Highlights
- Lord Voldemort's choice to hide all of his Horcruxes in Britain made it easier for Dumbledore, Harry, and others to locate and destroy them.
- Voldemort's obsession with magical artifacts and his contempt for Muggles could have led him to hide a Horcrux in the vast collection at the British Museum, making it nearly impossible to find.
- If Voldemort had chosen a random person or transferred his soul into a coin and hidden it in the ocean, his chances of survival and protecting his Horcruxes would have greatly increased.
Throughout the Harry Potter series, Harry stumbles upon a variety of objects that have magical properties. Most of these objects in the Harry Potter universe are nothing more than ordinary trinkets, but six of them harbor a power so dark, it is sickening to think about.
Harry first hears about Horcruxes during his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, where he learns that Voldemort divided his soul into six different Horcruxes to ensure he can never be killed. Thankfully for Harry, Voldemort can be made vulnerable if the Horcruxes he split his soul into are destroyed. To ensure this couldn't happen, however, Voldemort hid the Horcruxes he created, but the hiding spots he chose weren't exactly foolproof.
Updated on September 3, 2023, by Joe Grantham: When it comes to Horcruxes there is literally an infinite number of objects that Lord Voldemort could have concealed fragments of his soul inside, and likewise, he could have hidden these Horcruxes anywhere in the world. Thankfully for the rest of the wizarding world, Tom Riddle was always sentimental and possessed a level of self-confidence that made him blind to his own fallacies and the merits of others. Ever since the release of the last book, Harry Potter fans have theorized about the best places to hide Horcruxes, coming up with obscure objects and locations that would be perfect for concealing a part of the soul. If Voldemort had just been a little less sentimental, he could have lived forever.
7 Any Other Country
Although Lord Voldemort's sentimentality can be understood given he never thought his secrets would be discovered, he certainly shot himself in the foot by limiting his scope to just the British Isles. Despite even finding Rowena Ravenclaw's lost Diadem in Albania, Voldemort hid all of his Horcruxes in Britain, making it much easier for Dumbledore, Harry, and any other would-be Horcrux hunters.
Although long-distance travel isn't as difficult for a witch or wizard, the sheer size of the world would have made searching for just one Horcrux, never mind six or seven, practically impossible. By selecting a country across the globe at random and again choosing a region at random, Voldemort could have hidden a small and indestructible object in a remote location and never had to worry about it being found. Voldemort himself also had no trouble with foreign travel, as his own search for the Elder wand took him to other parts of Northern Europe.
6 The British Museum
Given Voldemort's obsession with magical artifacts steeped in history, surely he could have had some appreciation for Muggle artifacts even if he held their creators in disdain. The British Museum contains around 8 million such objects, even if only around 80,000 are on display at any given time, thus searching for a Horcrux would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack. Voldemort could have chosen any one of these wondrous items, and a wizard of his skill would have had no problems infiltrating the security.
Furthermore, given his well-known hatred of Muggles, nobody would have ever considered looking inside such a non-magical place. Given Salazar Slytherin's, and by extension Hogwarts', medieval origins, Voldemort may have chosen one of the many objects from the Middle Ages for his Horcrux. If Voldemort had opted for an artifact at the British Museum, his arrogance would have likely led him to choose a famed object in the limelight such as the Sutton Hoo helmet. He would have reveled in the knowledge that millions of Muggles each year gawped at the very thing that made him immortal and gave him power over them.
5 Anyone Other Than Harry Potter
Even though Voldemort's main goal in Harry Potter is to purify the wizarding world by destroying non-magical folk, most of his appearances see him desperately attempting to outwit and murder Harry Potter. Toward the climax of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Harry learns that a part of Voldemort's soul latched itself onto him during their confrontation in Godric's Hollow, making him a living Horcrux.
Voldemort didn't intend to transfer a part of his soul into Harry, but doing so ensured the Dark Lord that he could not be defeated unless Harry died. This could have provided Voldemort with a pretty reliable fail-safe if all of his other Horcruxes were destroyed, but his fixation on revenge eventually led him to destroy the part of his soul residing in Harry. If Voldemort chose a completely random person to transfer his soul into, he might have guaranteed his survival, especially if the person was a Muggle, someone no one would expect.
4 A Coin
If Voldemort really wanted to ensure his Horcruxes were never found, he should have transferred his soul into something incredibly hard to find, like a needle or a pin. While doing this would definitely increase his chances of victory, he could go a step further and add whatever object he chose to a collection of similar objects, making it even more difficult for someone to find.
While needles and pins would certainly prove to be better Horcruxes than most of Voldemort's choices, placing a part of his soul in a coin seems to be a far superior option; a coin in circulation would constantly travel and would therefore be impossible to locate unless the receiver could hear Horcruxes. Though turning a coin into a Horcrux would make it impossible for Voldemort to keep track of, the chance of his enemies discovering it would be incredibly slim.
3 The Ocean
Much of what led to the destruction of Voldemort's Horcruxes was his obsession with symbolism and sentimentality; the Horcruxes he created were all connected to him in some way and, as a result, weren't too difficult to find. It is because of his choice to use these particular objects and hiding spots that Harry and Dumbledore were able to locate and destroy the Horcruxes, but if Voldemort relied on more practical, less predictable hiding spots, he may very well have achieved his goal.
Though it makes sense why Voldemort transferred his soul into the objects he chose, he should have considered using objects and locations no one would be able to find. For example, if he was to transfer his soul into a relatively heavy item and drop it in the ocean, preferably above the Mariana Trench, it is likely no one would ever be able to destroy it, even if they knew its exact location. Sadly, Voldemort was too confident for his own good, and the Horcruxes he created were all within reaching distance.
2 A Magical Creature
First introduced in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Nagini proved to be one of the most terrifying creatures in the entire series, mostly because Voldemort chose to use her as a vessel for his soul. Transferring a part of his very being into another living thing seemed like a pretty clever move when it was first revealed, but the way Voldemort chose to parade Nagini around made it much too easy for her to be slain, evident through Neville's heroic swordsmanship in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
If Voldemort were to hide a part of his soul inside another living creature, it would make more sense for him to choose either something extremely powerful or something very hard to find. The Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets would be an excellent choice given its petrifying abilities, or Aragog because of his children's eagerness to protect him. If Voldemort opted for something small like some of the cutest beasts in Hogwarts Legacy, perhaps no one would have expected it. Nagini couldn't move very far or fast without Voldemort's help, so maybe an owl would have been a better choice, as it could stay out of harm's way a great deal better. Turning a Thestral into a Horcrux could also be effective as only people who have witnessed death could see them.
1 The Chamber Of Secrets
Fifty years before the events of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a young Tom Riddle opened the chamber and unleashed a Basilisk onto the Muggleborn students attending Hogwarts. In order to secure his place at Hogwarts, he pinned the blame on Hagrid, who was then expelled from the school. This marked the end of the attacks, and even though the staff at Hogwarts searched tirelessly to find the chamber, they were never able to locate it.
Harry and Ron eventually found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets during their second year, but if Voldemort didn't reopen the chamber, it likely never would have been found. If Voldemort chose to hide one of his Horcruxes in the chamber before he left Hogwarts, the likeliness of it ever being found would have been quite slim, but sadly, his choice to re-open the Chamber of Secrets resulted in it being found. For the most part, Voldemort is a clever man, but he failed to see the Chamber of Secrets' Horcrux-hiding potential before it was too late.