The Next Dark Lord

Horcruxes are Horrible

"Wait, Voldemort did what?", Neville shouted standing up startling a few of the sleeping portraits. "So, the guy basically did something to ensure immortality and you expect a bunch of teenagers to fight him?", he asked.

Dumbledore sighed and rubbed his fingers over his eyes, for real this time. 'Why do they have to think too much instead of following my word' he thought. "If you insist on interrupting me for every other sentence, I don't expect we'll get much done", he rebuked mildly. Suitably chastised, Neville sat down. Looking at all three to see he had their full attention, Dumbledore continued. "There are many ways to pursue immortality, almost all of them involve dark magic, murder and a whole bunch of things that make one's soul dark. The only exception that I can think of is Philosopher's stone, but the only one in existence has now been destroyed. What Voldemort did is split a part of his soul and saved it in an anchor. As long as the anchor is intact, he will live; at least speaking in the most basic form".

Speaking for the first time, Hermione asked, "So, finding and destroying this anchor will render him mortal and then he can be killed?".

"Essentially correct, but I'd appreciate it if you do not so casually mention killing someone", Albus responded. Hermione couldn't believe the words coming out of the old wizard's mouth. If anyone deserved to die, it was Voldemort.

"Professor, Voldemort is a rabid animal and the only way to stop him is to put him down", she responded hotly.

"Not necessarily, but we are diverging. I would rather not get sidetracked from today's agenda", he said sagely. Picking up a lemon drop, he popped it into his mouth and enjoyed the sour taste for a moment before continuing, "What Ms. Granger said was essentially right that making Voldemort mortal is the key here. These soul anchors are called Horcrux. One has to do some pre-ritual to prepare their soul, then perform a soul shifting act like murdering an innocent in cold blood to separate a part of the soul. Then the split part is safeguarded in some container. It is preferable that the container has some level of magic to repair the basic wear and tear of ages, but not a necessity".

"So, You-Know-Who has created this horcrux thingy and it can be anything and we have to find it and destroy it?", Ron asked.

"In the premise, yes. But Voldemort wouldn't have made them anything. He would have made sure it had some form of value. He showcased magpie like behavior as a child and growing up he took uncommon interest into the founders. As you might remember, he is the Heir of Slytherin himself", Dumbledore said.

"So, you think it could be one of the founder's relics? That narrows the list down. We can try to track known founder's items that are now lost", said Hermione.

"I think it may be more than one founder's items. I have reason to believe that Voldemort might have set out to create seven-part soul", Dumbledore said which Hermione and Neville to shout, "Oh my god" and "You've got to be kidding me" respectively at the same time.

"How do you know there are seven horcruxes professor?", Hermione asked after calming down a little.

"I cannot name my source obviously, but rest assured Voldemort wanted to create seven-part soul. That is six horcruxes with the last part in his body", he replied. He let the silence go on a bit before adding, "I have some guesses as to what those horcruxes could be, and my guesses are usually good". He went silent waiting for one of them to ask further questions. 'Letting them become involved is important to bedazzle them with my knowledge all things Voldemort', he thought.

"Why haven't you done anything if you know Voldemort is using Horcruxes to stay alive and have some idea what they are", asked Hermione.

'Shit, this wasn't the question I had in mind. I shouldn't have stopped at all', he chastised himself. "It is a long story", started Albus.