In response to your status question...
1.) I have no idea. Some say that the job itself is cursed.
2.) Voldemort split his soul into seven parts. He put bits of his soul into items, so that if we killed by knife/curse/etc... he would not die, because bits of his soul were still out there (how he survived after almost killing HP in the first book) and that's what Harry, Ron and Hermione are searching for in DHp1. Nagini is one, Tom RIddle's diary was one, the Diadem, the Goblet, HARRY.... I forget the rest though :P
Does that answer your question?