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Reader Comments: (Page 20)

Michelle, in that scene in McGonagall's office, they're still all coming to grips with the fact that Dumbledore is . I think talking to his portrait at that time would have been too painful for them.

Posted by Dave Haber from Los Angeles, CA on January 18, 2007 4:13 PM

I too gotta believe that Dumbledore is ... but not gone..
But I have to question the method of destruction? How could Draco be made to perform the Avada Kadavra on such a great wizard and yet, in GOF, a whole classroom full of his peers were told they could perform this SAME spell to no effect? Was Voldemort planning on Draco's failure to perform this feat? Was Snape's unbreakable promise all an elaborate set up, with Voldemort KNOWING Draco couldn't perform this feat, so needing a guarantee that Snape would HAVE to utter these words himself? Were Narcissa and Bellatrix SENT to Snape under the ruse that they wanted his help BEHIND Voldemort's back, but most likely sent by him? This does NOT sound like something Bellatrix would do to the Master she has coveted all these years. (going behind his back, questioning his methods)
And how can Snape be the good guy now, when uttering this curse has given him a one-way ticket to Azkaban?
And if I am wrong and Dumbledore is NOT ... Has he pulled a Wormtail? In front of all these witnesses he has staged his and transfigured into... the phoenix? I do believe that he has left clues for Harry to better help him with the fall of the Dark Lord...

Posted by terri from ohio on January 18, 2007 5:59 PM

Terry,
Good scenario. This is just the kind of twist should expect from J.K.
There is a counterpoint to be made though. The interaction between Narcissa and Bellatrix from when they first apparate at Spinner's End up to reaching Snape's house is consistant with how the behaved with Snape.

Meaning that Bellatrix followed Narcissa and tried to change her mind and Narcissa threatened Bellatrix. If it was a grand rouge planned by Voldemort I think J.K. would have written this scene differently.

Posted by Mikey from New Jersey on January 18, 2007 7:25 PM

Avada Kedavra is an unforgivable curse just as the Cruciatus curse, then maybe the same mechanism applies for both of them. I mean, Bellatrix says that you have to *enjoy* torturing the other person to make the curse work properly. Perhaps you have to enjoy the ing, as well? But that would mean Snape enjoying it.
Or if you really really *want* the person to .. That would mean failure for Draco, poor thing. But in the DADA class, noone would want to the teacher, they'd get into serious trouble!
The Voldy's rouge theory seems likely and Voldy-ish, though the sisters' reactions really are wrong. Ticket to Azkaban? That means lots of cunning running for my favourite character, oh yes. Be it planned by Dumbledore, Voldy or Jo only.

Posted by Enelas from Saku, Estonia on January 19, 2007 07:49 AM

I think Dumbledore is , but Snape is on the good guys side and saves Harry. I think Snape s Voldemort and then s at the same time

Posted by Tiffiny from Brownstown , MIchigan, U.S. on January 19, 2007 11:12 PM

Dumbledore is . That is why Fawkes was lamenting so much. The image Harry saw on the smoke was Dumbledore's Patronus being released. If the '' of DD was fake, I don't think the centaurs and the merpeople wouldn't be there at DD's .

Posted by Olinar Aicrag from Metro Manila, Philippines on January 23, 2007 02:44 AM

Gotta say, great site. I’m so glad I found it! Like others, I’m late to read the Harry Potter novels as graduate school and motherhood didn’t previously leave me much spare time. But now I’m fully on board! Here are my thoughts:

No way did Dumbledore create a horcrux. That’s dark magic and never once has Dumbledore resorted to dark magic to battle Voldemort. In fact, it’s important that Dumbledore has always modeled a different magic as he’s grooming Harry for the final battle. Voldemort be defeated by a power he knows not, which is Love. I believe that when the final battle happens, there be a pivotal moment when Voldemort falters and Harry has a moment of empathy for him. Maybe the spell he uses to him won’t even be a ing curse, but a “release from tortured existance” charm or something. Something with an intent to end Voldemort’s personal torture? So that it would be cast in kindness, not in anger. Voldemort would be expecting all the ing curses and have a plan to deal with them, but he certainly wouldn’t be expecting a merciful charm to end his life. Maybe the same kind of merciful ing spell that Snape used on Dumbledore.

That said, obviously, I do think Dumbledore is really . But even if his portraits can only echo catch-phrases, that may be extremely useful. Harry is not usually listening with both ears to what Dumbledore has said to him in the past. He’s usually too busy having angry thoughts, thinking he’s already got things all figured out... Maybe now with Dumbledore Harry give much more consideration to anything the portrait has to say, even if it’s things he’s heard before that start to make more sense to him now.

I also wanted to add to Elizabeth from Australia, fabulous points!

Posted by Sara from Texas on January 23, 2007 07:10 AM

I just found this on JK's site to answer the theory that the Dumbledore that d was really a version of him that time-travelled back from 50 years in the future:

"...I shall go further and tell you that NONE of the characters in the books has returned from the future."

Looks like that theory is out.

Posted by Sara from Texas on January 23, 2007 10:54 AM

Mr Haber, I think I detect a slight flaw in your analysis under the heading "How what J.K. said fits with this site".
You state that

...Even though J.K. is insisting that Dumbledore is , when asked point-blank about it by the little boy, J.K.
answered: "I really can't answer that question because the answer is in book seven...".

If your report of the August 2 event is accurate, then I think the flaw is that the young person from Bordentown asked TWO questions, viz. -

"Was Dumbledore considered one of the main characters or we have the chance to see him in action once again?"

and

"Since he is the most powerful wizard of all time and Harry Potter is so loyal to him, how could he really be ?",

but Jo Rowling only gave one answer -

"Umm, I really can't answer that question because the answer is in book seven but, you shouldn't expect Dumbledore to do a Gandalf. Let me just put it that way. I'm sorry."

This may only mean that the answer that book seven provide is the answer to the "how can he really be ?"
question rather than the "we have the chance to see him in action once again?", so, looking at it from a flinty-eyed
forensic point of view, it might be unwise to over-analyze her response, the more so as she was speaking ad-lib at a
public event rather than (say) making a web post where every word can be weighed and measured (like in this post of mine:O)

After all, she did seemed to be quite unequivocal in her response to Mr Rush -

"But I see that I need to be a little more explicit and say that Dumbledore is definitely ."

Perhaps the many, many folks who know the HP world far better than I do be able to comment on whether Jo Rowling has ever before told an outright untruth when discussing the various episodes of the story before publication.

Anyway Mr H, no disrespect at all intended in this somewhat nitpicky submission, it's a very interesting site and, as you say, excellent Half-Blood Prince therapy.

Going slightly off-topic, I think about the only thing about Book Seven that we can feel entitled to be reasonably
certain about is that Voldemort's gotta go - or at least to cease to be what we know him as right now. For him to be still intact at the end would be such a downer and (for those who know their Wagner) would be like Gotterdammerung
without the note of hope. Other than that, nothing else at all would surprise me, not even the of HP himself. [On reviewing this before clicking the button, I think I would say also, that like many others, I do expect to see much more development of the Snape story. It would be one of the biggest red herrings in literary history if that story went no further, and besides this we do now have the benefit of Jo Rowling's response to Salman Rush -

S.R.: "So, is Snape good or bad? In our opinion, everything follows from it."
J.K.R.: "Well, Salman, your opinion, I would say, is right. "

Take care, y'all

Posted by Elder Lupus from Leicester, U.K. on January 23, 2007 1:58 PM

I think Dumbledore took the Draught of the living ... Then JKRowling could say he is , but really she left the word living out... so I think that he is not , cause why else would Dumbledore blew away instead of just drop .

I think there is a whole plot, you know a fake or a living if you'd like to call it so...so he would scare Voldemort in the end of book seven. isn't that what Voldemort did, only a little longer? First he's gone after he ed James and Lilly, then comes back in the fourth book, make plans and do stuff in secret with his eaters and then come back in book five? maybe Dumbledore does the same, cause I think that it is weird that Minerva didn't cry at all, maybe she in the plot too...

I just won't believe that Dumbledore is .

Posted by Hermione Fan from Curacao on January 25, 2007 3:45 PM

Firstly, I'd like to compliment you on a great site. I have enjoyed reading everyone's comments very much.

At first, when I finished the book (HBP) I was shocked at Dumbledore's but accepted that it was the truth. However, something bothered me about it, it all seemed to easy.

In fact now I feel that he must still be alive and if he isn't then I have to say that I'm a little dissapointed in JK. I say this because we are led to belive throughout this series that AD is the greatest wizard of all time, capable of beating 3-4 aurors at the same time, (OOTP) capable of standing face to face with Vol without any fear and dueling with him. (OOTP)

And now we are expected to believe that Malfoy can come out of the tower, say Expelliarmus and Dumbledore is left helpless with no wand?

I know he was suppose to be weak from the potion he had to drink to get the locket, and that he froze Harry at the point Malfoy fired his curse, but still, it seems a little to easy to me that a great wizard would be left helpless by malfoy firing a curse that is taught to 2nd years.

After all I'm sure it would seem far-fetched to us if Ron shouted Expellimellius at Voldermort only to find Voldemort's wand flying from his hand leaving him helpless for Harry to .

It was something that bothered me at the time I was reading (HBP) and it just seems rubbish to think that Dumbledore could be finished off so easily.

On another note I think the point that someone made about him being an Animagus phoenix is a very good one and would explain why JK can say Dumbledore is without telling lies. He could after all rise from the ashes as fawlkes has done so many times.

I don't think he has made a horcrux. After all it is suppose to be very evil magic involving ing and ripping your sole in two, which are two things AD wouldn't do, certainly not the latter anyway.

Finally, I hope Harry improves very quickly he seems to me to be a very average wizard at the moment not capable of destroying horcruxes let alone Voldermort, and all the love in the world isn't gonna be enough unless he learns some new moves.

Posted by Pete from England on January 28, 2007 09:15 AM

Although this site pops many questions into my head, I would have to dissagree with you. I believe that Dumbledore is . JK Rowling herself said "...don't expect a Gandlaf". Hopefully you all know what that means. I feel that if dumbledore was to be alive, she would be ripping off those books. Remember, the people in the wizarding world would still be able to talk to dumbledore in the pictures in the headmasters office.
As for Snape. I'm not too sure. But it looks probable that yes, he and dumbledore could have been up to something on the tower.
You here at this site have made me question a few things and i be excited to read about them.
But i agree with JKR...you need to get up and move on with his . It's a tragic event, and i still cry when i read it, but it just makes the story even more dramatic to read...right?

Posted by cindy from winnipeg on January 28, 2007 10:59 PM

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