MYRTLE WARREN & THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH RISKS

Today, The Grandma has discovered the sad story of Myrtle Warren, the Muggle-born witch, who was killed by the Serpent of Slytherin and became a ghost who haunted the second-floor girls' bathroom at Hogwarts.

Also known as Moaning Myrtle, this young witch suffered bullying in Hogwarts. 

Psychological abuses like bullying and mobbing at work must be detected to be stopped, prosecuted and sanctioned. Psychological abuses are one of the most important causes of sick leaves at work.

More information: Bullying & Mobbing

Myrtle Elizabeth Warren, more commonly known after her death as Moaning Myrtle, is a Muggle-born witch who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Ravenclaw house.

She was killed by the Serpent of Slytherin, under Tom Riddle's orders. After the incident, she became a ghost who haunted the second-floor girls' bathroom and occasionally other bathroom facilities at Hogwarts.

Myrtle was a witch born circa to a Muggle mother and father, making her a Muggle-born.

More information: Wizarding World

She started her education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When she arrived at Hogwarts she was Sorted into the house of Ravenclaw. While at Hogwarts she was unable to make any friends and was constantly teased and bullied because of this and her physical appearance, which included glasses and acne.

In 1943, sometime into Myrtle's education, the Chamber of Secrets was opened for the first time. The Chamber of Secrets was a legendary chamber built by Salazar Slytherin and inside was a beast that only his heir could control.

It was believed that Gryffindor student, Rubeus Hagrid had opened the Chamber because he was caught raising Aragog, an acromantula, but it was actually Tom Marvolo Riddle, a Slytherin student.

Hogwarts was soon facing closure as Muggle-born students were being mysteriously attacked by the mythical beast thought to be down inside the Chamber.

On her final day of life, Myrtle was teased by student Olive Hornby. She had made fun of Myrtle's glasses and, as a result, left Myrtle sobbing. Myrtle then ran into one of the bathroom's stalls and started crying. Shortly after Myrtle had entered the bathroom, Tom Riddle entered and started speaking in Parseltongue in order to open the Chamber of Secrets, the entrance of which was hidden behind the sink in front of the very stall occupied by Myrtle at the time.

The Monster of Slytherin, a basilisk, then emerged from the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. The monster had been using the pipes as a means of transportation, as to not be seen and therefore never being caught.

Myrtle, still in one of the stalls, recognised the voice as being that of a boy. Opening the stall's door, she was about to yell at Tom Riddle to go away. On Tom Riddle's command, the Basilisk stared at Myrtle and her eyes met with the monster's.

Since looking into a Basilisk's eyes is a fatal act, Myrtle was killed instantly and her body fell to the bathroom floor, becoming Tom Riddle's first victim. Tom Riddle, later known as Lord Voldemort, used her murder to make his first Horcrux: the Diary.

Myrtle's body was later found by Olive Hornby, something that Hornby would not soon forget.

Myrtle's body was removed from the school after its discovery and, following her death, Myrtle returned as a ghost so she could haunt student Olive Hornby in revenge for her bullying. Olive Hornby went to the Ministry of Magic to restrain Myrtle, who was thereafter obliged to remain at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Ever since, Myrtle haunted the bathroom where she had died, although she was sometimes seen in other bathrooms, and was even flushed into the lake occasionally. As a result of her haunting, her lavatory grave was rarely used, and was thus available for clandestine activities, such as forbidden potion-brewing, as long as one did not mind the company.

More information: Must Be Undead

The true importance of Myrtle's bathroom was that it contained the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, the home of the basilisk of Salazar Slytherin. The Chamber was opened again, fifty years after its previous opening, by a Gryffindor first year, Ginny Weasley, who was possessed by the diary of the earlier opener, Tom Riddle. The diary was a Horcrux, though it was described as a memory at the time. Myrtle later flooded her bathroom in a fit of pique when Ginny tried to dispose of the diary by flushing it down the toilet in Myrtle's stall.

Hermione Granger used Myrtle's bathroom to brew Polyjuice Potion, which Harry Potter and Ron Weasley used to impersonate Slytherin students Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe. Thus disguised, they entered the Slytherin common room to interrogate Draco Malfoy about the Chamber of Secrets. They learned only that, according to Draco's father Lucius Malfoy, the last time the chamber was open a Mudblood was killed and that, contrary to their suspicions, Draco was not the Heir of Slytherin.

Harry and Ron later learned from Aragog the Acromantula that the murdered student had been killed in a bathroom, and Harry realised that the student must have been Myrtle.

Myrtle was flattered by Harry's request that she tell the story of her death, the manner of which was one of the most important and interesting events of her short life. It is possible that Harry was the first person to treat it as something worth asking about.

 

Myrtle remembered only having seen a pair of enormous yellow eyes, but neither Harry nor Ron recognized this as a clue that the monster was a basilisk. Hermione had already deduced the monster's nature by library research before she was petrified, so Myrtle's clue was of no practical importance.

During the 1994–1995 school year, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry hosted the Triwizard Tournament. Before the second task, the champions had to solve the mystery behind their golden eggs, which, when opened, emitted a harsh screeching sound. The secret was that the noise became speech when heard underwater.

One champion, Cedric Diggory, decided to meditate upon the clue in the prefects' bathroom. Myrtle spied on Cedric in the tub, admitting to Harry that it took Cedric a long time to figure it out; nearly all the bubbles in the bath were gone by the time he cracked it.

Cedric later suggested to Harry Potter that he take his egg the prefects' bathroom. With Myrtle's hints, Harry was able to decipher the riddle.

Myrtle also appeared to Harry whilst he was in the Black Lake, and pointed him in the right direction to find the village of the merpeople, thereby helping him to reach the Tournament hostages before the other champions.

Myrtle was a squat student with pimples and thick glasses. She died in 1943 and became a ghost, wearing her school uniform, as well as her glasses, for eternity.

Myrtle was constantly bullied during her education at Hogwarts, for both her physical appearance and her personality. Myrtle hardly ever smiled and took great offence at the smallest slight, crying rivers of tears and wailing, hence her nickname Moaning Myrtle. She was often upset so badly that she tried to kill herself until she realised that she was already dead.

More information: 5 Interesting Facts About Moaning Myrtle

Myrtle did tend to be happy when something bad happened to other students, like when Hermione Granger accidentally gained cat fur, ears and a tail after taking a contaminated Polyjuice Potion. The only time she seemed to enjoy herself was when she recalled the moment of death, describing the event with relish.

She did, however, seem to warm to some male students, including Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. Myrtle also appeared to be a desperate flirt; she constantly flirted with Harry Potter, and showed her desperation to find love by spying on students such as Cedric Diggory whilst he bathed in the prefects' bathroom. Myrtle liked to take bubble baths when she was alive, due to all those pretty bubbles.

Myrtle is a type of evergreen shrub that is often overlooked because of its plainness, native to southern Europe and north Africa.

Myrtle is a variety of the colour green. It is immoderately dark, slightly more so than the colour spinach.

It is possible she was named Myrtle to continue J.K. Rowling's tradition of naming characters after flowers.

It is also possible she was given the middle name Elizabeth and surname Warren as a reference to two characters from Arthur Miller's The Crucible: Elizabeth Proctor and her young servant Mary Warren, both of which are accused of being witches at some point.

More information: Looper

 

 

 No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!

My life was nothing but misery at this place

and now people come along ruining my death!

 Don't you think I know what people say behind my back

-fat Myrtle, ugly Myrtle, miserable…?

 Myrtle Warren

HORCRUX, THE WEASLEYS & VOLDEMORT'S DARK SOUL

Today, The Weasleys and The Grandma have seen how Lord Voldemort's soul was destroyed by himself. With this, there are six of a total of seven horcruxes destroyed. 

 

They have continued helping Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in their search. There is only one more horcrux to find and destroy. 

A Horcrux is a powerful object in which a Dark wizard or witch has hidden a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality.

Creating one Horcrux gives one the ability to anchor one's own soul to earth if the body is destroyed; the more horcruxes one creates, the closer one is to true immortality. Creating multiple Horcruxes is suggested to be costly to the creator, by both diminishing their humanity and even physically disfiguring them.

The first Horcrux was created by Herpo the Foul. The only other known creator of them was Lord Voldemort, who is possibly the only one to have successfully created more than one Horcrux.

In fact, Lord Voldemort created seven horcruxes. Slughorn mentioned that the fate of those who use Horcruxes to survive is what only few would prefer, suggesting that few others have created their own Horcrux.

The nature and concepts of Horcruxes are so terrifying, they were kept secret from most of the wizarding world, and only few ever knew what they were.

Hogwarts banned the subject of Horcruxes, and even books such as Magick Moste Evile would skim the subject at best. The only known book that explains Horcruxes in detail is Secrets of the Darkest Art. The subject being vague, nobody knew what the effects of creating more than one Horcrux would be like, as none of them, aside from Lord Voldemort, have done so.

Creation of a Horcrux is considered the foulest act of Dark magic, as it attempts to violate and tamper with the multiple laws of nature and morality in its creation.

Horcruxes are objects considered to be so evil that even the texts published explicitly to cater to the practise of the most terrible kinds of magic will not speak of them. Even Magick Moste Evile skirts the topic.

It is a banned subject in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Slughorn feared that by discussing it with Tom Riddle, he would receive negative highlights from Albus Dumbledore.

The only known book that provides specific instruction on the creation of a Horcrux is Secrets of the Darkest Art, once held in the Hogwarts Library. Due to the book's extremely dark and dangerous nature, Albus Dumbledore hid it away in his office; he did not destroy it, however.

The specific processes involved are known to involve a spell and a very horrible act. To split one's soul, one must also commit the most supreme act of evil -murder- and then encase a portion of their fractured soul into a chosen object with an as-of-yet unrevealed spell.

The detached soul fragment will always remain as it was when it was divided; for instance, Tom Riddle's diary portrayed Tom Marvolo Riddle as a teenager while the eyes inside Salazar Slytherin's locket resembled Lord Voldemort's eyes as they were back when he still had a relatively normal appearance.

Though a Horcrux can be made from anything, Lord Voldemort chose to use objects of great significance or importance. The process makes the part of the soul remaining in the witch or wizard unstable.

More information: Wizarding World

If the maker's physical body is later destroyed, he or she will live on in non-corporeal form, although there are methods of regaining physical form. However, according to Horace Slughorn, few would want to live in such a form and death would be preferable.

It is stated at one point that Lord Voldemort had already pushed his soul to the limit in creating his seven Horcruxes. This implies a finite number of Horcruxes any one person may create before the process becomes too dangerous to attempt again.

Though this limit is never explicitly stated, the number seems to set solidly at seven intentional Horcruxes, and creating seven Horcruxes in addition to the person's own body renders the soul unstable and liable to break off when the person whose soul it is commits murder. Dumbledore explicitly stated that Lord Voldemort's soul had become so unstable that it finally broke apart when Lord Voldemort tried to murder Harry for the first time.

The creation of a Horcrux can be reversed by its creator by truly feeling remorse, though the effects of this can apparently be painful to the point of being fatal. However, as described below, this may be a far preferable outcome than the alternative.

Interestingly, since Dumbledore said that there is no help possible for Lord Voldemort's soul, it may be that any soul as badly damaged as Lord Voldemort's could no longer be repaired through remorse as described in Secrets of the Darkest Art. Alternately, and more likely, the soul can still be repaired through the redemptive power of repentance.

Harry told Lord Voldemort to try... be a man... try for some remorse. It's your one chance. It's all you've got left. This seems to indicate that though Tom Riddle's soul is maimed and seriously injured, he can still repair it by regretting all the horrible things he did; Dumbledore may simply mean that Lord Voldemort is incapable of remorse to save his own soul.

Horcruxes can also be destroyed. If a person's body was destroyed, his or her soul would remain intact, whereas with a Horcrux it is the opposite, as the piece of soul depends upon its container to survive. Destruction of a Horcrux is difficult, but not impossible, and requires that the receptacle to be damaged completely beyond physical or magical repair.

When a Horcrux is damaged to this point, it may appear to bleed, ink in the case of Tom Riddle's Diary and a dark blood-like substance in the case of Ravenclaw's Diadem, and a scream may be heard as the soul fragment perishes. However, as a safety measure to protect one's immortality and precious soul fragment, the creator would usually place powerful enchantments onto the artefact to prevent damage, to the point where the powerful house-elf magic could not succeed the feat.

It is unknown if the creator of the Horcrux will be able to sense that his soul fragment was destroyed, although Dumbledore stated that in the particular case of Lord Voldemort, he wouldn't feel their loss because his soul was sliced too many times and stayed that way for too long.

More information: Tom Marvolo Riddle. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named

All known methods of Horcrux destruction are as deadly as the murder needed for its creation. For example, the earliest known method is administering basilisk venom to the Horcrux, the only cure for which is phoenix tears, an extremely rare substance.

Other known methods are Fiendfyre as evidenced by its destruction of Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem, which requires extreme skill to control and the Killing Curse which seems to be capable of destroying a Horcrux if it is animate, given that part of Lord Voldemort's soul contained in Harry Potter was destroyed when he was struck with the Killing Curse. However, Harry Potter was never a intentional Horcrux and so it may not work on a proper, animate Horcrux like Nagini, probably having unforeseen side effects.

Harry Potter was not destroyed as a Horcrux in the Chamber of Secrets because Fawkes' tears saved him and hence the receptacle (Harry) was not then destroyed beyond repair.

Albus Dumbledore, Ron Weasley, and Neville Longbottom used Godric Gryffindor's Sword to destroy Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, Salazar Slytherin's Locket, and Nagini respectively. This was only achievable as the sword is a Goblin-made artefact, which can absorb qualities that strengthen it.
 

When Harry Potter slew the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, the sword was imbued with Basilisk venom and became capable of destroying Horcruxes, as Basilisk venom by itself is destructive enough a substance to destroy a Horcrux.

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger used Basilisk fangs from the Chamber of Secrets to destroy Tom Riddle's Diary and Helga Hufflepuff's Cup, respectively.

The fragments of a person's soul within a Horcrux can think for themselves and have certain magical abilities, including the ability to influence those in their vicinity. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione were carrying Salazar Slytherin's Locket around their necks, they each became moodier and more prone to fighting, especially Ron. They were also unable to summon their Patronuses while wearing the locket since the soul fragment inside was darkening their thoughts.

A person with an affinity for the Dark Arts, on the other hand, would be strengthened by the influence of a Horcrux, as Dolores Umbridge was when wearing Salazar Slytherin's Locket.

More information: Lord Voldemort. Prince of Darkness

If a person is more emotionally vulnerable, it is possible for the soul inside the Horcrux to take control of him or her, as Tom Riddle's Diary did to Ginny Weasley. In fact, Lord Voldemort took advantage of this possessive power to reopen the Chamber of Secrets, using the diary as a weapon rather than a safeguard.

The final known side-effect of Horcrux creation is the inability to move on from Limbo after death. This is seen when Lord Voldemort's Killing Curse, after the destruction of all the other Horcruxes, rebounded and finally ended his life once and for all, his broken and mangled soul was forced to exist in the stunted form of a flayed and mutilated baby that Harry saw in King's Cross during his visit to Limbo, unable to return to the land of the living, unable to become a ghost, and unable to go to the land of the dead because his soul was maimed and unwhole. 

It is unknown if this was a standard fate meted out for all Horcrux creators, or if it was unique to Lord Voldemort due to the number of his Horcruxes. Regardless, reconciliation cannot occur after death, as the soul's state at death remains forever, so the greatest of all consequences incurred by Horcrux creation may be the possibility of eternal limbo of the soul.

More information: Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived, The Chosen One

I, who have gone further than anybody
along the path that leads to immortality...

Lord Voldemort

HORCRUX, THE FOSTERS & THE MARVOLO GAUNT'S RING

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have announced that they found and destroyed Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, another Horcrux, last week. With this, they have already destroyed four of a total of seven. They continued helping Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in their search.

Marvolo Gaunt's Ring is a golg ring, an heirloom of the House of Gaunt, descendants of Salazar Slytherin and Cadmus Peverell.

Marvolo Gaunt's Ring is an heirloom of the House of Gaunt, descendants of Salazar Slytherin and Cadmus Peverell.

It is a gold ring inset with a black stone, actually the Resurrection Stone, but neither Marvolo Gaunt nor Lord Voldemort were aware of its existence, engraved with what Marvolo Gaunt called the Peverell coat of arms, having come into the Gaunt line from an heiress of the Peverells, not the Slytherin family, which is actually the symbol of the Deathly Hallows.

The signet ring passed through the male Gaunts, generation to generation, until it was stolen from Morfin Gaunt by Tom Riddle while Riddle framed Morfin for the murders of the Riddle family.

While at Hogwarts, Riddle openly wore the ring. He later made the ring into his second Horcrux. Riddle did not enchant the ring right away, as he was seen wearing it while asking Horace Slughorn about Horcruxes, as seen through Slughorn's memories in a pensieve.

Albus Dumbledore retrieved the ring, eventually destroying it with Godric Gryffindor's Sword.

The ring's story begins and ends with its black stone. The stone happened to be the Resurrection Stone, one of the Deathly Hallows of legend, and had the symbol of the Deathly Hallows engraved on its surface.

According to The Tale of the Three Brothers, Cadmus Peverell, the middle brother, asked Death for the power to return people from the dead. Death supposedly picked up a black stone from the nearby river bank and gave it to Cadmus, promising him that it contained the power he had requested.

Once Cadmus returned to his home, he took out the Resurrection Stone and turned it over in his hand three times. In doing so, he brought back his lover who had suffered an untimely death. While she did return from the dead, she was not truly alive and wished to go back to the world of the dead since she no longer belonged in the living world. For Cadmus, it was like being able to see her but not able to touch her or truly be with her. Seeing the stone's limitations drove Cadmus to madness, and he took his own life to truly join his love in death.

The stone passed down Cadmus' family line. At some point, it was placed into a gold setting and made into a ring. The ring continued to be passed down the family line, eventually ending up in the hands of the Gaunts.

Marvolo Gaunt, the family's patriarch at the time, prized this ring, along with Salazar Slytherin's Locket, more than anything, even his own daughter, Merope.

When the family was visited by Ministry of Magic official Bob Ogden, Marvolo waved the ring in front of his face in an attempt to impress and intimidate Ogden. When Marvolo and his son Morfin Gaunt were arrested and imprisoned for assaulting Muggles and Ministry officials, his daughter Merope Gaunt abandoned the family to escape the mental torture her father continuously employed against her, taking Salazar Slytherin's Locket with her.

When Marvolo returned home, he had foolishly expected to find his daughter dutifully awaiting his return with a hot meal ready for him. What he found however was an abandoned house covered with an inch of dust and a note from Merope explaining what she had done and why. 

More information: Wizarding World

Marvolo died shortly thereafter, either due to his inability to take care of himself or the weakening of his strength from Azkaban. The signet ring passed to Morfin when he was finally released from Azkaban, and he continued to wear it in his delusional state for several years afterward.

Some years later, Tom Marvolo Riddle returned to Little Hangleton to seek out his family. He had been expecting to meet Marvolo, but instead found the half-crazed Morfin in the Gaunt shack.

Morfin remarked how Riddle looked very much like the muggle that had married his sister, Tom Riddle Snr. He told Riddle how Riddle Snr had left Merope and returned to his parents' home, the Riddle House. Upon learning of his father's escape and thus feeling that he had caused Merope's death and him going to an orphanage, Riddle stunned Morfin and took his wand. He then proceeded to the Riddle House to confront his father.

Frank Bryce, the Riddle's gardener, remarked later that he had seen Riddle ascending the hill toward the house. Riddle used a common spell to unlock the door and entered the house.

Once inside, Riddle found his father, as well as his grandparents, Thomas Riddle and Mary Riddle, in the drawing room. Riddle then used the Killing Curse on his father and Muggle grandparents.

It is unknown if there were any words exchanged between them before the actual murders took place, but what is certain is that the Riddles were found dead in their drawing room, with looks of extreme fear on their faces. Riddle returned to the Gaunt shack and modified Morfin's memory to make him believe that he had killed the Riddles himself.

Riddle replaced Morfin's wand on his person but absconded with the ring. When Morfin was arrested by the Ministry and found guilty of the Riddle murders, he was carted off to Azkaban for good this time. As he was being taken away, he continuously remarked that his father would kill him for losing the ring.

Riddle openly wore the ring at Hogwarts after these events, likely as a trophy, as seen on his hand in a memory provided by Potions Master Horace Slughorn. Riddle then questioned Slughorn about Horcruxes, particularly what would happen to the wizard that created more than one.

By this point, Riddle had already created his first Horcrux, his childhood diary, with the murder of a fellow student named Myrtle Warren. At some point shortly before or after his graduation from Hogwarts, Riddle used the murder of his father, Tom Riddle Snr to turn the ring into a Horcrux.

More information: Screen Rant

After that, he lost interest in wearing it any longer and chose to return it to the very place he had stolen it from: the Gaunt shack. He placed the ring inside a golden box and hid it beneath the shack's rotting floorboards.

He then set up many protective enchantments to deter outsiders from entering the shack and finding the ring. He also placed a powerful curse on the ring as well, one that would quickly lead to the death of the ring's wearer if not stemmed.

The ring was left there in the ruin of the Gaunt shack for many decades to come. In his entire time of possessing the ring, Riddle either never knew its powers or status as the Resurrection Stone, or simply did not have any use for it, as he feared the dead and did not wish to bring back anyone.

Albus Dumbledore continued investigating Riddle's obsession with immortality and suspected correctly that Riddle had created up to six Horcruxes. Dumbledore suspected that a good place to look for one of Riddle's Horcruxes would be the Gaunt shack, considering its importance to Riddle's past. 

 

Dumbledore travelled to Little Hangleton and found the remains of the shack, hidden amongst many weeds and brush. Dumbledore succeeded in passing through the enchantments protecting the shack and discovered the golden box holding the ring beneath the shack's floorboards.

He brought the sword of Godric Gryffindor with him as it now had the power to destroy Horcruxes since Harry Potter had used it to kill the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, which imbued the blade with the Basilisk's venom.

However, Dumbledore recognised the symbol of the Deathly Hallows on the ring's black stone and recognised it as the Resurrection Stone, something for which Dumbledore had searched for the greater part of his life. Hoping to revive his dead family members, particularly his sister Ariana Dumbledore, he disregarded the ring's status as a Horcrux and put it on.

This enacted the ring's deadly curse, and it began to quickly spread through Dumbledore's body, starting with the hand on which he had put the ring. After Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts, he used Godric Gryffindor's Sword to crack the Resurrection Stone so as to destroy it as a Horcrux.

While the act did destroy the ring as one of Riddle's Horcruxes, it did not stop the fatal curse. The curse gave Dumbledore's hand a withered black look, as though it had died. Severus Snape managed to stop the curse in his right hand, but warned him that he had only a year to live.

After the Horcrux was destroyed, Dumbledore continued to wear the ring for several more days. Most notably, he wore it when he picked up Harry Potter from Privet Drive and took him to persuade Horace Slughorn to teach at Hogwarts.

After Lord Voldemort discovered that Harry was hunting his Horcruxes, Lord Voldemort decided to make sure that each of his Horcruxes was still safe and to increase their protection. He decided that the ring was perhaps the least safe, and thus visited the shack first. Upon discovering that the ring had in fact disappeared, Lord Voldemort let out a scream of fury and quickly left to check the security of his other Horcruxes.

More information: Reddit

 

  

See this? See this? Know what it is? 

Know where it came from?

Centuries it's been in our family,

that's how far back we go, and pure-blood all the way!

Know how much I've been offered for this,

with the Peverell coat of arms engraved on the stone?

Marvolo Gaunt

HORCRUX, THE FOSTERS & THE S. SLYTHERIN'S LOCKET

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have searched Slytherin's Locket, another Horcrux. They want to find and destroy them to help Hogwarts to return to normality. The first Horcrux, T. M. Riddle's Diary, was destroyed by Harry Potter and he has explained the family how he could do it.

Slytherin's Locket was a piece of jewellery originally owned by Salazar Slytherin that became an heirloom of his family.

It was a locket of heavy gold with a serpentine S in glittering green stone inlay on the front. After descending down from Slytherin, it came into the possession of the Gaunt family, and Marvolo Gaunt treasured this heirloom of this pure-blood heritage along with his ring heirloom.

After Marvolo and his son Morfin Gaunt were sent to Azkaban, the locket was stolen by Marvolo's daughter Merope Gaunt, who sold it to Caractacus Burke for ten Galleons, a price far below what the priceless artefact was truly worth.

The locket was bought from Borgin and Burkes shop by a wealthy witch with an affinity for rare or valuable items named Hepzibah Smith. In the mid-20th century, Smith showed it to a young Tom Riddle, who was an employee of Borgin and Burkes at the time. Riddle was interested in the locket, and two days later, Hepzibah was found dead and her house-elf, Hokey, made a full confession.

More information: Wizarding World

Using the murder of a Muggle tramp, Riddle turned the locket into his third Horcrux and hid it in a seaside cave where he had hurt two children when he was in the orphanage. It was taken from the cave, however, by a defected Death Eater named Regulus Black with the attempt of having his house-elf, Kreacher, destroy it, but the elf was unable to destroy the locket.

It was stolen by Mundungus Fletcher from 12 Grimmauld Place, the home of the House of Black. During Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger's attempts to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, they decided to track down the locket first after retrieving the fake one placed by Regulus from the cave.

They learned from Mundungus that it was taken from him by a Ministry bureaucrat named Dolores Umbridge, and thus the trio infiltrated the Ministry, found Umbridge, and retrieved the locket. Ron and Harry retrieved Godric Gryffindor's Sword from the bottom of a frozen pool and was able to destroy the Horcrux.

The locket was a creation of Salazar Slytherin, the celebrated Founder of Slytherin House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

When Slytherin created the locket, he enchanted it so that only a Parselmouth, like himself, could open it. When Slytherin left Hogwarts, he took the locket with him. After Slytherin's death, the locket was passed down his family line, and eventually came to Marvolo Gaunt, who lived outside the village of Little Hangleton. The locket was one of two remaining Gaunt family heirlooms, the other being a ring inherited down the line of the Peverell family. 

Contradictory to his obsession with the two heirlooms, Marvolo permitted his daughter, Merope, whom he horribly mistreated, to wear the locket around her neck.

After Marvolo and Morfin were imprisoned in Azkaban for assaulting both a Muggle and Ministry of Magic officials, Merope escaped the horrors of her childhood home and fled to London with Tom Riddle Snr Albus Dumbledore theorised that she had used a Love Potion to capture his affections.

More information: Wizarding World

After they had eloped, Merope became pregnant with Riddle's child. During her pregnancy, Merope apparently stopped giving Riddle love potions out of the hope that he would freely choose to stay with her or that he would at least stay for his child. However, after coming to his senses, Riddle fled from Merope, returning to Little Hangleton.

Desperate for money, Merope sold her only valuable possession, the locket, to Caractacus Burke for only ten galleons, either not realising that the locket was a priceless artefact or not caring. Not long afterwards, on New Year's Eve 1926, she came to a Muggle orphanage and gave birth to her son, Tom Marvolo Riddle, naming him after her father and husband. Merope Gaunt died shortly thereafter, leaving her son in the care of the orphanage.

Many years later Tom Riddle graduated from Hogwarts, spurned a wide variety of prestigious offers and took a job at Borgin and Burkes, because of the potential to work with Dark artefacts. In the course of his work, Riddle visited the elderly witch Hepzibah Smith on many occasions and charmed her with flowers and compliments.

After many visits Smith showed Riddle her most prized possessions: Helga Hufflepuff's Cup, an artefacts that she had inherited from her prestigious ancestor and the locket.

She told the young man that she hoped he would appreciate the unique history the objects' possessed. Hepzibah stated that both objects had considerable powers which she had not fully tested, and detailed the locket's historical value. Smith admitted she had paid a heavy price to Caractacus Burke to obtain the locket, and that Burke had previously bought it from a ragged-looking woman, Merope Gaunt, having paid her a mere pittance for it.

By this time, Riddle knew of his family lineage and knew the ragged-looking woman Smith referred to was his own mother. Riddle returned the cup without incident, but when the time came to replace the locket, Riddle briefly hesitated and a look of intense hunger washed across his face, before he let the locket slip through his fingers.

According to Dumbledore, Riddle saw the locket as rightfully his due to its past connections, and is one of the reasons why he would covet it more.

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Two days later Smith was found dead and her elderly house-elf, Hokey, admitted to accidentally poisoning her mistress' cocoa, mistaking a little known, highly lethal poison for sugar. It was later believed by Albus Dumbledore, however, that Riddle had murdered Smith himself and embedded a false memory in the house-elf to escape detection, not unlike his murder of the Riddles in Little Hangleton a few years earlier.

As Smith had quite a collection and many hiding places, it was assumed that the priceless artefacts were simply hidden in her house. Later, Smith's family discovered the cup and the locket were both missing, but by then Riddle had already quit his job and disappeared, not to be seen or heard from again for a decade.

Riddle murdered a Muggle tramp and used that murder to make the locket into a Horcrux. This was a marked departure from his other Horcrux murders, as he tended to choose deaths significant to him in the creation of Horcruxes.

Many years later, the locket was hidden by Riddle, now styling himself Lord Voldemort, in a seaside cave he had visited as a child. It was in this cave that he committed an act so horrifying that he shocked fellow orphans Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson into muteness.

In addition to the natural barriers, Lord Voldemort hid the locket in this cave with several magical enchantments to guard it.

First, the cave could not be Apparated into or Disapparated out from; second, an unmarked door that could only be opened with the payment of blood wiped upon the cave walls; third, an Inferi-infested lake; fourth, an invisible rowboat that would transport only one wizard at a time safely across the lake; fifth, a stone basin filled with a green potion that could not be parted, vanished, transfigured, or otherwise made to change its properties.

The only way to remove the potion from the basin, thereby exposing the locket at the bottom, was to drink it. The potion caused unbearable pain to the drinker and forced them to relive their worst memories and face their worst fears, as though in a nightmare.

If the drinker had any strength left, in their desperate thirst they would be forced to drink water from the lake, as any water magicked on the island would disappear. The drinker would therefore be unable to imbibe anything but the lake's water, which would awaken the army of Inferi.

Before becoming a Horcrux, the locket was described by Hepzibah Smith as having all kinds of powers, though she failed to elaborate, and the only way to open the locket was to speak to it in Parseltongue.

After it was turned into a Horcrux, the locket had many additional powers. Most noticeably, the soul shard within seemed to willingly exert a negative influence on those in its proximity. When worn by Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley in late 1997, it made them all irritable, suspicious, and unable to summon enough happiness to use a Patronus.

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However, someone as malicious as Dolores Umbridge would have an affinity rather than an aversion to it, and not be hindered by it. The locket also had magic in place to protect itself; when Ron attempted to destroy it, it created a vision to show him his worst fears and deepest insecurities.

At times, it also burned very hot, such as when Harry wore it in proximity to Nagini, another Horcrux, and when he tried to pick it up while its continued existence was being threatened. It even attempted to strangle Harry to prevent him from retrieving Gryffindor's sword, knowing that he would use it to destroy the locket.

It seems the glass of the locket allowed the piece of Tom Riddle to have a visible, although immaterial presence; when the locket's doors were open, Riddle's eye could be seen watching from inside.

On a similar note, the locket may also have had the potential to possess individuals, in a manner similar to another Horcrux (Tom Riddle's Diary), as Harry saw a trace of scarlet in Ron's eyes at one point during the locket's attempt to prevent him from destroying it.

More information: What's Your Grief

 

 

She slid back the fine filigree 

clasp and flipped open the box.

There upon the smooth crimson velvet 

lay a heavy golden locket.

 Hepzibah Smith showing Tom Riddle the locket for the first time

HORCRUX, THE FOSTERS & THE DIARY OF TOM M. RIDDLE

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have joined to Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in their search of Horcruxes. If they find and destroy them, they will destroy evil and Hogwarts and the rest of the magic world will be able to return to normality.

The first Horcrux, T. M. Riddle's Diary, was destroyed by Harry Potter and he has explained the family how he could do it.

Before starting this incredible adventure, The Fosters & The Grandma have been talking about some interesting stories from the past, and they have been connecting words and ideas.

 

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T. M. Riddle's Diary was a simple blank diary, which Tom Riddle transformed into a Horcrux.

The diary was made into a Horcrux Riddle's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was the first Horcrux he ever made and was used as a weapon.

Before Lord Voldemort's first defeat, the diary was passed to Death Eater Lucius Malfoy. In secret, Malfoy kept the diary before he slipped it, unnoticed, into Ginny Weasley's cauldron of school supplies at Flourish and Blotts.

The diary used its dark magical influence to bewitch and force Ginny to re-open the Chamber of Secrets, but it was destroyed by Harry Potter with a Basilisk's Fang.

This diary was originally purchased by Riddle in a Muggle shop called Winstanley's Bookstore & Stationers on Vauxhall Road in London.

When Tom Marvolo Riddle was in his fifth year at Hogwarts, he achieved his goal of locating Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and used his ability to speak Parseltongue to open it. He further used this language ability to order the Chamber's Basilisk to terrorise the school and hunt down the Muggle-born students.

Eventually one of the Muggle-borns, a Ravenclaw girl named Myrtle Warren, was killed. Riddle would later use this murder to infuse the journal with a piece of his soul, and transformed it into his first Horcrux.

After Myrtle's death, Albus Dumbledore, then Professor of Transfiguration, began suspecting Riddle. Knowing it was no longer safe to open the Chamber, and that the school might be shut down if the perpetrator was not caught, Riddle framed Rubeus Hagrid and his pet Acromantula Aragog for the crimes, and earned himself an award for Special Services to the school. He imbued the diary with other powers, so that the Chamber could be opened again in the future.

More information: Wizarding World

In the following years, Riddle also questioned Potions Master, Horace Slughorn about the properties of a Horcrux and how one might create multiple ones. Influenced by Riddle's charisma and believing his own wisdom was being admired, Slughorn told Riddle what little he knew on the subject.

Based from Slughorn's information, Riddle became positive on the possibility of creating more than one Horcrux, and became confident of using the diary as a weapon instead of the intended safeguard.

Harry Potter discovered and opened the Chamber of Secrets. He, Ron Weasley, and Professor Gilderoy Lockhart made their way into the Chamber. Lockhart, who had no plans to actually fight the Basilisk, attacked the students with Ron's own broken wand, which backfired on him, and wiped his memory.

Harry Potter continued into the Chamber, where he discovered an unconscious Ginny Weasley next to Tom Riddle, who was gaining strength and form. Concealing his true nature as a Horcrux, Riddle claimed to be a memory of his younger self, and revealed the truth of his identity and plans to Harry and unleashed the Basilisk.

Harry Potter slayed the Basilisk with the assistance of Albus Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes and Godric Gryffindor's Sword which appeared from the Sorting Hat. Harry then took one of the Basilisk's fangs and stabbed the diary with it. This successfully destroyed the Horcrux, as basilisk venom was one of the few substances with that ability.

When he later explained about the diary's true nature to Albus Dumbledore, the latter was privately concerned, as no mere memory could just possess a girl and eventually take physical form, and he suspected the diary was a Horcrux.

Because of how careless this Horcrux was treated after all, its purpose was to keep its owner immortal, Dumbledore theorised that Riddle had created more Horcruxes, something that had never been done before.

More information: Wizarding World

Lord Voldemort was unaware that this Horcrux had been destroyed, until he forced the truth out of Lucius Malfoy, who did not know the diary was a Horcrux, shortly after his return to power, due to the portion of the soul being separated from his body for such a long time.

Despite the known risks of using the diary as a weapon instead of a safeguard, Lord Voldemort was nevertheless furious to learn of its destruction, due to Lucius implementing the plan without Lord Voldemort's say-so in order to dispose of the diary for his own benefit while also attempting to destroy the Weasley family and Albus Dumbledore's reputation, as well as getting rid of an incriminating Dark Arts artefact, the Ministry was conducting a search at the time; this was one of the many reasons that he lost trust in the Malfoy family and why Lucius was punished and demoted.

Although Lord Voldemort was unaware of the diary's destruction until Malfoy reported it to him, he attributed this to his non-corporeal status at the time of its loss; as a result, he took no additional precautions to safeguard the remaining Horcruxes, and assumed that they were safe and undamaged until the break-in to Gringotts confirmed to him that someone else was hunting them.

As a Horcrux, the diary allowed a writer to communicate with the memory of the sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle, merely through writing on the journal's blank pages. The diary could transport the reader into a realm of memories, much like the Pensieve.

The diary was also able to siphon the life force from a reader and transfer it to Riddle's stored memory. This act was an endeavour to create a physical body for the sixteen-year-old Soul of Tom Riddle. The closer a writer became to the memory of Tom Riddle emotionally, the more power the diary would acquire over him or her.

As this diary contained Riddle's soul, it also housed his magical powers, including his ability to speak Parseltongue, even by possessing the writer to speak it, which was instrumental in reopening the Chamber of Secrets.

It was unclear whether other Horcruxes include any of these same abilities; however, Salazar Slytherin's Locket had a negative physical and emotional effect on those who wore it, and Cadmus Peverell's Ring fatally cursed Albus Dumbledore.

Also, it was unknown if Riddle had placed powerful enchantments to protect the diary from being destroyed by conventional means, as he did with all of his other Horcruxes, but it was highly likely that this was indeed the case.

Ginny Weasley tried to flush it down the toilet, but it came back perfect as new. When Harry Potter's ink bottles shattered and drenched all of his other textbooks, the diary alone remained dry and unmarked.

More information: Wizarding World

 

  

 The diary was proof that

he was the Heir of Slytherin;

I am sure that Voldemort considered it

of stupendous importance.

The diary's importance to Lord Voldemort