“Well, guests arenТ t going to help MumТ s stress levels,” said Ron.
“What we really need to decide,” said Hermione, tossing Defensive Magical Theory
into the bin without a second glance and picking up An A p
praisal of Magical Education in Europe , “is where weТ
re going after we leave here. I know you said you wanted to go to Go d ricТ s Hollow first,
Harry, and I understand why, but . . . well . . . shouldnТ t we make the Ho r cruxes our priority?”
“If we knew where any of the Horcruxes were, IТ d agree with you,” said Harry, who did not believe that Hermione really u n
derstood his desire to return to GodricТ s Ho l
low. His parentsТ graves were only part of the attraction: He had a strong, though inexplic a
ble, feeling that the place held answers for him. Perhaps it was si m
ply because it was there that he had survived VoldemortТ s Killing Curse; now that he was facing the cha l
lenge of repeating the feat, Harry was drawn to the place where it had happened, wanting to unde r
stand.
“DonТ t you think thereТ s a possibility that VoldemortТ s keeping a watch on GodricТ s Ho l
low?” Hermione asked. “He might expect you to go back and visit your parentsТ graves once youТ re free to go wherever you like?”
This had not occurred to Harry. While he stru g gled to find a counterargument, Ron spoke up, ev
i dently following his own train of thought.
“This R.A.B. person,” he said. “You know, the one who stole the real locket?”
Hermione nodded.
“He said in his note he was going to destroy it, didnТ t he?”
Harry dragged his rucksack toward him and pulled out the fake Horcrux in which R.A.B.Т s note was still folded.
“ Т I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to d e
stroy it as soon as I can.Т ” Harry read out.
“Well, what if he did finish it off?” said Ron.
“Or she.” Interposed Hermione.
“Whichever,” said Ron. “itТ d be one less for us to do!”
“Yes, but weТ re still going to have to try and trace the real locket, arenТ t we?” said Hermione, “to find out whether or not itТ s d e
stroyed.”
“And once we get hold of it, how do you d
e stroy a Horcrux?” asked Ron.
“Well,” said Hermione, “IТ ve been researching that.”
“How?” asked Harry. “I didnТ t think there were any books on Horcruxes in the l i brary?”
“There werenТ t,” said Hermione, who had turned pink. “Dumbledore removed them all, but he Ц he didnТ t destroy them.”
Ron sat up straight, wide-eyed.
“How in the name of MerlinТ s pants have you managed to get your hands on those Horcrux books?”
“It Ц it wasnТ t stealing!” said Hermione, looking from Harry to Ron with a kind of de s
peration. “They were still library books, even if Dumbledore had taken them off the shelves. Anyway, if he really
didnТ t want anyone to get at them, IТ m sure he would have made it much harder to Ц “
“Get to the point!” said Ron.
“Well . . . it was easy,” said Hermione in a small voice. “I just did a Summoning Charm. You know Ц Accio. And Ц they zoomed out of Dumbl e
doreТ s study window right into the girlsТ dormitory.”
“But when did you do this?” Harry asked, regar d ing Hermione with a mixture of admiration and incr
e dulity.
“Just after his Ц DumbledoreТ s Ц funeral,” said Hermione in an even smaller voice. “Right after we agreed weТ d leave school and go and look for the Horcruxes. When I went back upstairs to get my things it Ц
it just o c
curred to me that the more we knew about them, the better it would be . . . and I was alone in there . . . so I tried . . . and it worked. They flew straight in through the open window and I Ц I packed them.”
She swallowed and then said imploringly, “I canТ t believe Dumbledore would have been angry, itТ s not as though weТ re g o
ing to use the information to make a Horcrux, is it?”
“Can you hear us complaining?” said Ron. “Where are these books anyway?”
Hermione rummaged for a moment and then e x tracted from the pile a large vo
l
ume, bound in faded black leather. She looked a little nauseated and held it as gingerly as if it were something recently dead.
“This is the one that gives explicit i n structions on how to make a Horcrux.
Secrets of the Darkest Art Ц itТ s a horrible book, really a
w ful, full of evil magic. I wonder when Dumbledore removed it from the l
i brary. . . . if he didnТ t do it until he was headmaster, I bet Vold
emort got all the instruction he needed from here.”
“Why did he have to ask Slughorn how to make a Horcrux, then, if heТ d already read that?” asked Ron.

“He only approached Slughorn to find out what would happen if you split your soul into seven,” said Harry. “Dumbledore was sure Riddle already knew how to make a Ho r
crux by the time he asked Slughorn about them. I think youТ re right, Hermione, that could easily have been where he got the inform
a tion.”
“And the more IТ ve read about them,” said Hermione, “the more horrible they seem, and the less I can believe that he actually made six. It warns in this book how unstable you make the rest of your soul by ripping it, and thatТ
s just by making one Horcrux!”
Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said about Voldemort moving beyond “usual evil.”
“IsnТ t there any way of putting yourself back t o gether?” Ron asked.
“Yes,” said Hermione with a hollow smile, “but it would be excruciatingly pai n ful.”
“Why? How do you do it?” asked Harry.
“Remorse,” said Hermione. “YouТ ve got to really feel what youТ ve done. ThereТ s a footnote. A p
parently the pain of it can destroy you. I canТ t see Voldemort attempting it somehow, can you?”
“No,” said Ron, before Harry could answer. “So does it say how to destroy Ho r cruxes in that book?”

“Yes,” said Hermione, now turning the fragile pages as if examining rotting entrails, “b e
cause it warns Dark wizards how strong they have to make the enchantments on them. From all that IТ ve read, what Harry did to RiddleТ 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 weТ ve got such a large supply of basilisk fangs, then,” said Ron. “I was wondering what we were going to do with them.”
“It doesnТ t have to be a basilisk fang,” said Hermione patiently. “It has to be something so d e
structive that the Horcrux canТ t repair i t self. Basilisk venom only has one antidote, and itТ s i
n credibly rare Ц “
“Ц phoenix tears,” said Harry, no d ding.
“Exactly,” said Hermione. “Our problem is that there are very few substances as destructive as bas i
lisk venom, and theyТ re all dange r ous to carry around with you. ThatТ s a problem weТ re g
o ing to have to solve, though, because ripping, smashing, or crushing a Horcrux wonТ t do the trick. You
Т ve got to put it b e yond mag i
cal repair.”
“But even if we wreck the thing it lives in,” said Ron, “why canТ 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 tho r oughly confused, Hermione hurried on. “
Look, if I picked up a sword right now, Ron, and ran you through with it, I wouldnТ t da m
age your soul at all.”
”Which would be a real comfort to me, IТ m sure,” said Ron. Harry laughed.
“It should be, actually! But my point is that wha t ever happens to your body, your soul will survive, u
n touched,” said Hermione. “But itТ s the other way round with a
Horcrux. The fragment of soul i n
side it depends on its container, its enchanted body, for su r
vival. It canТ 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 VoldemortТ s soul as it vanished.
“And once the diary was properly destroyed, the bit of soul trapped in it could no longer e x
ist. Ginny tried to get rid of the diary before you did, flushing it away, but obv i ously it came back good as new.
”
“Hang on,” said Ron, frowning. “The bit of soul in that diary was possessing Ginny, wasnТ t it? How does that work, then?”
“While the magical container is still i n
tact, the bit of soul inside it can flit in and out of someone if they get too close to the o b ject. I donТ
t mean holding it for too long, itТ s nothing to do with touching it,” she added before Ron could speak. “I mean close em o
tionally. Ginny poured her heart out into that d i
ary, she made herself incredibly vulnerable. YouТ re in trouble if you get too fond of or dependent on the Horcrux.”
“I wonder how Dumbledore destroyed the ring?” said Harry. “Why didnТ t I ask him? I never really . . .”
His voice trailed away: He was thin k ing of all the things he should have asked Dumbl
e dore, and of how, since the headma s
ter had died, it seemed to Harry that he had wasted so many opportunities when Dumbl e
dore had been alive, to find out more .
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