Horcrux, Deathly Hallow, or Unforgiveable Curse? Quiz

Answer: Curse

Although there was a bit of talk about the Unforgivable Curses in earlier books, a clear explanation was not given until "Goblet of Fire". Here, Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Professor Mad-eye Mooney, broached the uncomfortable subject in his Defense Against the Dark Arts class using spiders as guinea pigs.

The curses were unforgivable because they represented a violation of ethics to reputable witches and wizards. There was no purpose to use them except to control, kill, or torture, and their use was outlawed by the Ministry of Magic in 1717. Using any of the three curses carried a life sentence in Azkaban.

The Cruciatus Curse inflicted unbearable torture on its victim. The showing of this curse especially bothered Neville Longbottom, whose parents were tortured in this way by Bellatrix Lestrange during the First Wizarding War. They were still in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries because they were tortured to insanity; they could not even recognize their own son.

In "Deathly Hallows", Bellatrix also used the Crucio on Hermione. Hermione, however, was able to overcome the effects with a bit of rest. Harry did try to use the curse when Bellatrix killed Sirius Black in "Order of the Phoenix", but couldn't muster up the amount of hatred that was needed to make it work. He was angry enough, however, after Amycus Carrow spit on Professor McGonagall before the Battle of Hogwarts to make the curse work in "Deathly Hallows". His use was seen as being justified during wartime, and was therefore forgivable.

Answer: Curse

The Imperius Curse allowed the person who cast it to have complete control over the actions of another person - almost like they were a puppet master and puppet. If the person was not strong enough to resist it, they became completely obedient. And - sources do say that it was difficult to resist as the Imperius Curse made a person feel pleasant and lighthearted.

During the Tri-Wizard Tournament in "Goblet of Fire", Barty Crouch Jr. used the Imperius Curse on Viktor Krum. This made Krum attack Cedric Diggory in the maze in order to made sure that Harry didn't have a competitor who was trying to reach the cup first. Crouch Jr. also used the curse on his father, Crouch Sr., after he escaped from Azkaban and rejoined Voldemort. Over time, however, it weakened to the point where he just decided that his father had to be killed.

In "Deathly Hallows" Harry used the Imperius Curse to help break into Gringotts when he was looking for the Hufflepuff Cup in Bellatrix Lestrange's bank vault. It made the goblin banker cooperative.

Answer: Curse

Arvada Kedavra was the killing curse. Even though it did not cause the recipient pain, it was considered to be the worst curse because its only purpose was to kill. Therefore, the soul of the person who cast the spell was permanently damaged. It was unforgivable because the person who used such a spell obviously had total disregard for the sanctity of life.

While the green flash of light could be dodged, the only true way to defend oneself was with sacrificial protection. Throughout all the Harry Potter books it was easy to see how Lily's sacrifice protected Harry from such a fate. Most notably, aside from Voldemort using it on James and Lily Potter, Severus Snape used the curse to kill Dumbledore in "Half-Blood Prince", and Voldemort tried to use it on Harry in both "Goblet of Fire" and "Deathly Hallows".

Answer: Deathly Hallow

While the existence of the different Deathly Hallows was introduced early in the "Harry Potter" books, the Hallows were not presented as a unified concept - a way to cheat death - until the last book of the same name. It may have been easier for Voldemort to collect the Deathly Hallows - he inherited one of them from his family and ended up with another anyway - but he saw their existence as nothing more than a fairy tale.

As told in "The Tale of the Three Brothers", the Invisibility Cloak was given to Ignotus Peverell, the youngest of the three, when they met Death; he asked Death to give him something that would hide him from the fate. Harry inherited the Cloak from his father, James, whose father was a direct descendant of Ignotus; he received it from Dumbledore, who had been its caretaker since James' death, as a Christmas present in "Philosopher's Stone", and enjoyed using it when necessary.

While there are other Invisibility Cloaks mentioned in the books - like the one Alastor Moody had - Harry's was THE Invisibility Cloak. Its magic was so powerful that it never faded over time, offering permanent invisibility when needed, as well as protection from some spells. It was mentioned in the epilogue for "Deathly Hallows" that, according to family tradition, Harry passed the Cloak on to his oldest son, James, when he went to Hogwarts.

Answer: Deathly Hallow

According to Beedle the Bard, Death gave the Resurrection Stone to Cadmus Peverell. Cadmus used the stone to bring his fiancee back to life after she died, but he quickly realized that she did not belong in the real world. Cadmus committed suicide so that he could be with her.

The Resurrection Stone was then apparently lost for centuries; those who possessed it did not really know what they had - including Voldemort. It somehow came to be in the possession of the Gaunt family - the family of Tom Riddle's mother, Merope Gaunt - after it had been made into a ring. Voledemort believed it was a family heirloom, and nothing more.

When Dumbledore found the Resurrection Stone, however, he did realize what it was. He left it to Harry in his will, hidden in the first Golden Snitch that Harry had ever caught. The Golden Snitch, however, was under a spell cast by the professor, so that Harry couldn't open it until he had reached a certain understanding about his fate.

Answer: Deathly Hallow

Perhaps the most revered Deathly Hallow, and arguably the most powerful, was the Elder Wand, which Death gave to the oldest brother, Antoich Peverell, who had asked for an invincible wand. It was believed to be the most powerful wand that was ever created.

The Elder Wand transferred control when its previous master was defeated; therefore, even though Voldemort possessed the wand, he was never its master. He had never defeated Dumbledore, who had been the master of the wand since he won it from Gellert Grindelwald in 1945. When Draco Malfoy disarmed Dumbledore at the end of the "Half-Blood Prince", the control transferred to him, although he never realized it. Voldemort automatically assumed that control had transferred to Snape when he killed Dumbledore, however, that was another incorrect assumption on his part. The wand's master was Harry because he had disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor. It, therefore, could never be used to harm Harry.

Answer: Horcrux

In the "Chamber of Secrets", Voldemort attempted to use the magic in his own diary to come back as his younger self. Lucius Malfoy slipped the book into Ginny Weasley's shopping cauldron when the family was picking up school supplies. Malfoy not only carried out Voldemort's command, but was happy to potentially cause a problem for the Weasley family.

With the magical diary in her possession, Ginny was influenced to do all sort of things; as she recorded her deepest feelings, Tom Riddle forced her to write messages in blood on the school's walls, open the Chamber of Secrets, and release the Basilisk. Over time he planned to take over Ginny's body so that he could use it to return as his teenage self. By the time Harry found her, Ginny was near death.

With the help of Fawkes and the Gryffindor Sword, Harry killed the Basilisk, and used one of its fangs to destroy the diary. Although the conclusion of the story in "Chamber of Secrets" made it seem as if Riddle had been destroyed, it was not until the "Half-Blood Prince" that readers learned that all Voldemort's Horcruxes had to be destroyed in order to defeat him. Unknown to Harry at the time, Basilisk venom was one of the few substances known to be powerful enough to destroy a Horcrux. Luckily, when Harry used the Gryffindor Sword to kill the Basilisk, it became imbued with the venom, so there was another powerful weapon that could be used to destroy future Horcruxes as they were discovered.

A Horcrux was an object that contained a piece of a wizard's soul. That way, as long as the object remained intact, even if the wizard's body was destroyed he could not truly die. Creating a Horcrux was a ritual of dark magic, however, that required a murder to take place; making a Horcrux by splitting the soul, however, was believed to seriously weaken both the body and the soul.

Answer: Horcrux

After the destruction of Tom Riddle's diary and learning of its power from Harry, Professor Dumbledore began to suspect that Voldemort had turned to the use of dark magic in an attempt to gain immortality. Had the diary been a Horcrux, containing a piece of Voldemort's soul? If so, why hadn't it been more closely guarded? Destroying it had not rid the wizarding world of Voldemort, so apparently there were there other Horcruxes to find and destroy. But, exactly how many?

Professor Dumbledore began to dig deeper into Voldemort's past to see if it was possible that Voldemort had learned about Horcruxes; in "Half-Blood Prince" Dumbledore convinced Horace Slughorn, one of the retired professors at Hogwarts, to return to teach potions. Dumbledore hoped to gain more information about Tom Riddle's Horcruxes as he and Slughorn had been close while Riddle was a student there, and Slughorn hadn't previously been forthcoming with the information needed.

Before Harry's sixth year of school began, Dumbledore also began to think about exploring places that would have been important to Tom Riddle in order to discover more Horcruxes. He went to the Gaunt shack, where Riddle's mother's family had lived in extreme poverty. The only thing they had that was valuable was their family ring, the Gaunt ring, which had been passed down to males of the family for generations. After killing his father, Tom Riddle, Sr., Riddle Jr. framed his uncle for the murder and took the family ring. He used it as a Horcrux and hid it under a floorboard in the shack. The gold ring contained a stone that was engraved with what the Gaunt family thought was the family crest. It was, instead, a Deathly Hallow symbol, which none of them - not even Tom Riddle - recognized. The stone in the ring was the Resurrection Stone.

Dumbledore used the Sword of Gryffindor to destroy the ring, but not before suffering a deadly curse. Even though he knew the ring contained powerful dark magic, he put it on, hoping to be reunited with members of his family. He unfortunately paid a heavy price, with the curse's poison severely injuring his hand and giving him just a short time to live.

Answer: Horcrux

After destroying the Gaunt ring and realizing that its demise had little effect on Lord Voldemort, Dumbledore continued to look for other Horcruxes. He searched the memories he had collected from people who had known the young Tom Riddle, and found a story from Mrs. Cole, the caretaker of the orphanage where Tom had stayed as a young child; it was about Riddle torturing young children in a cave.

After carefully researching caves where this might have taken place, he found one that gave off powerful magic vibes, and Dumbledore believed that it could have been used to hide another Horcrux. Harry traveled to the cave with Dumbledore, and they did find the Slytherin locket there. Shortly after, however, Dumbledore was dead, leaving Harry - and Hermione and Ron by association - to carry on the search. Unfortunately, the Slytherin locket in the cave was found to be a fake, and the three had to go on quite an adventure, one that would test their abilities and friendship, to find and destroy the real one.

In "Half-Blood Prince" Harry finally was able to coax Slughorn into admitting that Tom Riddle had specifically asked him if he could split his soul into seven pieces. With very little to go on, the three friends continued their search for four more Horcruxes.

Answer: Horcrux

In trying to prepare Harry to carry on the search for Horcruxes after his anticipated death, Dumbledore had shared a memory with Harry regarding Tom Riddle's acquisition of both the Slytherin Locket and Hufflepuff Cup. Riddle had visited Hepzibah Smith, a descendant of Helga Hufflepuff, and she had proudly shown him her treasures. He made the Locket into his third Horcrux after killing a homeless person and the Cup into his fourth after killing Smith.

Voldemort didn't always feel it or realize that his Horcruxes were being destroyed, and, if he did, it didn't overly concern him. He had scattered the pieces of his soul about in many different objects, and was too arrogant to think that anyone was smart enough to find all of them. When the Cup was taken, however, it was viewed as quite a serious loss. There weren't a lot of Horcruxes left, and he began to take notice as it seemed that Harry was hunting Horcruxes - which, of course, he was. With the Sword of Gryffindor lost for the moment, the trio of friends had to return to Hogwarts to destroy the Cup with a Basilisk fang.

Answer: Horcrux

Soon after stealing the Hufflepuff Cup from Gringotts, Harry had a vision where he learned of the locations of all the remaining Horcruxes. It made sense that the Ravenclaw Diadem was one, but no one seemed to have any idea where it was. He talked to The Grey Lady, Helena Ravenclaw, who told him that she had stolen the Diadem from her mother, Rowena, one of Hogwarts' founders, and had taken it to Albania, where it had remained after she died.

Helena also revealed that she told Tom Riddle where the Diadem was located, but only after he promised to destroy it. Instead, he made it into a Horcrux and hid it in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts, thinking that he was the only one who knew of the Room's special properties. Believe it or not, Harry knew exactly where the Diadem was. He had used it - thinking it was just an old tiara - to mark the place where he had hidden the potions book that had belonged to the Half-Blood Prince. And - oh! Here is where it was learned that something besides Basilisk venom would destroy a Horcrux!

Answer: Horcrux

Professor Dumbledore had suspected that Nagini was a Horcrux; the snake was always with Voldemort and he seemed to control it. In addition, Voldemort's connection with Slytherin House and some of Harry's described visions made him believe that Nagini was more than just a pet snake.

Would killing Nagini weaken Voldemort enough that Harry would be able to finish him off? On his way to meet Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest, Harry gave Neville the task of killing her. In the confusion caused when Voldemort showed up at Hogwarts claiming that Harry was dead, Neville drew the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat and destroyed the last Horcrux. Now that Voldemort was mortal, his killing curse rebounded off Harry, as the Elder Wand refused to kill its master, and killed Voldemort instead.

Answer: Horcrux

By the time Voldemort launched his attack on the Potter family, he had already made five Horcruxes, which had caused his body and soul to become extremely fragile. Before Lily Potter's death, she had cast a protective enchantment around Harry; the charm caused Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse to rebound when it was cast at Harry. It rebounded and hit Voldemort, destroying his body. A piece of his unstable soul attached to Harry, causing his famous scar. Harry became an unintentional Horcrux, and one that remained a secret to Voldemort until the end.

After the events in the "Chamber of Secrets", Dumbledore suspected that Harry was a Horcrux; Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue, his scar, and the visions that he had helped to solidify Dumbledore's belief. Although he eventually shared his revelation with Snape, he did not pass it on to Harry. Dumbledore really wanted Harry to lead as normal life as possible, and feared that would not be possible if Harry learned that, as a Horcrux, he would have to die in order to defeat Voldemort.

When Harry left Hogwarts to turn himself in to Voldemort, he was ready to sacrifice himself to end the war. Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse, however, did not kill him; it only destroyed the Horcrux. The blood that Voldemort had taken from Harry in "Goblet of Fire" protected Harry from death because it contained Lily's protective enchantment. Their blood connection meant that Harry could not be killed as long as Voldemort was alive. While in a state of limbo, Harry conversed with Dumbledore and learned that he could choose to either die or return because he had willingly sacrificed himself for others. Of course, Harry choose to continue the fight.

While it is true that Harry was the master of the Elder Wand, and the Elder Wand could not be used to harm its master, that was a main factor only at the end of the battle. The Avada Kedavra curse sent from the Elder Wand rebounded off Harry and killed Voldemort instead.