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Re: Latest Harry Potter Discussion *SPOILERS* >.<
Having read the book now, I no longer believe in a Snape conspiracy. Snape walked into the room with the intent to kill Dumbledore and did so purposefully. Whether he did it because he's evil or because he was bound to out of paternal feelings towards Draco or some ancient feelings for Narcissa, I still favor the latter. Maybe the curse he used was not Avada Kedavra, for whatever reason, but dead is dead.
However, I'm now even more convinced than I was that while Dumbledore did die, he is not dead. The reason has something to do with Fawkes. At Dumbledore's funeral, his body bursts into flames and Harry thinks he sees a phoenix fly into the sky. That's a dead giveaway as far as I'm concerned.
There are a few ways he might have done this, some involving horcruxes. Yes a horcrux is terrible dark magic, forbidden by Dumbledore himself to even speak of within Hogwarts. But I think this is mainly because knowledge of creating horcruxes makes its prerequisite act, murder, that much more appealing. At any rate, for Dumbledore to have created a horcrux, he would first have had to kill someone, an act entirely out of Dumbledore's character, but there are still two ways I can think of. First, he destroyed Voldemort's horcrux in Marvelo's ring, which involves eradicating a human spirit, or at least part of one. I don't know if that's close enough to murder to count, but it may have been something to work with. Fawkes is the second possibility. We've seen Fawkes eat an Avada Kedavra, only to burst into flames and be reborn as a little chick. It may be that Dumbledore "murdered" his pet bird knowing it would cause no permanent harm, to cause the soul damage necessary to create a horcrux.
Either way, this happened between books 5 and 6, because Dumbledore's arm is withered and dead-looking when he comes to pick up Harry at the Dursleys' in book 6. By the fact that this deformity is persistent throughout the year, even in the presence of wizards skilled in healing arts, we can assume that the injury cannot be cured by known magic, potions, or conventional medicine. This leads me to believe that it is a reflection of a spiritual injury, much like the ones borne by Voldemort when he returned to seek the DADA teaching position the second time. If I'm not mistaken, Dumbledore himself said that the state of his arm was the result of terrible dark magic, though he didn't reveal the details.
So what is Dumbledore's horcrux? This is probably the least necessary part of the theory, and the hardest part to prove, but I love it nonetheless. It's been revealed that it is possible to use a living creature as a horcrux, as Dumbledore suspects that Voldemort used the snake, Nagini, to create his 6th and final horcrux. Wouldn't it be just the type of genius we'd expect from Dumbledore to bind his spirit with a creature that is itself immune to death? ^^ I think Fawkes himself is the bearer of Dumbledore's spirit.
Dumbledore creating his own horcrux is my pet theory, but it's not the only explanation. Horcruxes aren't the only gateways to immortality. Having knowledge of horcruxes and also being a good friend of Flamel, who created the philosopher's stone, I'm sure Dumbledore had enough knowledge to devise his own way to cheat death, one not involving a physical medium or requiring the use of dark arts. In any case, I suspect Fawkes is a key. A wizard's patronus is a window into his nature, after all. Making Dumbledore's patronus a phoenix is, to me, tantamount to saying that this person is not easily defeated, even by death itself.
Having read the book now, I no longer believe in a Snape conspiracy. Snape walked into the room with the intent to kill Dumbledore and did so purposefully. Whether he did it because he's evil or because he was bound to out of paternal feelings towards Draco or some ancient feelings for Narcissa, I still favor the latter. Maybe the curse he used was not Avada Kedavra, for whatever reason, but dead is dead.
However, I'm now even more convinced than I was that while Dumbledore did die, he is not dead. The reason has something to do with Fawkes. At Dumbledore's funeral, his body bursts into flames and Harry thinks he sees a phoenix fly into the sky. That's a dead giveaway as far as I'm concerned.
There are a few ways he might have done this, some involving horcruxes. Yes a horcrux is terrible dark magic, forbidden by Dumbledore himself to even speak of within Hogwarts. But I think this is mainly because knowledge of creating horcruxes makes its prerequisite act, murder, that much more appealing. At any rate, for Dumbledore to have created a horcrux, he would first have had to kill someone, an act entirely out of Dumbledore's character, but there are still two ways I can think of. First, he destroyed Voldemort's horcrux in Marvelo's ring, which involves eradicating a human spirit, or at least part of one. I don't know if that's close enough to murder to count, but it may have been something to work with. Fawkes is the second possibility. We've seen Fawkes eat an Avada Kedavra, only to burst into flames and be reborn as a little chick. It may be that Dumbledore "murdered" his pet bird knowing it would cause no permanent harm, to cause the soul damage necessary to create a horcrux.
Either way, this happened between books 5 and 6, because Dumbledore's arm is withered and dead-looking when he comes to pick up Harry at the Dursleys' in book 6. By the fact that this deformity is persistent throughout the year, even in the presence of wizards skilled in healing arts, we can assume that the injury cannot be cured by known magic, potions, or conventional medicine. This leads me to believe that it is a reflection of a spiritual injury, much like the ones borne by Voldemort when he returned to seek the DADA teaching position the second time. If I'm not mistaken, Dumbledore himself said that the state of his arm was the result of terrible dark magic, though he didn't reveal the details.
So what is Dumbledore's horcrux? This is probably the least necessary part of the theory, and the hardest part to prove, but I love it nonetheless. It's been revealed that it is possible to use a living creature as a horcrux, as Dumbledore suspects that Voldemort used the snake, Nagini, to create his 6th and final horcrux. Wouldn't it be just the type of genius we'd expect from Dumbledore to bind his spirit with a creature that is itself immune to death? ^^ I think Fawkes himself is the bearer of Dumbledore's spirit.
Dumbledore creating his own horcrux is my pet theory, but it's not the only explanation. Horcruxes aren't the only gateways to immortality. Having knowledge of horcruxes and also being a good friend of Flamel, who created the philosopher's stone, I'm sure Dumbledore had enough knowledge to devise his own way to cheat death, one not involving a physical medium or requiring the use of dark arts. In any case, I suspect Fawkes is a key. A wizard's patronus is a window into his nature, after all. Making Dumbledore's patronus a phoenix is, to me, tantamount to saying that this person is not easily defeated, even by death itself.
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