I am unusual position of disagreeing with the entire contingent of my f-list which responded to
my last post.
I suppose I should explain.
You see, I don’t think that the
Sectumsempra spell was invented to cut open humans (and I
know we apparently (probably) saw Snape use it in
Snape’s Worst Memory). But a spell for scratching peoples cheeks? Dark Magic? More like schoolboy high jinks. As for it being designed for ripping a body wide open – too messy.
No. I think that it was designed for rendering open far more interesting objects than mere human bodies. Like lockets and cups, for instance.
It seems that Horcruxes don’t actually get destroyed in order to get the piece of soul out of them – despite what Dumbledore says. The ring for instance was cracked when first seen on Dumbledores finger (clearly
after he had attended to its Horcruxy innards), though not actually destroyed. And the diary was definitely not destroyed – it was relieved of its resident by being pierced with a Basilisk fang. Our fabled locket, having gained its notoriety by being unopenable, must -
surely - be begging to be opened.
That being the case I have a hard time imagining that other Horcruxes will be dealt with by merely destroying them. And how do you destroy them anyway? I mean a Hufflepuff cup which has seven bells beaten out of it is still a Hufflepuff cup, albeit a battered Hufflepuff Cup.
No. The soul-pieces entered the objects; they must be released from the objects. Using a suitable opening-up spell, of course.
I don’t have nearly as hard a time imagining a scenario such as this:
Everything they tried had no effect on the locket which remained determinedly shut tight.
"Think Harry." said Hermione in an exasperated tone, "There must be something that you learnt last year. What about the Prince’s…I mean…Snape’s book? Is there anything you can think of that he might have scribbled which could work?"
"Well you’ve changed your tune!" spluttered Ron indignantly.
Harry might have noticed Hermione’s eyes flash dangerously at Ron had it not been for the memory which came flooding back into his mind at the sound of her words; a memory he would have preferred to forget. On that occasion he had used one of Snape’s spells, though he had no idea at the time what its devastating effect would be.
Motioning Ron and Hermione away from the locket, Harry raised his wand.
"SECTUMSEMPRA!"
In an instant, the locket split apart. As it did so, a blood-curdling scream filled the common room and a dark liquid spurted out of the now open locket, cascading off the edge of the table and soaking the rug underneath.Of course, it might be good on the DoM door, too. :P