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I mean it is obvious that the Horcrux can think for itself.

  1. Tom’s diary responds to questions and answers it as well as tells a story.
  2. The Locket creates a scene between Harry and Hermione to provoke Ron. So we can conclude that the Locket captured their thoughts, behaviour, and then acted.
  3. Assuming the effect the Gaunt’s Ring had on Prof. Dumbledore’s hand, we can assume that it too had some power of same manner.

What I want to know is limit or say impact of Horcruxes on its surroundings. I am only asking for Horcruxes which are inanimate in nature (no Harry or Nagini). It seems that Horcruxes encourage people in its vicinity to become bad by corrupting their thoughts and behavior.

Any explanation on this?

Adamant
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GuruGulabKhatri
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    As far as the ring goes, i always thought he put some dangerous curse(rather than it just being a horcrux acting on the hand) on it for who would wear it other than him. – Don_Biglia Feb 18 '15 at 07:47
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    The locket was like the one ring, it made them paranoid and testy, no need for it to read their thoughts. –  Feb 18 '15 at 14:52

1 Answers1

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Only one Horcrux is shown to have negative effects on those around it. This is evident from the following:

  1. Tom Riddle's diary - The diary was an active piece of soul and it entrapped Ginny over the course of the year. It eventually possessed her. This can be explained as Voldemort's soul trying to gain control of Ginny's body so as to return to a physical form(which he attempted towards the end in the Chamber of Secrets.)

  2. Salazar Slytherin's locket - The Locket had been active all the time the trio were carrying it. It caused petty spats between them, which eventually led to Ron leaving Harry & Hermione. We can see that the Locket was having effect on the person wearing it.

  3. Marvolo Gaunt's ring - We do not see a lot of this artifact's effects, except Dumbledore's charred hand. This wasn't directly caused by the ring being a horcrux, but rather by the enchantments placed on it, as evidenced from the quote (emphasis mine) from Deathly Hallows :

“It is a miracle you managed to return here!” Snape sounded furious. “That ring carried a curse of extraordinary power, to contain it is all we can hopefor; I have trapped the curse in one hand for the time being ...... [The Prince's Tale]”

From these observations we can draw some conclusions:

  1. Not all horcruxes had a direct negative effect on the owner. There is no mention of any such effect caused by the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw or by Cup of Helga Hufflepuff.

  2. The diary had been talking to Ginny. Hence Ginny wasn't affected by merely possessing the diary.(Rather she was affected by the Diary possessing her... Oh the irony).

  3. There is no evidence that all the Horcruxes caused negativity on the people around it.

Stark07
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    I thought the effect on Dumbledore’s hand came from the curse placed on the ring after it was turned into a horcrux, not from the fact that it was a horcrux. – alexwlchan Feb 18 '15 at 08:15
  • @alexwlchan - duly noted. will incorporate this into the answer. – Stark07 Feb 18 '15 at 09:12
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    Also - Harry wasn't affected by the Diary. And there's no evidence that the Locket affected anyone OTHER than the wearer. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Mar 03 '15 at 21:20