"Sir we understand your desire to remove the knowledge," Hermione replied as her mind started calming down. "It started out by us only wanting to know what a Horcrux was. Then when we found out, we realized it was possibly the way Voldemort survived that night against Harry. I hope you can understand that anything that concerns Harry now concerns us."
"I can understand your academic curiosity and the need to know for the personal reasons," Dumbledore said as his blue eyes regained their warmth. "At your age I would have pursued the academic challenge as well I'm sure. No, in this case I should blame myself. I should have realized what might occur and done something besides just ignoring your question that day in the Chamber. I should've attempted to dissuade you at that time from pursuing the topic, but alas that is water under the bridge as you might say."
"Yes sir, so we are right in that it was a Horcrux that kept him alive?"
"Yes. It definitely appears that is how he stayed alive that night."
"Do you know if the Horcrux was the diary that Ginny had?" Hermione asked.
Dumbledore had to give them credit. He had immediately suspected the object to be a Horcrux after Harry had described what had happened, but he had been studying Horcruxes for several years. The young people before him had done the same thing in just a few weeks. "What makes you think it was?" He asked wanting to know what had led to their conclusion.
"Riddle mentioned that he gave some of his soul back to Ginny," Harry explained. "He used the word soul and since we were talking about storing part of Riddle's soul, it only made sense."
"Very well reasoned and yes that diary was a Horcrux," Dumbledore replied.
"So why isn't 'e dead?" Fleur asked. "If 'is orcrux was destroyed, why isn't 'e dead?"
"You've done a very good job so far in your reasoning, why would you think he's not dead?" Dumbledore questioned.
They sat and thought for a few minutes before Hermione murmured "He couldn't do that."
"He couldn't do what Miss Granger? Remember that this is Tom Riddle who is capable of doing most anything."
"Well sir, I thought for a second considering all the people he has murdered, what if he made more than one Horcrux, but that would...I mean it can't be."
"I recently came across something that makes me think that is exactly what he did. How many he might have created is still the question."
"But…but it can't be that many can it?"
"I do not know how many parts a soul can be divided into," Dumbledore replied. "But even if he only made two Horcruxes it means his soul is in three parts already."
"No sir. That's not right," Hermione replied and her eyes flew open wide and she blushed as she realized she had just corrected the Headmaster.
Dumbledore looked at the witch for a second before. "Please explain what you mean by that."
Hermione looked embarrassed but explained what she had thought. "Sir, the…I mean our source said when you murdered someone it splits your soul into two pieces. Left alone they will eventually bind back together, but someone intent on making a horcrux would perform the magic required to remove half of the soul and place it in the container they had prepared."
"Yes that is how it works," Dumbledore said.
Hermione thought her next statement was obvious but she said it anyway. "Sir, if you split your soul into two pieces; then in your first horcrux you would have half of your soul, but in your second one you would put only a fourth of your soul. So I guess technically if you made two horcruxes it would be in three parts, but three unequal parts. He would only have a quarter of his soul left to him."
Dumbledore eyes never gave away the inner thoughts that now started growing exponentially. Now that she had said it, it made obvious sense but not something he had considered before. He immediately started thinking of the transformation of the handsome young man Tom Riddle had been into the 'thing' he had become later in life, becoming more snake than man. Dumbledore had presumed Riddle's appearance change had occurred because of the dark arts he had delved into, but now it was possible if not probable that he became what he was or is because he had so little of his soul left. He then looked up from his musings and realized there were five sets of eyes looking at him.
"I think you may be right Miss Granger," Professor Dumbledore replied. "It is something I had not considered."
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