one. Harry asks if he can come with him to destroy it, and to his surprise Dumbledore agrees. Harry is happy “not to hear words of caution and protection for once.”

Harry asks if Voldemort can tell when a Horcrux is destroyed, and Dumbledore responds that he’s probably dehumanized himself too much to be able to tell. He only knew that the diary had been destroyed after questioning Lucius Malfoy, who smuggled it into Hogwarts without his permission, hoping to get an incriminating object off his hands.

If all the Horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort can be killed – but only by someone with “uncommon skill or power.” Discouraged, Harry says that he’s not the one who can do it. He’s unimpressed by Dumbledore’s response that Harry’s power “to love” is something Voldemort has never had, but the headmaster quietly insists that, given everything that has happened to Harry, this is a “great and remarkable” ability.

In fact, Dumbledore says that Harry’s ability to love is the power referenced in the prophecy. However, the prophecy is only important because Voldemort heard it and chose to kill the Potters, thus giving Harry both the desire for revenge and the special protection of love through his mother’s sacrifice. Like “tyrants everywhere,” Voldemort’s greatest fear is the person he has tried to “oppress.”

By trying to kill Harry, Voldemort actually paved the way for his own defeat. Dumbledore points out that, although Harry can see into Voldemort’s mind and understand Parseltongue, he’s never been “seduced” into following Voldemort – because of his grief for the parents that Voldemort killed. In short, he’s protected from and elevated above Voldemort by his ability to love, which has kept him “pure of heart,” despite the many dangers and temptations he has faced. Moreover, Voldemort doesn’t even understand Harry’s advantage because he’s never valued “the incomparable power of a soul that is untarnished and whole.”

Dumbledore says it’s not the prophecy that requires Harry to fight Voldemort – it’s his sense of injustice and all the terrible deeds he has witnessed in the past years, as well as the fact that Voldemort will never stop hunting him. Harry understands that Dumbledore is trying to impress upon him that he must not fear or evade battle with Voldemort, but rather meet him “with [his] head held high,” just as his parents once did.