This is a list of Horcruxes that were made by Lord Voldemort, either intentionally or unintentionally, as well as a history of Horcruxes and details about each of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. We learned in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that a Horcrux is a vessel that contains a piece of someone’s soul. The vessel can be a living creature or an inanimate object, though inanimate objects are better since living creatures eventually die.

Tom Riddle’s Diary

Date Created: June 13, 1943 (Tom was approximately 16 years old)
Person Murdered to Create Horcrux: Myrtle Warren (aka Moaning Myrtle)
Where Horcrux was Created: Girls’ bathroom on the first floor of Hogwarts
Reason Why This Item was Chosen by Voldemort: Tom Riddle searched for and found the Chamber of Secrets, and used his ability to speak Parseltongue (the language of snakes) to control the Basilisk that lived there. The Basilisk killed a girl named Myrtle so Tom could make his first Horcrux, and it was Myrtle’s death that caused Dumbledore to become suspicious of Tom. Tom knew he was being closely watched by Dumbledore and that he couldn’t open the Chamber again because if it was the school would be closed. Tom loved his time at Hogwarts too much to risk the school’s closure so he infused a shadow of himself into the diary so that his shadow self could open the Chamber in the future and finish what he started.
Place Horcrux was Hidden: Lucius Malfoy kept it hidden in his manor
Person who Found Horcrux: Ginny Weasley, who found it hidden with her new school books
Person who Destroyed Horcrux: Harry Potter (Harry was 12 years old)
Method of Destruction: Basilisk fang
Place Where Horcrux was Destroyed: The Chamber of Secrets deep under Hogwarts
Date Destroyed: May 29, 1993

Voldemort entrusted the diary to Lucius Malfoy and explained that the diary had the power to open the Chamber of Secrets. It was Voldemort’s desire that Lucius eventually use the diary to open the Chamber but he disappeared before this plan could be completed. Lucius kept the diary hidden until he gave it to Ginny at Flourish and Blotts bookstore. He never knew that the diary was also a Horcrux or he would have never given it to Ginny.

Resurrection Stone Ring

Date Created: 1943 (Tom was approximately 16 years old)
Person Murdered to Create Horcrux: Tom Riddle Sr. (Tom’s father)
Where Horcrux was Created: The Riddle House in the town of Little Hangleton
Reason Why This Item was Chosen by Voldemort: It is doubtful that Tom Riddle knew that the ring he turned into a Horcrux was an heirloom of Salazar Slytherin. Tom convinced himself that his mother had to be a Muggle, because he thought a witch would have had the magical ability to keep herself alive. He was disgusted to learn the truth about his parents, that his mother was a witch who died instead of lived to care for him and that his Muggle father left her when she was pregnant. Tom felt no connection to his mother’s family, but he chose the ring for his second Horcrux as an act of defiance to the Gaunt family.
Place Horcrux was Hidden: The Gaunt shack
Person who Found Horcrux: Albus Dumbledore
Person who Destroyed Horcrux: Albus Dumbledore (Dumbledore was 114 years old)
Method of Destruction: The Sword of Gryffindor, which was infused with Basilisk venom
Place Where Horcrux was Destroyed: The Headmaster’s office at Hogwarts
Date Destroyed: July 1996

Marvolo Gaunt’s ring had the Resurrection Stone set in it, although Marvolo (Tom Riddle’s maternal grandfather) never knew what he had. The ring was a family heirloom that had been passed down from generation to generation to the descendants of Cadmus Peverell and Salazar Slytherin. Tom Riddle was the last descendent of Peverell and Slytherin.

Voldemort was as ignorant to what the ring was as his grandfather Marvolo before him. Neither of them knew that the ring was made from the Resurrection Stone, one of the three Deathly Hallows, nor would Voldemort have cared if he did know – he feared death and would never have wanted to contact anyone who had died. Tom Riddle was seen wearing this ring in the movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when he asked Professor Slughorn about Horcruxes.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, knew exactly what the ring was, but he was temporarily as ignorant at Marvolo and Voldemort when he found it and realized it was a Hallow, something he had searched for in his youth. He knew what the Resurrection Stone could do and was seized by a desire to see his deceased family again so he could apologize to them for his failures in his youth, which was a time when he thought he could conquer the Muggle world for the Greater Good of witches and wizards. He completely forgot that the ring was a Horcrux as well as a Hallow when he put it on and that using it would be fatal to anyone who tried.

Dumbledore was hit by the dark magic of the Horcrux as soon as he tried to use the stone, which unleashed a death curse into Dumbledore’s hand. He survived due to the quick actions of Severus Snape, who was able to stopper the death, but the stopper was temporary. Dumbledore knew that he only had about a year to live before the death curse took his life.

Salazar Slytherin’s Locket

Date Created: Sometime between 1946 and the 1970s (it is unknown how old Voldemort was when he made this Horcrux)
Person Murdered to Create Horcrux: A Muggle tramp
Where Horcrux was Created: Unknown
Reason Why This Item was Chosen by Voldemort: Voldemort became obsessed with the thought of making Horcruxes from items that were owned by the four founders of Hogwarts: Salazar Slytherin, Godrick Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, and Rowena Ravenclaw. This obsession came from the connection he felt to Hogwarts, the only place where he had ever been happy. The Slytherin locket was doubly significant to him because he knew that his mother had originally owned the locket. Tom’s mother, Merope Gaunt, sold the locket and it eventually found its way to Borgin and Burkes, a store that specialized in unusual magical artifacts. The locket was bought by a wealthy witch named Hepzibah Smith, a woman who also owned Helga Hufflepuff’s cup. Tom murdered Hepzibah so that he could steal the locket and cup from her.
Place Horcrux was Hidden: The Crystal Cave
Person who Found Horcrux: Regulus Black, younger brother of Sirius Black
Person who Destroyed Horcrux: Ron Weasley (Ron was 17 years old)
Method of Destruction: The Sword of Gryffindor, which was infused with Basilisk venom
Place Where Horcrux was Destroyed: The Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire
Date Destroyed: December 28, 1997

Like Marvolo Gaunt’s ring, the locket was another family heirloom that was passed down to the descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Marvolo Gaunt was a man an immensely prideful man and he viewed his two family heirlooms as proof that he was better than everyone else. Voldemort, on the other hand, coveted the locket because of its connection to Salazar Slytherin.

Regulus Black was a Death Eater who became disenchanted with Voldemort after Voldemort used Regulus’s house elf Kreacher to test the defenses set up around the locket Horcrux. Voldemort left Kreacher to die in the cave but was able to escape by using house-elf magic, something that Voldemort never considered could be stronger than his magic.

Kreacher returned to Regulus and told him about the locket. Regulus had Kreacher take him to the cave and drank the cursed water that hid the locket in order to access it. Before he died at the hands of the Inferi guardians Regulus ordered Kreacher to take the locket back to his house and destroy it. Kreacher obeyed as best he could and did everything he could think of to the locket, but was unsuccessful in his attempts to destroy it.

The locket was later stolen by Mundungus Fletcher, who then gave it to Dolores Umbridge as a bribe to stay out of trouble. Umbridge wore the locket and lied about its origins to anyone who asked, saying that it was a family heirloom and that the ‘S’ stood for Selwyn. She used the locket as proof of her Pure Blood status, but she was lying and wasn’t a descendent of the Selwyn family. Harry Potter stole the locket from Umbridge when he, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger infiltrated the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Harry was wearing the locket when he jumped into a pool of freezing cold water to retrieve the Sword of Gryffindor, which was at the bottom of the water. The locket sensed that the sword had the ability to destroy it and tried to strangle Harry. Harry probably would have died if Ron hadn’t jumped into the water and saved him.

Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup

Date Created: Approximately 1946 (Tom was approximately 19 years old)
Person Murdered to Create Horcrux: Hepzibah Smith
Where Horcrux was Created: The home of Hepzibah Smith
Reason Why This Item was Chosen by Voldemort: This item was owned by Hogwarts founder Helga Hufflepuff
Place Horcrux was Hidden: Bellatrix Lestrange’s bank vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank
Person who Found Horcrux: Harry Potter
Person who Destroyed Horcrux: Hermione Granger (Hermione was 18 years old)
Method of Destruction: A Basilisk fang
Place Where Horcrux was Destroyed: In the Chamber of Secrets deep under Hogwarts
Date Destroyed: May 2, 1998 (during the Final Battle at Hogwarts)

Voldemort entrusted the cup to Bellatrix Lestrange, his most faithful Death Eater, before his disappearance following his attempt to kill baby Harry Potter. It is unlikely that Bellatrix knew the true nature of the cup, but likely that she was so protective of it because it belonged to Voldemort, a man she worshipped and loved obsessively.

The movies differ from the books on the topic of Helga Hufflepuff’s cup. The movies never mentioned Helga or the history of her cup, while the books did. Dumbledore told Harry in the books that Voldemort had most likely created Horcruxes from items owned by the four Hogwarts founders, but this information was omitted from the movies.

In the last book, Harry Potter had no idea where the remaining Horcruxes were hidden when he, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger were searching for them, he just knew that one of the Horcruxes was likely to be an item that had once been owned by Helga Hufflepuff. He became suspicious that there was a Horcrux hidden in Bellatrix Lestrange’s bank vault because of how she reacted when she thought that the Sword of Gryffindor had been stolen from her vault. This suspicion proved to be correct and Harry, Ron, and Hermione broke into Bellatrix’s vault, with the help of Griphook the goblin, and recovered the cup.

On a side note, the Hufflepuff cup has the distinction of being one of the few items ever stolen from Gringotts.

Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem

Date Created: Sometime between 1945 and 1956 (it is unknown how old Voldemort was when he made this Horcrux)
Person Murdered to Create Horcrux: A peasant in Albania
Where Horcrux was Created: Albania
Reason Why This Item was Chosen by Voldemort: This item was owned by Hogwarts founder Rowena Ravenclaw
Place Horcrux was Hidden: The Room of Requirements in Hogwarts
Person who Found Horcrux: Harry Potter
Person who Destroyed Horcrux: Vincent Crabbe (Vincent was approximately 18 years old)
Method of Destruction: Fiendfyre
Place Where Horcrux was Destroyed: The Room of Requirements at Hogwarts
Date Destroyed: May 2, 1998 (during the Final Battle at Hogwarts)

In the sixth book, Harry saw the diadem when he hid the Half-Blood Prince’s Potions book in the Room of Requirements. He used the diadem as a landmark so he would be able to find it later if he ever went back to retrieve the book. In the sixth movie, it was Ginny who hid the book, not Harry, and the diadem was never shown.

Vincent Crabbe was the person who started the Fiendfyre in the book version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Crabbe died when he could not control the fire he started. However, the actor who portrayed Crabbe got into legal trouble that kept him out of the final movie. Crabbe was completely omitted from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt. 2, and it was Gregory Goyle who started the Fiendfyre.

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Draco Malfoy all escaped from the Room of Requirements before the cursed fire consumed everything inside, including Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem. In the final book, Crabbe also perished in the fire, but in the movie it was Goyle. The movie version replaced Goyle with Blaise Zabini, who also escaped safely from the fire.

Professor Quirinius Quirrell

You could argue that Quirrell wasn’t a Horcrux because Voldemort didn’t tear his soul when he possessed Quirrell, and I don’t think he was, but I’m including it on the list because there are others who believe Quirrell was a partial Horcrux.

Date Created: Sometime between 1990 and 1991 (Voldemort was approximately 65 years old)
Person Murdered to Create Horcrux: No one (Quirinius Quirrell wasn’t an official Horcrux)
Where Horcrux was Created: Albania
Reason Why This Item was Chosen by Voldemort: Voldemort was left as less than a ghost after he failed to kill Harry Potter as a baby. He wandered around in this ghostly state until he came across Quirrell, who was searching for Voldemort in an effort to gain recognition as the man who found Voldemort. Voldemort was excited to learn that Quirrell was a teacher at Hogwarts and took possession of Quirrell’s body so that he could return to the school and finish what he started when he first tried to kill Harry.
Place Horcrux was Hidden: In the back of Quirrell’s head, hidden under a purple turban
Person who Found Horcrux: I think the technical answer is no one, but you could make the case that the answer is actually Harry Potter
Person who Destroyed Horcrux: Harry Potter (Harry was 11 years old)
Method of Destruction: Professor Quirrell was burned to death after touching Harry. Harry was protected by the magical protection his mother placed on him when she chose to die for him, and Quirrell was unable to touch anyone who was protected by something that good. Voldemort left Quirrell’s body just before Quirrell died and returned to his ghostly state.
Place Where Horcrux was Destroyed: Underground Chamber of Hogwarts
Date Destroyed: June 4, 1992

Harry Potter

Date Created: October 31, 1981 (Voldemort was approximately 55 years old)
Person Murdered to Create Horcrux: No one – Voldemort’s soul was very unstable from being ripped apart five times and Harry was unintentionally turned into a Horcrux when a piece of Voldemort’s soul ripped apart after the Killing Curse hit Harry and rebounded back onto Voldemort.
Where Horcrux was Created: Harry’s bedroom in his parents’ house in Godric’s Hollow, West Country
Reason Why This Item was Chosen by Voldemort: Voldemort never knew that Harry was a Horcrux
Place Horcrux was Hidden: n/a
Person who Found Horcrux: Albus Dumbledore suspected that Harry was an unintentional Horcrux
Person who Destroyed Horcrux: Lord Voldemort (Voldemort was 71 years old)
Method of Destruction: The Killing Curse
Place Where Horcrux was Destroyed: The Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts
Date Destroyed: May 2, 1998 (during the Final Battle at Hogwarts)

The reason Harry could read Voldemort’s mind and feel Voldemort’s emotions was because of the connection between them caused by the piece of soul inside Harry. Harry did not know he was a Horcrux until after he watched the memories of Severus Snape just after Snape died. Dumbledore did not tell Snape that Harry was a Horcrux, but he gave just enough information to Snape that Harry would understand the truth about his lightning-shaped scar.

After watching Snape’s memories Harry understood that he had to die at Voldemort’s hand so that the soul fragment in him would die, that this was the only way Voldemort could be defeated and killed. Harry willingly went to his death when he approached Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. But instead of dying, Harry survived. Harry was still protected by his mother’s sacrifice so the Horcrux was killed by the curse but Harry was not. Just as Harry’s sacrifice protected Harry from Voldemort, Harry’s sacrifice protected all of his friends, Hogwarts students, and teachers from Voldemort.

When Voldemort tried to kill Harry as a baby his body was killed by the rebounded curse. His body did not die the second time the spell rebounded on him because Voldemort used Harry’s blood when he was resurrected in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, blood that contained the protection cast on Harry by his mother’s sacrifice. This protection kept his body alive and he became the second person to survive the Killing Curse.

Update: I have since come to believe that Harry wasn’t actually a Horcrux. Yes, he had part of Voldemort’s soul in him, but Voldemort didn’t use this piece of his soul to make a Horcrux. Harry was more like a partial Horcrux, missing only the intent on Voldemort’s part.​

Nagini The Snake

Date Created: 1994 (Voldemort was approximately 67 years old)
Person Murdered to Create Horcrux: Bertha Jorkins
Where Horcrux was Created: Most likely Albania, which is where Voldemort said he went while in ghostly form. He also said that the only animal he was able to successfully inhabit (i.e. possess) while he was in Albania was the snake.
Reason Why This Item was Chosen by Voldemort: Dumbledore believed that Nagini was the only living thing that Voldemort truly cared for, and that Nagini was a living representation of Voldemort’s ancestral connection to Salazar Slytherin. Voldemort inherited the ability to speak Parseltongue and learned that he could control snakes, and he was able to control Nagini to a degree that was unusual, even for Parseltongues.
Place Horcrux was Hidden: Voldemort didn’t hide Nagini. He let her wander around as she pleased and he sent her on errands. It wasn’t until Voldemort realized that Harry Potter was destroying Horcruxes that he protected Nagini and kept her with him at all times.
Person who Found Horcrux: Albus Dumbledore realized that Nagini was a Horcrux
Person who Destroyed Horcrux: Neville Longbottom (Neville was 17 years old)
Method of Destruction: The Sword of Gryffindor, which was infused with Basilisk venom
Place Where Horcrux was Destroyed: The front steps outside of Hogwarts
Date Destroyed: May 2, 1998 (during the Final Battle at Hogwarts)

It was fitting that Neville killed Nagini because he was part of Voldemort’s history, even though Neville didn’t know it. Both Harry and Neville were a match for the child described in the prophecy that Severus Snape overheard. Voldemort rejected Neville and chose Harry as the boy who the prophecy was about, but had he chosen Neville, both his and Harry’s lives would have been very different. Neville never knew any of this, but Harry did and it made him more sympathetic to Neville.

Creating a Horcrux

The purpose of creating a Horcrux is to grant immortality to the person who created the Horcrux. Only two people are known to have successfully created Horcruxes: Herpo the Foul and Tom Riddle (later known as Lord Voldemort).  A Horcrux is arguably the darkest of the Dark Arts and is made when a wizard murders someone and performs the proper ritual, which rips a part of the murderer’s soul and attaches it to a chosen vessel. The bit of soul remains protected in the vessel, thus ensuring the murderer’s immortality.

The immortality obtained by Horcruxes is not a desirable one. Only the soul of the person who created a Horcrux is immortal, not his body. When the body dies the wizard goes into a state of existence that is less than that of a ghost.

The soul of a human is meant to remain whole, not ripped apart. Ripping apart one’s soul has several negative side effects:

• The wizard becomes dehumanized, both physically and mentally, as a result of losing part of his soul. This process of becoming dehumanized was seen in the memories that Dumbledore shared with Harry via the Pensieve. Tom Riddle’s physical appearance looked normal after he created his first Horcrux, but 10-15 years later, after he had made several more Horcruxes and no longer went by the name of Tom, Voldemort’s skin was extremely white and his features looked burned and blurred. We can also assume that there is a direct correlation between a smaller and smaller Master Soul (the part remaining in the wizard) and a decline in morality, sympathy, and humanity.
• The wizard’s Master Soul becomes unstable and unpredictable. This was seen when Voldemort attempted to kill baby Harry and his killing curse rebounded on him. Voldemort’s soul was so unstable by that time that another part was unintentionally ripped away and latched itself onto Harry. When that happened Harry became a partial Horcrux because a part of Voldemort’s soul resided inside him, but Voldemort did not intend to make a Horcrux, nor did he even know this had happened, and didn’t do the ritual required to complete the process.

Herpo the Foul was a Dark Wizard during Ancient Greece. He successfully mastered many aspects of the Dark Arts and is believed to have created the ritual required to create a Horcrux when he made his one and only Horcrux. It is unknown if Herpo’s Horcrux was destroyed, thus allowing him to die, or if he still lives in a state that is so awful that death would be better, a state that was described to Harry Potter by Professor Horace Slughorn.

Tom Riddle feared death more than anything else and made his first Horcrux during his fifth year at Hogwarts, around age 16 because he wanted to live forever. But one Horcrux was not enough for Tom, who believed in the magical power of the number seven and wanted his soul torn into a total of seven pieces (six Horcruxes plus his Master Soul). He approached Professor Slughorn sometime after he made his second Horcrux and asked what would happen if he made six Horcruxes. Professor Slughorn was horrified by the prospect of making any Horcruxes and Tom quickly dropped the subject.

Reversing a Horcrux

It is possible to reverse a Horcrux and have the torn soul fragment reunite with the Master Soul, but it is unlikely that any wizard evil enough to create a Horcrux would be willing to do what is needed for this to happen. A Horcrux can only be reversed if the wizard feels true remorse for or has repentance for his action, a process that is believed to be so painful that it can be fatal. The fatal aspect of reversing a Horcrux is just an educated guess on the part of Dumbledore since neither Herpo the Foul nor Lord Voldemort wanted to reverse their Horcruxes.

Destroying a Horcrux

A wizard who has created Horcruxes will remain immortal unless the Horcruxes are destroyed, something that can be done but is incredibly difficult to do. The three known methods for destroying a Horcrux are almost as dangerous as creating a Horcrux:

• Basilisk venom will destroy a Horcrux, but Basilisks are a XXXXX-class creature. XXXXX-class creatures are the most deadly and dangerous of all magical creatures, are known wizard killers, and are impossible to domesticate or train. Any wizard who goes after Basilisk venom is almost sure to die in the process unless he has access to Phoenix tears, an incredibly rare substance that is the only known antidote to the venom.
• Fiendfyre will destroy a Horcrux, but this cursed fire can only be controlled by extremely skilled wizards.
• The Killing Curse will kill both a living vessel and the Horcrux contained within the living creature.

What Happens if a Wizard Dies While Horcruxes Remain?

As I said above, the purpose of a Horcrux is to ensure the immortality of the wizard who created it. The wizard’s human body can be killed, but his soul will survive in a state of limbo because the soul fragments live on in the Horcruxes. This is what happened to Voldemort after he tried to kill baby Harry. His soul kept the essence of who he was alive after his body died, and he wandered for a decade in a form that was less than ghostly.