I’ve been thinking and reading on the subject of Voldemort’s horcruxes, and feel like there’s some open questions about how they function.
It was necessary to destroy the horcruxes in order to truly kill Voldemort- but would it be wrong to assume that his body was always mortal?- the last time he died he lived as “less than a ghost” for over a decade.
So, if someone snuck up and “Avada Kadavra’d” Voldemort, would he be back to smoke- waiting for someone like Quirrell or Wormtail, hopping between gardener snakes?
It seems to me that while horcruxes are a torn bit of soul, the main consciousness resides in a ‘core soul bit’ which can become incorporeal. Each horcrux is an anchor that has a bit of Voldy- but they aren’t Voldy himself.
In which case, I can only conclude that if all the horcruxes (including Harry) had been destroyed before Voldemort got a new body- he would have evaporated entirely, unable to stay among the living without an anchor.
It seems like you could keep killing Voldemort indefinitely, buying time to find his horcruxes, and as long as people ignored his spirit, he would be rather unthreatening.
That makes sense-
I have heard some people say they think Dumbledore could have killed V at the Ministry. I don’t think that tracks- defeating his current body would at least temper his threat in the short term.
But then again, there’s the whole question of what to do with the Harrycrux, and there might be an argument only Voldy could destroy it without killing Harry.
Questions about Horcruxes- and being “dead” with one
harrypotter