**By Kim I**Okay, so I know I am probably going to be drawn and quartered for even bringing up the idea that Harry is a Horcrux (original, aren't I?), but I would just like to express my views on the matter all in one place.
Firstly, I would like to go through a few books to cite information that points to Harry being the heir of Gryffindor, and then I will establish anomalies about Harry and his powers, and what this may suggest about him being a Horcrux, finally, I will examine the implications for Harry.
Let's begin at, well, the beginning. In SS/PS, the readers are given our first glimpse of Harry as a Gryffindor Heir. When Harry goes to Ollivander's to get his wand, when he finally picks the correct wand, it shoots out "red and gold sparks." Hm, red and gold…where in the devil have we heard this before...? Also in SS/PS, if memory serves me, we find out that James and Lily lived, or at least hid from LV in Godric’s Hollow. Okay, this just really screams Gryffindor heir to me. They picked the place named after their ancestor to try to escape being killed by LV.
Now, let's look to CoS; in this book, Harry confronts Tom Riddle in the ending scene, so we have Harry matched against the last heir to Slytherin. Now, we also know that in this battle Fawkes, who is again, red and gold (just pointing it out!), and the Sorting Hat come to Harry’s aid. We also know that the Sorting Hat was a relic of Gryffindor's, and what does the SH produce when Harry puts it on his head, but *gasp* Godric Gryffindor's sword. Later, when Harry is in DD's office, DD makes the comment about Harry being a "true Gryffindor," and again, I ask, are there really fake Gryffindors lurking about?
I would like to now examine information we are given that support the idea that Harry is a Horcrux. If you accept the idea that Harry is the heir of Gryffindor, then you also see that he could be the final Horcrux, so LV would have a trophy from each founder. First of all, even though we know that Harry and his actions scream Gryffindor, when he first placed the Sorting Hat on his head, it recommended that he should be in Slytherin. Why, you ask? Well, DD has always insisted that LV "transferred some of himself/his powers" to Harry when he tried to kill him years ago. Now, maybe this "transferring" refers to the part of LV’s soul now encased in Harry.
Also, Harry has some strange powers in reference to other Horcruxes. First, let’s take a look at the diary Harry destroyed when he was 12. Keep in mind, DD, the most brilliant and talented wizard of the time, was injured and almost killed in the process of destroying the Horcruxes, but Harry seems to emerge relatively unscathed. And, yes, you can point to the deu ex machina of Fawkes swooping in at the last minute to cure the Basilisk's poison, but if it is that simple, why did Fawkes not cure DD's hand? I propose that since DD is/was not a Horcrux, then he was injured by the other Horcruxes, but Harry’s ability to destroy the Horcruxes at such a young age suggests that he has other ties to them.
Looking more closely at how Harry destroyed the diary also gives us insight into why Harry is a Horcrux. Harry just "instinctively" knew that he had to pull the Basilisk fang out of his arm, and ram it into the diary. He was 12 at the time, and had no idea why he chose to do this, but he did anyways. Perhaps Horcruxes can signal each other, and even though Harry did not understand the implications of the diary at the time, he realized that it was some sort of terrible magical item. Harry also had a strong tie to the diary from the minute he saw it. Ron and Hermione were insisting that it was "just a diary," but Harry insists that there is something more to it. Now, does this mean that, again, there is some sort of tie between Horcruxes? I believe there is.
The incident with Harry and LV at Godric’s Hollow that fateful night also has a lot to do with Harry being a Horcrux, I think. First of all, LV kills James (splitting his soul once), then he DID NOT want to kill Lily. He gave her multiple opportunities to step aside, and JKR said herself that if Lily would have moved aside, she would have been saved. Now, she did not, so he killed her next (splitting the soul yet again?). Now, he turns to Harry, but his soul is oddly fragmented. Perhaps it is in 3 parts, or 4, depending on how multiple splits work. I think that this caused the anomaly that made LV turn Harry into an ACCIDENTAL Horcrux. For some reason, when LV's soul split when Lily died, and when the protection went to Harry, somehow Harry was turned into a Horcrux. This explains how the "powers" of LV were transferred to Harry, why Harry did not die (because I seriously doubt that you can commit Horcrux suicide), and why LV was reduced to a mere spirit. I think that after this, LV assumed that Lily's protection saved Harry, and that is why LV was hurt so much by the rebounded spell.
Now, I would like to examine Harry’s scar. I have read a lot of editorials about how the scar, rather than Harry, is the final Horcrux. I think this is an interesting theory, but why? The scar does not represent Gryffindor, and when would LV have gotten the chance to make the scar into a Horcrux? Rather, I think it is a marker that Harry is a Horcrux. Remember that on Marvolo’s ring, there was a crack down the middle. Crack, scar, follow me? I think that the crack appeared on the ring after LV put the Horcrux into the ring, and when the Horcrux was put into Harry, a similar scar appeared. Perhaps the marker on the Horcrux depends on the conditions under which it was made? (ie: vengeance/revenge, killing the family that deserted him and killing his enemies that had escaped him three times before). We also do not know if the crack was on the ring when we see Tom Riddle in Slughorn's party when we see him in the Pensive, or if the crack appeared after DD got the ring, so the timing is still nebulous (and I think JRK wanted it that way).
What does this all mean for Harry and Book 7 now? I think that if you accept this theory, it can easily go two ways, based on when the scar/crack appeared on the ring. If the crack appeared after LV made it into a Horcrux, then Harry will be able to extract the Horcrux, vanquish Voldemort, and survive (please let this be the case!) The other possibility is that the ring was cracked when DD took the magic out of the ring, in which case, Harry may be terminally injured by the removal of the Horcrux, and may have to die in order to kill LV. (I believe the former more strongly based on the "neither can live while the other survives" part of the prophecy. It makes it sound like either HP or LV will be alive at the end of this whole ordeal. And I can't bear the thought of Harry dying and evil winning, way too against the whole point of the novels thusfar.)
Again, I know that theories like this one abound on the internet now, but I just wanted to get some of my ideas out there, and I hope they also help explain my reasoning for why Harry is a Horcrux in my previous editorial.
