‘Harry Potter’: Did Albus Dumbledore Accidentally Create a Horcrux?

In the wizarding world of Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort used dark magic to create Horcruxes. Could Albus Dumbledore have been capable of doing something as evil as Voldemort, creating a Horcrux of his own? Some Harry Potter fans think so. 

Lord Voldemort used Horcruxes to gain power

A Horcrux is a dangerous, powerful magical object that houses a portion of a witch or wizard’s soul after it has been split. The only way to split a soul is by killing someone.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, we learn how a pre-Voldemort Tom Riddle turned to Professor Slughorn for information on how to create a Horcrux. 

As he rose to power, Voldemort hid each piece of his soul in an inanimate object. This is considered to be best practice when creating Horcruxes, as inanimate objects are more difficult to destroy. Voldemort’s Horcruxes included Tom Riddle’s diary, his grandfather’s ring, Salazar Slytherin’s locket, Helga Hufflepuff’s cup, Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem, and Nagini the snake. Later, he would unknowingly turn Harry Potter into a Horcrux.

Throughout the Harry Potter books, Horcruxes are often a subject surrounding the villain, Lord Voldemort. Most fans had never considered Albus Dumbledore capable of creating a Horcrux of his own — until now.

Albus Dumbledore has a dark past

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, much of Dumbledore’s past is revealed. Fans learned of a fight he got into involving his brother, Aberforth, and his then-friend, Gellert Grindelwald. In a tragic accident, Dumbledore’s sister, Ariana, was killed by a misfired spell. 

While it is never clarified who cast the spell that killed Ariana, Dumbledore takes full responsibility for his sister’s death.

“I never know which one of us, in that horrific fight, had actually cast the curse that killed my sister,” Dumbledore says in Deathly Hallows. “I dreaded beyond all things the knowledge that it had been I who brought about her death, not merely through my arrogance and stupidity, but that I actually struck the blow that snuffed out her life.” 

If Dumbledore killed his sister, he could have turned Fawkes into a Horcrux 

According to Jonathan Carlin, a host on the Super Carlin Brothers YouTube , Dumbledore could have potentially split his soul after his sister’s accidental death.

Dark magic was used in the fight between Dumbledore, Aberforth, and Grindelwald. As Carlin pointed out, Dumbledore could have created a Horcrux — severing the part of his soul that harbored the sadness of losing Ariana and moving it into another object.

Fawkes is an extension of Dumbledore, which has led many people to believe if he did create a Horcrux, the phoenix would be the host.

The idea of Dumbledore creating a Horcrux upset J.K. Rowling 

When Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling got wind of the Dumbledore Horcrux theory, she took to Twitter to quickly shut it down. 

“The idea that anybody believes this is strangely upsetting to me,” she tweeted. 

While Dumbledore may have personally blamed himself for his sister’s death, that doesn’t mean he created a Horcrux. Voldemort purposefully and knowingly split his soul into seven pieces, carefully hiding each in an item that meant something to him.

Yes, Dumbledore was undoubtedly fond of Fawkes, but that doesn’t make the phoenix a Horcrux — even Rowling says it’s rubbish!