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In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore never mentions that Harry is a Horcrux. But in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore tells Snape that he believes sometimes that Harry suspects he [Harry] is a Horcrux. Is there any part in either book where Harry wonders if he is a Horcrux? Or is Harry completely blind to the fact that he is one until Dumbledore tells him?

“We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength,” said Dumbledore, his eyes still tight shut. “Meanwhile, the connection between them grows ever stronger, a parasitic growth. Sometimes I have thought he suspects it himself. If I know him, he will have arranged matters so that when he does set out to meet his death, it will truly mean the end of Voldemort.”

Silvermidnight
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    Harry is NOT a Horcrux. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/11530/how-did-harry-become-a-horcrux – IloneSP Dec 13 '22 at 08:06
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    As for the question, Harry knew he had a tether to Voldemort, but as far as I recall, he didn't suspect being a receptacle for a part of Voldemort's soul. It's hard to add lore proof for that, though. – IloneSP Dec 13 '22 at 08:07
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    From your quote: "Sometimes I have thought he suspects it himself." In what ways does that not answer your question? – FreeMan Dec 13 '22 at 15:17
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    @FreeMan No, I want to know whether or not Harry himself suspects it. This is Dumbledore talking. – Silvermidnight Dec 13 '22 at 18:02
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    In my edition of the book, there is a colon, not a period, before "Sometimes", making it clear that this sentence refers to the growing, parasitic connection between Voldemort and Harry, and not to Harry being not-a-horcrux. – Philipp Dec 14 '22 at 09:45
  • Just from your quote Dumbledore never tells snape that harry was a horcrux, at that point nobody including snape was even supposed to know about horcruxes. It just states "connection" between lord whats its and harry is getting stronger, and harry probably suspects it. The connection itself was already public knowledge among order members at that time. – user13267 Feb 13 '23 at 04:27

2 Answers2

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According to chapter 34 in The Deathly Hallows (right after Harry sees Snape's memories), Harry never suspected he was a Horcrux. He assumed that he was safe and never questioned whether he needs to die to take down Voldemort.

Of course there had been a bigger plan: Harry had simply been too foolish to see it, he realized that now. He had never questioned his own assumption that Dumbledore wanted him alive.

MBEllis
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Although (as the other answer says) Harry does not suspect he contains a Horcrux, he does stumbles upon the truth accidentally and indirectly when he and Dumbledore first confer on the quantity of Horcruxes (having just heard the unabridged Slughorn memory), in Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 23 (at p.470 of the 1st edition as published by Bloomsbury):

‘He made seven Horcruxes?’ said Harry, horror-struck, while several of the portraits on the walls made similar noises of shock and outrage. ‘But they could be anywhere in the world -- hidden -- buried or invisible --’

‘I am glad to see you appreciate the magnitude of the problem,’ said Dumbledore calmly, ‘But firstly, no, Harry, not seven Horcruxes: six. The seventh part of his soul, however maimed, resides inside his regenerated body. [...]’

At this juncture, Dumbledore had only just learned that Tom Riddle (later known as Voldemort) was interested in the number seven, but he had been aware of Riddle's interest in Horcruxes for some time. Given, moreover, that Dumbledore had been aware of Harry's unique connection to Voldemort and Parseltongue fluency for over a year, it stands to reason that Dumbledore probably suspected the existence of a Voldemort Horcrux within Harry (these attributes are adduced by Dumbledore when he tells Snape about the fragment of Voldemort's soul in Harry, which Harry sees in the pensieve in Deathly Hallows shortly after Snape dies).

So, perhaps Dumbledore realised that Harry was actually right to say there were seven Horcruxes (and thus Voldemort's soul had been split in eight), but Harry's answer was correct for the wrong reason (Harry had failed to count the original body as containing a (non-Horcrux) part of the soul, but this error was cancelled-out by his ignorance of the extra Horcrux), hence Harry was none the wiser.

Evidently, Dumbledore preferred to withhold the information that Harry contained an extra Horcrux that was unintended and unknown to Voldemort. In other words, this 'correction' is actually an instance of prophetic irony (albeit one so artfully dissimulated that not many readers will remember it... for another example of this device but within a single book, see Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception, on the topic of Kraken numbers), flagging to the astute reader that there is a lacuna in the information Dumbledore imparts to Harry (at a juncture when Dumbledore has an established reputation for secrecy and imparting only partial information).

W. Aderoshoslav
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