Ruling out the Obvious
Note: This theory seemed highly appropriate for today, if you catch my drift.
I’m sure you’ve noticed it. Perhaps you’ve even participated in it. Ever since we found out the type of item Voldemort wanted to make his Horcruxes from, legions of Harry Potter fans have been scouring the books for any scrap of matter that might have belonged to a Hogwarts founder. Could that magic penknife have been owned by Godric Gryffindor? Was the Goblet of Fire once part of Helga Hufflepuff’s cup collection? Since he was clearly all about the bling, couldn’t a certain “My Sweetheart” necklace have come from Salazar Slytherin’s jewelry box?
Of course, Rowena Ravenclaw is the one most often victimized in this game. As the only founder we haven’t seen a relic from, she’s a favorite target of scavenger hunters. Notice an object that J.K. Rowling bothered to assign even the slightest amount of descriptive language to? How about that overstuffed pouf? Or that luminous rosette? It must be a clue! Quick, think of a reason Rowena would’ve owned it!
It doesn’t seem to matter that Rowling’s already given us the rules of the game: Voldemort hides his Horcruxes. They’re not hidden in plain sight, they’re just plain hidden. Tom stole things from the children in the orphanage and hid them in his wardrobe. That behavior continued into adulthood. It doesn’t matter if Voldemort would’ve been smarter if he’d made his Horcuxes out of ping pong balls and left them on the shelf in Dumbledore’s rec room-- that’s not what he did. Even the diary (a.k.a. the Horcrux Voldemort handled most recklessly) was meant to be safely hidden by Lucius Malfoy until Voldemort decided to use it. Nagini may be the exception, but Voldemort still keeps a direct degree of control over her that is completely unlike the total lack of control he would have over most scavenger hunt suggestions.
I know some people argue that having a Horcrux not be hidden would be a twist. First of all, there are only two Horcruxes (the cup and mystery item) left in their original hiding places. It’s not like having the Trio find two whole items would make for insanely repetitive storytelling. Second, a “twist” that invalidates what Dumbledore told us to such a high degree is kind of sadder than what I would expect from Rowling. I know Dumbledore isn’t always right, but if she’s going to do something like that we have to be just as wary that there might actually be fifty Horcruxes or that Voldemort can feel it when they’re destroyed. The whole puzzle starts to break down if we imagine she’s cheating that badly.
If there’s a Horcrux made from a Ravenclaw relic, it isn’t something we’ll stumble across. It’s something well-hidden.
Except...
That’s not fun. Who wants to sit around insisting, “There’s no way we’ll guess, so we might as well just wait quietly for the book to get here”? Not me.
And Rowling did say, just after the release of Book 6, “I'm prepared to bet you now, that at least before the week is out, at least one of the Horcruxes will have been correctly identified by careful re-readers of the books.” The locket at Grimmauld Place is one item that’s probably been identified. If we believe Nagini’s a Horcrux, there’s hardly a need to identify her. Same with the cup, if we assume it’s not hidden in plain sight and therefore has never appeared in the series outside of Hokey’s memory. So even if I think the possible Ravenclaw Horcrux is still in its original hiding place, I have to take Jo’s saying “at least one” to mean there’s some slim chance we can figure out what it is before we’ve ever encountered it.
Let’s try coming at this the opposite way from the scavenger hunters. Instead of finding a Horcrux, let’s create one. (In our minds, of course. Put that wand away.)
Despite all the random flotsam, I’ve seen three items latched onto most fervently as something of Rowena’s that Voldemort would’ve found and turned into a Horcrux:
- The wand on display in the window of Ollivander’s (Just like the turkey in the butcher’s window in A Christmas Carol was totally Scrooge’s Horcrux-- what other reason could a shopkeeper possibly have to display something in their window?)
- The tiara in the Room of Requirement (So well hidden that it was accessible to even a drunken Trelawney!)
- The Mirror of Erised (Because it's completely in Voldemort and Dumbledore’s characters that neither would notice nor care what magic the other one performed on the object.)
I obviously don’t think any of those guesses are correct. I will, however, gladly chop out the best piece of theory behind each one and stitch them together to make my own Frankenrelic.
The Wand in the Window
The best part of the wand theory is the type of object. After reading HBP, a lot of people noticed that the three Founder relics we knew about so far just happened to match up with the three of the four suits found in a tarot deck. The tarot suits are swords, cups, pentacles/coins, and wands/rods/staves. (Related sets of four objects appear in stories of the Hallows of Ireland and of the Grail Hallows, so knowing the title is Deathly Hallows really gave this theory a boost.) Gryffindor’s sword obviously represents the sword suit. Likewise, Hufflepuffs cup is for the cups suit. Slytherin’s locket works for pentacles either because it's round and gold like a coin, or because pentacle comes from a root word meaning “amulet worn around the neck.” This leaves Ravenclaw’s relic to match up with the final suit-- it could be a wand, a rod, a staff, or any similar type of object. (Sceptre, spear, flagpole, drinking straw, wand that was strangely “not unlike a birch rod” seen in a portrait during Chapter 22 of OotP...)
The Tiara
Could the tarnished tiara Harry used to help mark the place where he’d hidden his Potions book be a Horcrux? Probably not. I doubt Great-Auntie Muriel’s goblin-made tiara is one either. But the tarnish and being goblin-made both point to the tiaras being made of silver, and I think that’s the best part of the tiara theory. After all, we’ve already had references to the goblins being known for their silverwork. It wouldn’t be surprising if that was some kind of a setup for a later plot point. Additionally, having Ravenclaw’s item be made of silver would fit well with what the other Founders’ relics have been made from. Slytherin’s locket was gold, Hufflepuff’s cup was gold, and Gryffindor’s sword was silver. If Ravenclaw’s relic is silver, it would mean there was a balanced set of two gold items and two silver items.
Rowena’s object being silver even fits with the tarot pattern discussed above. The tarot suits correspond to our modern playing card suits. Swords become spades, cups become hearts, pentacles/coins become diamonds, and wands/rods/staves become clubs. I’m pretty sure that Rowling knows how the cards correspond, since she had Trelawney draw a spade to represent Harry in HBP. (Spades = swords, and Harry’s a Gryffindor.) Since diamonds and hearts are red while spades and clubs are black, it makes sense for the locket and cup to be gold while the sword and Ravenclaw object are silver.
The Mirror of Erised
One argument that’s been made in favor of the Mirror of Erised having belonged to Ravenclaw is that it’s got clawed feet. Clawed feet? Ravenclaw? I don’t really buy it. (It’s not like Hufflepuff’s cup was all puffy.) Where I do think this theory is on the right track, however, is in its expectation that Ravenclaw’s object will be marked in some way to indicate ownership. Each of the other Founders’ relics has been uniquely marked-- Gryffindor’s sword was engraved with his full name, Slytherin’s locket was engraved with an “S,” and Hufflepuff’s cup was engraved with a badger. It stands to reason that Ravenclaw’s item will turn out to be uniquely engraved in a way that shows it belonged to her.
If we’ve already had engravings of the full name, initial, and pictorial variety, what kind of engraving is left for Rowena? Think back to Chapter 10 of OotP, when Ginny introduced Neville and Luna to each other.
“Neville Longbottom-- Luna Lovegood. Luna’s in my year, but in Ravenclaw.”
“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure,” said Luna in a singsong voice.
Now, I know Luna likes to make some really random comments at really random times. But she doesn’t usually rhyme, does she? And notice that she came out with that line right after Ginny mentioned Ravenclaw. What if that’s not just Luna being odd-- what if that’s the Ravenclaw house motto? It could have come down through the years from Rowena herself. I bet that exact phrase is what we’ll see engraved into the Ravenclaw relic.
The Frankenrelic
Let’s put together everything we have so far. Ravenclaw’s relic will be something long and thin. It will be made of silver, and it will have the words “Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure” engraved into it. That all seems logical enough, and I should probably just stop there.
But I’m feeling reckless.
Think about it-- something long and thin, with the word “measure” on it?
Is it possible that Rowena’s relic is actually a ruler?
It’s a big fat pun, I know. This is the author, however, who’s given us puns on top of puns. “Diagon Alley”? The “Knight Bus”? The “Pensieve”? “Grimmauld Place”? Chapter titles like “Will and Won’t”? I could keep going, but I think you know we’d be here a very long time if I did.
And Rowena did design the Hogwarts floor plan, so... maybe she needed a ruler?
Okay, it’s a horrible stretch, and I know it. Even if the word “measure” is part of a pun, it could just as easily refer to something else entirely (time, music, etc.). I can’t seem to help myself, though. Until I’ve read DH and learned the truth, I’m going to be envisioning the mystery Horcrux as a silver ruler.
I see your tiara, and raise you personalized office supplies. Take that, scavenger hunters!