Although there are eight parts of Voldemort's soul, this isn't to say that they are exactly eight equally weighted parts. A theory I am about to introduce to you is explaining that perhaps when creating a horcrux, you split the amount of soul left in you in half. This means that after your first horcrux, which would contain half of your soul, you would be splitting your soul into quarters, eighths, sixteenths, thirty-secondths, sixty-fourths, etc. If you go by this theory, by the time Voldemort was killed by Harry Potter, his body only held one two hundred fifty-sixth of his soul – an extremely small portion. Think of it this way – only 0.3% of Tom Riddle left inside him. Seeing as Voldemort was born in 1926 and Slytherin circa 1000, averaging 1 descendant per 20 years, we can divide 5% (the amount of Slytherin left in Voldemort before soul-splitting) by 256 (the amount of Voldemort's own soul left in him), leaving us with only about 0.019% Slytherin left. By parting with most of his soul, he deliberately left most of his Slytherin heritage behind (although originally he only had 5% of Slytherin left in him). An object now has more Slytherin (and Voldemort, for that matter) in it than Voldemort himself. According to this theory, you could make infinite horcruxes, however, after just over eight of them (Voldemort almost hit the barrier) the small amount of soul left within you would most likely perish and make the entire pursuit indefinitely pointless.
After one's main soul (no matter how small it is) is defeated, they end up living as nothing. Take these quotes from Lord Voldemort himself:
"See what I have become? Mere shadow and vapour … I have form only when I can share
another's body … but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and
minds …"
-Lord Voldemort, Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 17.
"Aaah … pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have prepared me for it. I was
ripped from my body. Less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost, but still, I was
alive. What I was, even I do not know. I, who have gone further than anybody down the
path that leads to immortality."
- Lord Voldemort, Goblet of Fire, Chapter 33.
In this final quote we get a small glimpse of horcruxes. This, however is besides the point. You can see that there is a considerable amount of pain involved and the person – if you could still call them that – becomes nothingness, sheer vapour, less than a soul. However, Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew) and Voldemort use some odd person (or thing)'s body and Voldemort can have a body, however crippled it is.
Some, however, may argue with this theory. Slughorn has one very interesting quote here:
"Killing rips the soul apart. The wizard intent on creating a horcrux would use the
damage to his advantage: he would encase the torn portion –"
- Horace Slughorn, Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 23.
Notice how he says "Killing rips the soul apart", not necessarily in half. Later, in the same chapter, professor Dumbledore says another anti-my-theory statement:
"[...] However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for a seventh
of Voldemort's soul."
Albus Dumbledore, Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 23.
This may seem an alarming piece of evidence against my theory to most people, as JK Rowling says that most (if not all) of what Dumbledore says is right. Unfortunately to those people, I have two pieces of evidence that lead me to believing that Dumbledore is simplifying his speech.
First and foremost, Dumbledore, who knows that Voldemort unintentionally created an extra horcrux, only said that there were seven horcruxes, even though he perfectly well knows that there is an eighth. Although this may simply be to hide the fact that Harry himself is a horcrux, it leads me to believing that he is simply simplifying his speech so as to not make things quite so complicated. Which leads me to my second point...
Secondly, each horcrux is, in it's true value, just as important as the other. You destroy one, you're a whole eighth done, even if you only destroyed 0.7% of his soul. In the real value, you are an eighth done, because you have only seven left, independent on just how much you have or haven't destroyed in percentage. In the big picture, each part accounts for just as much.
As far as we know, this is the amount of soul each of Voldemort's horcruxes account for:
| Horcrux | Soul |
|---|---|
| Gaunt Ring | 50% |
| Diary | 25% |
| Hufflepuff Cup | 12.5% |
| Locket | 6.25% |
| Diadem | 3.125% |
| Harry Potter | 1.5625% |
| Nagini | 0.78125% |
| Voldemort | 0.390625% |
To really emphasize the point that Voldemort really is inhuman, consider this: A ring has 50% of his soul while he himself has 0.39...%
