Harry Potter fans debate whether Chamber of Secrets has a Horcrux plot hole

Harry Potter fans debate whether Basilisk Venom in the Chamber of Secrets should have destroyed one of Voldemort's Horcruxes earlier.

An online debate is raging over whether a moment in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will lead to the premature destruction of one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. As revealed later in the novel, Horcruxes are objects filled with fragments of the Dark Wizard's soul, so as long as they remain intact, he can never actually die. In the third act of the Chamber of Secrets, Harry uses the basilisk's fangs to pierce the diary of Tom Riddle (Voldemort's childhood name), thereby destroying one of the Horcruxes he later learns of. However, the final book reveals that Harry himself is also a Horcrux, leading some to believe that the earlier scene where the basilisk fangs impale him destroys the second Horcrux as well.

A Reddit user named ThailandrCorp posted a meme in a Harry Potter series fan thread featuring a young man lying awake and asking himself "If basilisk venom could destroy a Horcrux...  ...and Harry was the last Horcrux...why didn't the Basilisk destroy Harry's Horcrux when it bit him in the Chamber of Secrets?" the user posed the question to the entire community and received Lots of replies. Most people flatly closed the question, assuming that Venom didn't kill Harry, which was what was needed to destroy the Horcrux inside him. Some even laugh at how many times this exact question has been asked. Check out the thread and select a reply below:

Why Harry Being Bitten By The Basilisk Is NOT A Horcrux Plot Hole

Although some of the answers in the Reddit thread end up being trendy, they are indeed canonically correct. Basilisk venom may have destroyed the Horcruxes in Tom Riddle's Diary, but there's a big difference between an inanimate object and a human. Harry Potter was wounded by Venom, and he might have died if Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes hadn't shed healing tears for him, but the fact that he was healed also prevented the Horcrux inside him from being destroyed.

Essentially, the Horcrux's destruction is not directly attributable to the presence of Basilisk Venom, but how it interacts with and cancels the effect of the magic that revives Tom Riddle's memory. The magic to turn Harry himself into a Horcrux is also slightly different than the magic to make a diary. Harry was an unintentional Horcrux, created when Voldemort tried to cast the Avada Kedavra on him, but was blocked by the shield created by Mrs. Potter's sacrifice and her love for her son, not Carefully destroyed his physical form and blew up the last remaining fragment of his soul which became his future nemesis.

All of this is related to the prophecy of Professor Trelawney, the teacher of divination, which states that "he who shall begot, shall be born". While Harry would eventually be resurrected when the Horcrux fragments were expelled from him, he did need to legally die in order to fulfill the prophecy. This certainly doesn't happen in the events of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, regardless of Dobby the house-elf's basilisk venom and damaging intervention earlier in the story.

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