The Order of Destruction for Every ‘Harry Potter’ Horcrux

In the ‘Half-Blood Prince’, the big revelation about Voldemort having seven Horcruxes explained how he kept coming back, but Harry and his friends managed to destroy them all. The mystery of how Voldemort survived the killing curse rebounding off Harry, leading to his full rebirth in ‘Goblet of Fire’, was a major plot point.

The sixth installment introduced Horcruxes as dark magical objects where a wizard hides a piece of their soul, sending Harry on a quest to find and eliminate them.

The movie left out key details about why Voldemort desired these specific objects and how they were made. Horcruxes were considered extremely evil in the Wizarding World, and creating them involved murdering to split one’s soul. The books explained that only a few powerful means could destroy a Horcrux. Eventually, Harry and his allies successfully destroyed all seven of Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

Voldemort’s first Horcrux, the diary, was introduced in ‘Chamber of Secrets’. Lucius Malfoy, in a cut storyline, was revealed to have received the Horcrux from Voldemort during the First Wizarding War. However, Malfoy, thinking Voldemort was dead, planted the diary on Ginny Weasley to implicate the Weasleys. Harry destroyed the diary with a basilisk fang, the venom of which is one of the few ways to destroy a Horcrux.

The second Horcrux, Marvolo Gaunt’s ring, was created by Voldemort using a murder committed in his family’s history. Dumbledore destroyed it using the Sword of Gryffindor, impregnated with basilisk venom. Salazar Slytherin’s locket, which Ron destroyed using the same sword, had a complex history involving Voldemort’s mother, Merope Gaunt and Hepzibah Smith. Bellatrix Lestrange unknowingly kept it in her Gringotts vault.

Hufflepuff’s cup was one of the most challenging Horcruxes to obtain and was destroyed by Hermione using basilisk fangs. Ravenclaw’s lost diadem was accidentally destroyed by fieldfare produced by Vincent Crabbe. Nagini, Voldemort’s snake, became a Horcrux, and Neville Longbottom decapitated her with the Sword of Gryffindor during the Battle of Hogwarts.

The final Horcrux, Harry himself, was unknowingly created the night Voldemort’s curse rebounded. Harry willingly sacrificed himself in the Forbidden Forest, allowing the Horcrux within him to be destroyed while he survived. Despite Nagini being technically the last to be destroyed, Harry’s significance lay in being an unintentional and crucial part of Voldemort’s downfall.

– Farheen Ali