Horcruxes, as every Harry Potter fan knows, allowed Voldemort to evade death - which is why he carefully hid them. His plan, of course, was that this could make him both immortal in terms of general aging, and able to enter dramatic fights without fear of defeat. At the hands of Harry (and pretty much every other witch and wizard), neither of these worked out so well for him.

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Maybe things would have been a bit better for Voldemort if he had put a bit more effort into hiding those pieces of his soul? We’ve ranked the Horcrux hiding places from the absolute bottom of the barrel, up to surprisingly clever.

Tom Riddle’s Diary

Harry Potter stabs Tom Riddle's diary with a Basilisk Fang, destroying the Horcrux in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The very first Horcrux was introduced to us long before we ever had any idea what a Horcrux was. Whether JK Rowling actually had it all planned for that long we have no idea (obviously, like all writers, she claimed to), but the diary of Tom Riddle was first shown in The Chamber Of Secrets. Pause the film just as Lucius Malfoy puts the books into Ginny’s cauldron and you can catch a glimpse. Lucius didn't know exactly what he was holding, and Voldemort would not necessarily have been ok with this being handed over to a student, but this was certainly the weakest and most obvious of all of his hiding places.

Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem

The Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw sits in the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

As Voldemort wasn’t a Ravenclaw, his actual choice of item here wasn’t quite as obvious as some of his choices from above, but the hiding place was still pretty poor. Harry and co wandered into Hogwarts, and after a quick chat with a ghost, Harry was in possession of the diadem - he may have thought he was being sneaky, but this is Voldemort's arrogance. He was far from the only student to learn of the Room of Requirement. In comparison to the years of effort to find the other Horcruxes, this was ridiculously easy to find and destroy.

Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup

Harry surrounded by multiple Hufflepuff Cups in Harry Potter

Another relatively good choice of object, as Voldemort wasn’t associated with Hufflepuff, but a pretty easy one to find. Bellatrix, like Lucius, didn't know that it was a Horcrux, but simply leaving a piece of his soul in the bank vault of one of his most well-known associates just seems like a decision that needed a little more thought put into it.

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This one does get bonus points for having good protection on it though; that charm was a good way of putting everyone off and should probably have been a lot more difficult to overcome than it was in the books and film.

Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring

Dumbledore was one of the few people who knew about Voldemort's association with the Gaunt family, so this is one of the few items that Voldemort felt deeply attached to without it being too obvious. He buried it in a box under their shack and protected it with enchantments.

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However, the very fact that Dumbledore was able to find this one first of all the Horcruxes (aside from the diary) suggests that it can't have been his most well-hidden.

Nagini

Nagini Snake

Using a living thing was a clever move on Voldemort’s behalf. No one suspected that Nagini was going to be a Horcrux, and using the one thing that was always by his side meant that he could personally keep an eye on the piece of his soul and defend it with his own hand. Of course, after they found out about Nagini being the Horcrux, it became a little easier. All Neville had to do was chop off her head while Voldemort wasn’t looking.

Salazar Slytherin’s Locket

Harry Potter locket horcrux

The locket of Salazar Slytherin was the Horcrux perhaps given the most attention. Voldemort chose a location and an item that meant a lot to him, which was a mistake every time, but at least he gave it some good protection.

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Putting it in the middle of a creepy lake full of Inferi and a debilitating potion was clever, and Harry and Dumbledore struggled for a long time to get a hold of it. It also took them months to destroy it, when most of the other Horcruxes were destroyed extremely quickly. The only reason it didn’t win was that Regulus had already stolen it, undermining the defense mechanism a little.

Harry Potter Himself

The best Horcrux hiding place Voldemort ever came up with was Harry Potter. The reason this was his winner, was because even he didn’t know he had done it. Voldemort killed Harry, not realizing that all he had done was kill a part of himself. This ended up being Voldemort’s undoing, as Harry (along with a little help from the resurrection stone) managed to survive the killing curse for a second time. The fact that only Dumbledore had been able to figure out what had happened means that this was the safest and most secure a Horcrux had ever been, because even its owner had no idea of its existence.

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