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Nobody knew about his Horcruxes (even Slughorn wasn't 100% sure). But still, there was a small probability that someone could discover his secret. So, he hid his Horcruxes very well. But, there was always a way to get to those Horcruxes.

Why didn't he hide his Horcruxes in a place which was out reach of anyone? Some examples: His own stomach, Center of Sun/Earth/Black Hole etc. He could also had simply made Voyager-1 a Horcrux..

user931
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    I'm not a fan of your examples. You might consider a moleskin pouch instead... – Dason Sep 01 '12 at 23:01
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    "His own stomach" I see a flaw in that plan... –  Sep 01 '12 at 23:01
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    @ALS He didn't know that he could lose his stomach due to Lily's protection. It was unexpected. So, stomach was fine for him. – user931 Sep 01 '12 at 23:10
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    A cave only one or two others knew existed, and a bank run by goblins that (at the time) had not been broken into since its creation weren't good enough? – Izkata Sep 01 '12 at 23:18
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    @Izkata No. The result is in front of you, now.. – user931 Sep 01 '12 at 23:22
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    @SachinShekhar I'm not sure what you mean by that. Does that mean if the trio had managed to retrieve a Horcrux from the center of the sun, you'd still be asking why Voldemort didn't choose a more secure location? – Izkata Sep 02 '12 at 00:05
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    You might want to look at the Fan Fic 'Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality' for an example of a REALLY hard to reach one. – K-H-W Sep 02 '12 at 00:07
  • @Izkata You're speculating things. Based on what I saw in HP universe, it was impossible for trio to get Horcruxes from center of sun. Of course, it'd ruin the story, but I am not talking about that. – user931 Sep 02 '12 at 06:03
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    Horcruxes were not a well known and well studied "technology". If I ever used such a thing about whiches exact functionality very little is known, I would hide them to places where I could revisit (and, if necessary, maintain/repair/refill) them. – vsz Sep 02 '12 at 07:19
  • Possible duplicate: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/9108/why-were-there-seemingly-no-major-magical-protections-on-other-horcruxes-than-th\ – DVK-on-Ahch-To Sep 02 '12 at 11:35
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    a black hole will destroy anything irreparably (only thing preserved is energy/mass) so the horcrux would be useless there (not to mention they where still a bit of a myth in the 1970's theoretically possible but unproven) and the first object into space was in 1957 (spoetnik) after Tom left the muggleworld behind the sun and magma/lava would probably also be able to destroy it – ratchet freak Sep 02 '12 at 14:52
  • @ratchet Even real-world Physics is unable to predict anything below event horizon of black holes. Sci-fi world takes advantage of that to do many things like time warp etc. When it comes to magic world, magic is dominant power. So, you can't destroy a Horcrux by nuking it with Nuclear Weapons. – user931 Sep 02 '12 at 16:02
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    @SachinShekhar I really doubt any magic will be able to protect an object in a nuclear-fusion reactor (a.k.a. the sun) for any length of time – ratchet freak Sep 02 '12 at 17:49
  • @ratchet To show you power of magic: Think about energy when someone apparate, you'll forget about energy possessed by Sun. – user931 Sep 02 '12 at 18:09
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    @SachinShekhar eh no total energy used is minimal, yeah you transform the matter and shift it but the energy put in is recoverable (besides the energy lost in the crack of displaced air) – ratchet freak Sep 02 '12 at 19:49
  • @ratchetfreak Man, you're teleporting matter with speed of light.. Recalculate! – user931 Sep 03 '12 at 02:12
  • @ratchetfreak - You're forgetting about the rotation of the earth. If you were to teleport from one point on the equator to the precise opposite point on the globe, you would have a delta-v of approximately 932m/s to account for. – SaintWacko Sep 06 '12 at 15:40
  • @SaintWacko who say they are able to aparate so far we only saw them go across britain – ratchet freak Sep 06 '12 at 16:41
  • @ratchetfreak - Hm, that's true. Hadn't thought of that. Nevermind, then, it appears magic has some way to compensate for the delta-v, but it would presumably take more magical power than anyone has to apparate across great distances. – SaintWacko Sep 06 '12 at 17:57
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    Voyager 1? Really? That's a Muggle object, what makes you think Voldemort (or most other wizards) would even know it exists? – Anthony Grist Sep 23 '13 at 10:43
  • @AnthonyGrist Muggle world wasn't kept hidden, so he could info about Voyager-1 after little research. And, if you're the one to hide most important thing of yours, you'd choose an unfamiliar world. – user931 Sep 23 '13 at 11:31
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    @SachinShekhar Most wizards don't know, or care, about anything that happens in the Muggle world. Voldemort, who viewed Muggles as worthless, pitiful creatures to be subjugated and murdered, isn't about to go researching anything about that world, nor is he going to hide a Horcrux inside something created by a Muggle (or anybody else, in fact). – Anthony Grist Sep 23 '13 at 12:03
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    If it was impossible to get to then how would Voldemort get there?... – Wayne In Yak Sep 23 '13 at 17:12
  • @AnthonyGrist You can build an answer with that.. :) – user931 Sep 23 '13 at 18:42
  • @WayneInYak Poor query.. See examples... He could have fired a Horcrux missile to Sun.. – user931 Sep 23 '13 at 18:46
  • @Sachin Skekhar then the sun wouldn't be impossible to reach would it? Is there canon for a Horcrux missile? – Wayne In Yak Sep 23 '13 at 19:29
  • @Wayne It was just an example... And, any object can be made Horcrux including missiles, space probes etc. (Or, you can simply put a Horcrux in a space probe to give it a motion to Sun before probe is destroyed) How do you think Harry could retrieve it from inside the Sun? – user931 Sep 23 '13 at 21:42
  • Don't you think if a Horcrux was put in the center of the Sun (severely unlikely) that it would be destroyed by the sheer power of it? Remember the Diadem was destroyed by Fiendfyre (surely not hotter/more powerful than the Sun)? – Möoz Mar 23 '14 at 20:31
  • @BorhanMooz This is the first few words on Fiendfyre wikia page: Fiendfyre was a bewitched flame infused with dark magic... Heat can't really do anything to magical object. – user931 Mar 24 '14 at 00:03
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    Accio Voyager-1 – MissMonicaE Mar 03 '17 at 19:25
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    @MissMonicaE Haha... Which brings a possibility of a psychopath terrorist using Accio Sun... – user931 Mar 03 '17 at 19:30
  • lots 'o comments – NKCampbell Mar 03 '17 at 19:34
  • If he was killed wouldn't someone have to get to one of the horcruxes to bring him back? – John Mar 03 '17 at 21:58
  • @John No. Horcrux wasn't needed to resurrect his body in the 4th book.. – user931 Mar 03 '17 at 22:00

4 Answers4

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Harry himself asked this question, and Dumbledore explained that it was Voldemort's titanic ego and flair for the dramatic that made him chose well-known items or locations.

The book implies that a person who was mentally all-together would have made that choice, but Voldemort, by the very fact that he'd make Horcruxes in the first place, wasn't all there, literally or figuratively.

I mean, digging a mile-deep hole in a random place in the ground, dropping the Horcrux in, and then filling the hole would be much more secure. Not nearly as dramatic, though, and certainly harder to regenerate from.

rsegal
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39

Probably the simplest explanation:

If they were impossible to reach, he couldn't put them there in the first place.

As it is, most of the Horcruxes were actually very well-hidden in a great variety of places. It was unlikely for them to be run across by accident, and less likely that anyone would know of more than one unless they'd gone digging into Voldemort's past - something that was probably very likely to get you killed, given how he's tried to distance himself from certain aspects of his past.

  • Tom Riddle's Diary - Lucius Malfoy was among Voldemot's most trusted (and least insane) followers. He didn't know it was a Horcrux.
  • Marvolo Gaunt's Ring - Under the floorboards in an abandoned house that everyone avoided, enchanted to make it more likely it would be avoided, and with the powerful curse on it so that whoever found it was unlikely to live much longer.
  • Slytherin's Locket - That particular cave was only one of many along that cliff, and if I recall correctly, only known to Voldemort/Riddle and those he tormented during his younger years.
  • Helga Hufflepuff's Cup - Hidden at Gringott's bank, there have only been 2 break-ins in its entire history: Quirrdemort and the main trio. Both after the Horcrux was hidden there. It is one of the most secure places in the world, one of the reasons the Stone of the first book was being stored there.
  • Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem - "The best place to hide a tree is in a forest", known on TVTropes as "Needle in a Stack of Needles". The Room of Hidden Things held a ton of random junk, making a small, single item very difficult to find, not to mention that Hogwarts school was considered among the most secure places in the world, hence the Stone being moved there in the first book.
Valorum
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Izkata
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    If they were impossible to reach, he couldn't put them there in the first place. ~> Illogical. You can drop something in the middle of Volcano even if nobody knows how to go inside it. – user931 Sep 02 '12 at 06:06
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    @SachinShekhar Still reachable for wizards, by way of wingardium leviosa – Izkata Sep 02 '12 at 06:26
  • I have given a real-world example against your sentence. BTW, you can't apply Wingardium Leviosa without seeing an object. Even if Harry would suspect (by feeling) that there was a Horcrux down there, it was impossible for him to figure out how that looked like or where it was (due to magma streams). No way to apply any spell on that. – user931 Sep 02 '12 at 06:50
  • Iz, I should -1 your answer for linking to tvtropes without warning! But I can't, it's that good. ;D – Jürgen A. Erhard Sep 02 '12 at 21:01
  • @JürgenA.Erhard ..."known on TVTropes as " ? The word wrap is in a bad place, but.. – Izkata Sep 02 '12 at 21:12
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    Hermione had never seen the books about horcruxes but she was able to wingardium leviosa them to her – user13267 Sep 23 '13 at 09:54
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    @user13267 Didn't Hermione use Accio (i.e. the Summoning Charm) rather than Wingardium Leviosa (the Levitation Charm) to retrieve the books from Dumbledore's office? – Anthony Grist Sep 23 '13 at 10:48
  • @AnthonyGrist: Yes, she used Accio, just like Harry used to get his Firebolt from storage in book 4. – Jeff Sep 23 '13 at 12:39
  • oh yeah for some reason I was thinking of Accio when I read Wigardium Leviosa – user13267 Sep 23 '13 at 12:41
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    Presumably Accio would not work, either due to external enchantments or the Horcruxes being proof against them. Harry tries accio on Hufflepuffs cup in the vault, on the fake locket in the cave and on the diadem. I believe it also failed when trying to get the Sword of Gryffindor which would suggest magical goblin artifacts are not summonable either. – JohnP Sep 23 '13 at 17:28
4

Erm...They WERE almost-impossible to reach places!

  • Diary: Voldemort entrusted Lucius, one of his most trusted supporters. Lucius most likely hid it in Malfoy Manor, and I doubt the Malfoys would let just ANYONE inside their home.
  • Gaunt Ring: It was hidden in a place where hardly anyone would have known to look. Plus it was under the floorboards. I don't know about you, but I find floorboards to be PRETTY impenetrable places to hide things. :3
  • Locket: It was hind in a cave where hardly anyone visited, plus there were Inferius, and the poison in the cup was kinda impossible to drink without a partner to help you.
  • Cup: Okay this is GRINGOTTS we're talking about here. Only ever been broken into once before Harry and co.
  • Diadem: The Room of Requirement was scarcely known to anybody, and e Room of Hidden Things was massive and full of junk. There was probably more than one tiara in there.
  • Nagini: Okay, not a hard to reach PLACE, but I'm sure Voldemort would've protected her well.
death-is-inevitable
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    "I don't know about you, but I find floorboards to be PRETTY impenetrable places to hide things." Floorboards aren't that difficult to tear up with the correct tools, I imagine that's even easier when you have magic available. The key point with the ring is that Voldemort didn't expect anybody else - even Dumbledore - to discover his links to the Gaunts. – Anthony Grist Sep 23 '13 at 10:48
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The way I always interpreted it, it was because the horcruxes had to be accessible for him to be resurrected (such as how Tom Riddle attempts to come back through a ritual involving the diary in the Chamber of Secrets).

Stuart P. Bentley
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