Harry Potter Did anybody else wonder why the Trio didn't try tossing the horcruxes in a volcano

[slickrcbd]

Maybe it's because I read Lord of the Rings almost two decades before reading Harry Potter, but when the Trio were having trouble figuring out how to destroy the horcruxes in the books, I was wondering why nobody suggested tossing them into a volcano.

Especially when they found out that fiendfyre could destroy them. I thought JKR might make a shout-out to Tolkien, but it never happened in the book.

Did anybody else have any thoughts along those lines? Frankly I'm surprised I've never seen it even discussed in a fanfic either. It's hard to believe that a certain bookworm wouldn't have read that classic, but then again it is kinda aimed at boys.

 

[DIT_grue]

RE: volcanos

You're right that it's surprising more stories don't raise the possibility (pretty sure I've seen it a time or two, but they were mediocre stories at best, so it wouldn't be hard for them to be lost in the 90%).

I can think of two primary difficulties that might prevent the attempt, even if the characters discussed it: first, they need to think about the travel arrangements, especially if they're already trapped in the camping trip from hell (so any government is hostile) and only have some of the things (so that they'd need to make multiple trips back and forth). Second, while it might work, if it doesn't then they need to be able to get them back to try something else. And of course, there's the temptation to assume that Tom would have protected them against something like that, whether just as an extreme environment like any other or because it is a classic solution to such problems.

 

[Tennie]

The nearest active volcanoes to the British Isles are either in Iceland or down near Italy (either way, that's quite a long distance for three teens to travel on their own, even with magic). Plus, they'd need to find out which volcanoes are currently active (preferably spewing out lava Hawaiian-style)--not an easy task, even in the early days of the Internet. Considering the sheer logistical challenges, they'd probably be a whole lot better off just using Fiendfyre on the damned things.

 

[daniel_gudman]

A Horcrux is a lich's phylactery: a piece of soul that got sliced off and stuck in a jar as a spiritual anchor.

Therefore, I would have tried:
1) "Killing" the horcrux with an Avada Kedavra
2) Feeding the horcrux to a Dementor

 

[Ordieth117]

The three reasons I can think of off-hand are:

1) Awareness. Most people don't think about volcanoes much unless they live near them.

2) Proximity. Even if it is a good idea, how do they get to them?

3) Consequences. What happens to the item if the volcano isn't enough to destroy it? If they try to summon the item back to them, how much lava and heat comes along for the ride? What if the protections on the horcrux are actually strengthened by the extreme heat and potentially crushing pressure?

 

[nuclear death frog]

Real world reason:

Lawsuit threat.

Bad enough that one of Voldemort's spiritual shitboxes was a ring ... :sisi:

 

[Rising Dragon]

Also, there's only so much room in the book to devote to the narrative. How much would you waste detailing on finding a volcano and getting there and tossing it in? Probably enough where we'd end up with three movies rather than two.

 

[daniel_gudman]

Take it a layer deeper, man.

Dumbledore had all kinds of time to experiment on the one that was actually a Ring.

 

[Jynx]

RE

I love how.... 7 replies later... no one has pointed out the obvious. Harry Potter is a book all about magic. Therefore only magical means could be used to destroy a horcrux.

Magical Sword x3
Giant magic snake venom x2
Uncontrollable magical wildfire x1
Some weird magical charm ("love") x1 (to be honest, that one was always just a little weird for me...)
and the Killing Curse x1.

I don't think any old volcano would have cut it since normal fire, steel, chemicals etc would never have worked. Then again, even in the Lord of the Rings series, it had to be specifically the fires of Mount Doom in which it was forged (and arguably had some weird sorcerous connection to Sauron). So yeah... if Harry Potter & co had access to the fires of mount doom, and a couple of hobbits, that method could probably have worked too.

On a last note, the diadem was the 5th horcrux destroyed and only destroyed in the 7th book. Therefore, while they were all running around like idiots in the woods, they didn't have a clue that fire would have worked. That was a lucky break on their part.

 

[daniel_gudman]

but

how can you think volcanos wouldn't be magical

 

[Amodelsino]

snip

I know right. I've basically resigned myself to the idea that people are unable to comprehend the basic concept that something that completely breaks physics on a regular basis probably trumps it in general.

 

[preb34]

I personally think they should have just avada kedavaraed the horcruxes. Then again, they probably would not have the conviction to use the spell on anything, including horcruxes... :|

 

[Shirotsume]

tl;dr: If they were wrong, Voldemort is immortal, because there ain't no fuckin way you're getting that horcrux back.

 

[Tom Haskworth]

Yeah, as said, the Horcruxes could only be detroyed by magical means - and then only special things like Basilisk venom and Fiendfyre.


A better question would be, why did Voldemort go to all that trouble when HE could could have thrown them into a volcano or the bottom of an ocean. In one of my stories where Voldemort had been blinded by Harry, Voldemort ordered Pettigrew to take him to the centre of featureless scrubland then buried the Horcrux. Pettigrew was killed. Voldemort Obliviated himself so he couldn't remember where he'd put it himself. But did Harry and friend still find it? Hehe, you'd have to read it to find out.

 

[OniGanon]

2) Feeding the horcrux to a Dementor

Oh that's good.

 

[Ordieth117]

I don't recall who the author is or what the story is, but I do recall at least two comedic scenes wherein a dementor attempts to suck the soul out of a horcrux and either is in excruciating pain while failing or gets their mouth stuck to the horcrux while still failing.

 

[ThreadWeaver]

Find a magical volcano? They used to toss virgins into the Hawaiian volcanoes to appease the Gods there. It's not like they couldn't gather them, fly to Hawaii and chuck them in and let the Goddess Pele deal with them.

And you're at an awesome vacation spot when you're done.

 

[slickrcbd]

I'm not sure why I'm not getting e-mail alerts, I've reset my settings.
You guys are right, I'd forgotten it had to be Mt. Doom, the place where the ring was made and not just any old volcano. I haven't read LOTR in 15 years, when we actually studied it in one of my college courses. Before that it had been at least ten years since I'd previously read the books as a boy.

Still, I'm surprised no fanfic has had somebody suggest it, only to point out that it was Tolkein fiction and that even in LOTR they had to use a specific volcano.

For that matter, if a volcano wouldn't harm the horcrux, wouldn't tossing one of the horcruxes into an active volcano be an excellent place to hide it? Throw another at the bottom of the Marianas Trench or just take a ship out somewhere well off normal trade routes and casually toss the horcrux overboard at some random place in the middle of the ocean when nobody's looking. Then have the crew falsify the logs and modify their memories so they think they were a thousand miles away from the actual location.
Just a few ideas for a smart Dark Lord.

 

[goldenarms]

I'm not sure why I'm not getting e-mail alerts, I've reset my settings.
You guys are right, I'd forgotten it had to be Mt. Doom, the place where the ring was made and not just any old volcano. I haven't read LOTR in 15 years, when we actually studied it in one of my college courses. Before that it had been at least ten years since I'd previously read the books as a boy.

Still, I'm surprised no fanfic has had somebody suggest it, only  to point out that it was Tolkein fiction and that even in LOTR they had to use a specific volcano.

For that matter, if a volcano wouldn't harm the horcrux, wouldn't tossing one of the horcruxes into an active volcano be an excellent place to hide it? Throw another at the bottom of the Marianas Trench or just take a ship out somewhere well off normal trade routes and casually toss the horcrux overboard at some random place in the middle of the ocean when nobody's looking. Then have the crew falsify the logs and modify their memories so they think they were a thousand miles away from the actual location.
Just a few ideas for a smart Dark Lord.

If he was a smart Dark Lord, then Voldemort wouldn't have bothered with Horcruxes at all, for that is why he got killed the first time.