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From Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince we can know that Voldemort wished to make 7 Horcruxes. But we know that Voldemort's 7 Horcruxes included Harry. But as this was unintentional, Voldemort didn't know about this.

Then why didn't Voldemort try to make a seventh Horcrux?

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  • 2
    By the time Harry had a part of Voldemort's soul, the latter wouldn't be able to create another Horcrux, wouldn't he? ;)
    – Gallifreyan
    Apr 9, 2018 at 8:40
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    Since this is more about fantasy then about the movie, this perhaps should be moved to scifi.stackexchange.com?
    – willeM_ Van Onsem
    Apr 9, 2018 at 14:33
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    Didn't Voldemort (his original body) perish while attempting to kill Harry? So even if he did want to create another Horcrux (answers notwithstanding), he was kind of out of the picture at that point, yes?
    – Jesse C. Slicer
    Apr 9, 2018 at 16:36
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    @WillemVanOnsem this question already has an answer there, so it would be a duplicate. Also note that just because it might be a better fit on another site, that doesn't make it off-topic for this one.
    – JAD
    Apr 10, 2018 at 8:27
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    @WillemVanOnsem yep, happens a lot, especially with Harry Potter and Game of Thrones
    – JAD
    Apr 10, 2018 at 8:29

4 Answers 4

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You made the same mistake as Harry in Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. As JAD said, Voldemort wanted to split his soul in seven, not create seven Horcruxes (emphasis mine):

“[...] You heard him, Harry: ‘Wouldn’t it be better, make you stronger, to have your soul in more pieces... isn’t seven the most powerfully magical number...’ Isn’t seven the most powerfully magical number. Yes, I think the idea of a seven-part soul would greatly appeal to Lord Voldemort.”

“He made seven Horcruxes?” said Harry, horror-struck, while several of the portraits on the walls made similar noises of shock mid outrage. “But they could be anywhere in the world — hidden — buried or invisible —”

“I am glad to see you appreciate the magnitude of the problem,” said Dumbledore calmly. “But firstly, no, Harry, not seven Horcruxes: six. The seventh part of his soul, however maimed, resides inside his regenerated body. [...]”

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133

He wanted to split his soul into 7 pieces, not create 7 Horcruxes. The difference here is that the soul in his body counts as one piece, so you only need 6 Horcruxes.

As we can see Voldemort say in The Halfblood Prince:

Wouldn't it be better, make you stronger, to have your soul in more pieces, I mean, for instance, isn't seven the most powerfully magical number, wouldn't seven - ?

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  • 182
    Classic off-by-one error.
    – ShreevatsaR
    Apr 7, 2018 at 22:20
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    This also has the implication that he might only have failed because his soul was in 8 parts instead of 7.
    – Pharap
    Apr 8, 2018 at 0:14
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    @jakekimdsΨ no because then its not one soul split seven ways but seven eighths soul split seven ways
    – tox123
    Apr 8, 2018 at 2:47
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    @ShreevatsaR People so often forget that Horcruxes are stored in zero-indexed arrays.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Apr 8, 2018 at 15:53
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    @ShreevatsaR I'd go one step further and classify it as an off-by-one-who-lived error :)
    – Kaithar
    Apr 9, 2018 at 9:43
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Voldemort wanted a 7 piece soul, with the main piece staying inside his body (hence 6 horcruxes in total)

Dumbledore had guessed (in the book at least, not sure if this is mentioned in the movie, see here) that Voldemort intended to create his 6th horcrux when he attacked Harry, but got destroyed himself

However, Voldemort did create his 6th and final horcrux later on (sometime between Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire), Nagini

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-1

He always wanted to create 6 (to split his soul into 7). Before killing Harry's parents at Godric's hollow, he had created 5 (diary, ring, locket, cup, diadem). Harry was the 6th, but Volde didn't know that. So after his remaining soul fragment went from body to body, in 1994 he was made a homunculus by Pettigrew (rudimentary body like a baby). After in that baby form, the same year, he found Nagini and made her a horcrux. He thought it was the 6th, when actually it was the 7th. Finally splitting his soul into 8.

In conclusion, he always intended to make 6, always thought he made 6. Voldemort never realised he had made 7.

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    Your answer contradict the accepted one and seems wrong given the elements provided by the accepted one. Maybe you could edit to solve this ? Add quotes and sources to your point ?
    – M.Polo
    Mar 22, 2021 at 23:16

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