There are plenty of powerful magical objects in the wizarding world of Harry Potter, but none more so than Horcruxes. By splitting one's soul through the act of murder and hiding a piece of it inside a person or object, dark wizards and witches are able to live on even after death; albeit by sacrificing part of their humanity.
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Before his eventual demise during the Battle of Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort tears his soul into eight pieces in the hopes of living forever. It's only after destroying all seven of Voldemort's Horcruxes that Harry and his friends are able to stop him, but not every Horcrux was created equally when it comes to how difficult they are to destroy.
7 The Diadem
Burn it with Fire
Of all of Voldemort's Horcruxes, none are quite as easy to destroy as the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw. In the books, the diadem is destroyed by Crabbe's reckless use of Fiendfyre, thus saving Harry and his friends the bother. In the movie adaptation, Harry stabs the diadem with a Basilisk fang before Ron punts it into the flames, though this too seems relatively simple when compared to the other six Horcruxes.
Why exactly producers opted to change the way that the Horcrux is destroyed in the movie is unclear, though some have speculated that it may have been to avoid questions about why Harry and his friends didn't just use Fiendfyre to destroy the other Horcruxes. In the movies, all five of the non-organic Horcruxes are destroyed by Basilisk venom; administered either via one of the beast's fangs or the venom-imbued Sword of Gryffindor.
6 The Cup
All in a Day's Work
Hufflepuff's Cup was undoubtedly one of the hardest Horcruxes to obtain, but destroying it ended up being a relatively simple task when all's said and done. Granted, the idea that Ron was able to perfectly mimic parseltongue and that Harry dreams about telling snakes to "open" enough for him to have done so seems a little ridiculous, but that's a whole other thing.
Had Harry been smart about it, he could have destroyed the cup even before Ron's preposterous Parselmtongue exploits. While inside the Lestrange vault, he delicately uses the Sword of Gryffindor to grab the handle of the cup so as to avoid the effects of the Geminio and Flagrante curses. Had he just stabbed or swiped at it, though, the Horcrux would have been destroyed instantly, allowing Harry and his friends to flee the vault a little quicker.
5 Nagini
Scale and Bones
Other than Harry, Nagini was the only Horcrux with the ability to move around on its own. This certainly made her a lot more dangerous than some of the other Horcruxes on paper, though it's important to remember that despite maiming Arthur Weasley and consuming the corpses of several of Voldemort's victims, Nagini's only confirmed kill was Severus Snape, who seemingly did nothing to try and protect himself from the snake's wrath.
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Had Harry and Hermione had their wits about them, they could probably have dealt with Nagini in Godric's Hollow while the snake was impersonating Bathilda Bagshot and thus saved Neville the bother. Given her importance to his survival, the Dark Lord was incredibly reckless when it came to the way that he left the snake unattended and was perhaps lucky that she survived as long as she did.
4 The Locket
Divide and Conquer
Were it not for the love and support of his two closest friends, there's no way that Harry could have taken down the Dark Lord. With this in mind, Slytherin's Locket was one of the most dangerous Horcruxes that Voldemort created, as it very nearly divides the golden trio; causing them to bicker and fight amongst themselves before Ron temporarily abandons his two closest friends in the woods.
After reuniting, Harry and Ron then have to retrieve the Sword of Gryffindor from a frozen lake before they can destroy the burdensome locket once and for all. Even then, though, Ron is forced to confront and overcome some of his greatest fears and insecurities, which could not have been easy for somebody who has spent a significant portion of his life living in the shadow of The Boy Who Lived.
3 The Ring
A Deadly Curse
Even if Snape hadn't killed Dumbledore, the Hogwarts Headmaster would have been dead soon enough due to the curse that was placed upon him by Marvolo Gaunt's Ring. In fact, were it not for Draco and Snape's intervention, Dumbledore would have been killed by the ring's curse and Voldemort would have become the true master of the Elder Wand, which would have resulted in a very different ending.
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The ring was one of the most powerful Horcruxes due to it containing the resurrection stone. Dumbledore's guilt for the role that he played in the death of his sister caused him to overlook Voldemort's curse and would likely have led to his death a lot sooner had Snape not encouraged him to take the ring off. Given Harry's obsession with The Mirror of Erised in the first book, it seems safe to assume that he too would have found it very difficult to destroy the ring had it been left for him to do so.
2 The Diary
The Perfect Protector
Books can be incredibly powerful things; especially those which contain a fragment of an evil wizard's soul. Through his old diary, Tom Riddle is able to possess Ginny Weasley, which almost leads to her death and the deaths of several other innocent people. The fact that Harry has no idea who Tom Riddle is when he first encounters the diary makes it that much more dangerous, as Riddle is able to use his signature charm to fool the young hero.
In order to destroy the diary, Harry first needed to take down a full-grown Basilisk, which is much easier said than done. Those wondering why he didn't just use the Sword of Gryffindor as he did with some of the other Horcruxes would do well to remember that it was only due to the blade having been imbued with Basilisk venom down in the Chamber of Secrets that it was able to destroy Horcruxes in the first place.
1 Harry
The Ultimate Sacrifice
As Harry eventually found out, there was a reason why he was able to sense Voldemort's Horcruxes and shared the Dark Lord's (and Ron's) ability to communicate with snakes. On that fateful night in Godric's Hollow, Voldemort's soul was unexpectedly split after he murdered Lilly Potter, with the surviving piece latching onto the only living being nearby: a one-year-old baby named Harry.
Although there was a part of him that already knew this before seeing Snape's memory in the Pensieve, learning for certain that he had to die to bring down Lord Voldemort still came as a bit of a shock to Harry. When he made the decision to head into the Forbidden Forest and confront the Dark Lord, he did so under the assumption that he was walking straight toward his own demise, leaving behind all those he knew and loved in the process.
Harry Potter
- Created by
- J.K. Rowling
- Cast
- Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson , Rupert Grint , Alan Rickman , Michael Gambon , Ralph Fiennes , Maggie Smith , Robbie Coltrane
- Where to watch
- HBO Max