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Why did Dumbledore have James' cloak?

by David Haber

On a new post on her official web site, J.K. Rowling admitted she made a mistake in New York when she was asked, what question have you never been asked that you ought to have been asked? She now says the question should have been, Why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak at the time of James' death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?

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Reader Comments: (Page 20)

We do not have enough information to figure out very much of what happen in the last book. Some of the questions I would like to have answers to is:

Why has none of James & Lily's friends ever contacted Harry first - before trouble? Except for Hagrid who contacted him for school, no one has ever acknowledged their friendship with his parents until something happened.

Why has no one ever suggested to Harry he visit his parents grave? Or told him about any services that may have been held?

James and Lily had parents. What happened to them. We know they lived when James & Lily were at Hogwarts; they have been mentioned by Petunia and Sirius. Did Voldemort them too? If they d, how? If living, why have they hidden themselves from their grandson? And if living, why does Petunia's parents not have contact with her? Are they in hidding to prevent harm or ? What secrets could they tell?

Ginny was alone with LV's "memory" in the Chamber of Secrets. Can a part of a soul make a horcrux? Could Ginny hold a part of a part of LV's soul? Will Harry have to her to stop LV?

Only Jo knows.

Posted by Phoebe from Lynnnwood, WA USA on October 10, 2006 11:07 PM

Thank you Shannon. Voldy couldn't even physically 'touch' Harry because of Lily's sacrifice. And he couldn't even possess him without suffering mortal agony. How then, could his soul even survive inside Harry?

And Hannah, I'm confused about one thing. " It wasn't the Horcrux spell that was performed on Harry, Aditi, but the misdirection of that spell that caused Harry to end up with LV's soul." So you're saying the spell WAS performed on something else but somehow mistakenly fallen on Harry?

But how's that possible? Whatever spell if performed, was performed AFTER Lily's (lily's sacrifice, love, violent reaction). So it should have materialised between Bertha Jorkins' shadow and Lily's shadow. The Priori Incantatem works in reverse.

LV couldn't have performed the spell before ing Lily as he wanted to make a Horcrux with Harry's , and not Lily. And when he tried to do exactly that, we all know what happened. He blew up.

Also, before ing Lily, he ed James. We know there was a mistake when James' shadow appeared before Lily's and it should've been the opposite. So, if we look beyond that mistake, LV performed only one spell before ing Lily, which was the AK that ed James. There was no Horcrux spell between the 2 shadows. Does that help?

Posted by Aditi Dani from Nagpur, India on October 11, 2006 02:33 AM

To Sharon:

Lily and James' didn't have the cloak at the time of their . Remember Hagrid took Harry out of the house? He couldn't have found Harry if the cloak was thrown over him and even if he did, Hagrid only brought Harry to DD and McGonagall. No cloak. The cloak was with DD all the time.

Although, if Hagrid had brought the cloak that night, it would have been a really good explanation as to why DD had James' cloak!

Posted by Aditi Dani from Nagpur, India on October 11, 2006 02:38 AM

To Phoebe in Lynnwood
Here is a quote from Jo in an interview she gave to Mugglenet and Leaky Cauldron after book 6. It is about Harry's grandparents and thought you might like to read it.

MA: What about Harry's family - his grandparents - were they ed?

JKR: No. This takes us into more mundane territory. As a writer, it was more interesting, plot-wise, if Harry was completely alone. So I rather ruthlessly disposed of his entire family apart from Aunt Petunia. I mean, James and Lily are massively important to the plot, of course, but the grandparents? No. And, because I do like my backstory: Petunia and Lily's parents, normal Muggle . James's parents were elderly, were getting on a little when he was born, which explains the only child, very pampered, had-him-late-in-life-so-he's-an-extra-treasure, as often happens, I think. They were old in wizarding terms, and they d. They succumbed to a wizarding illness. That's as far as it goes. There's nothing serious or sinister about those s. I just needed them out of the way so I ed them.

Posted by Shannon Daniel from Spokane, Wa on October 11, 2006 09:01 AM

Also to Phoebe in Lynnwood,
1. Concerning James and Lilys friends. They were in hiding just like the Potters because of LV's reign of terror. Harry was whisked away right after the s happened to the Dursleys; to protect him and to live a normal life "until the time is right". No one in The Order except for DD, McGonagle and Hagrid knew where Harry was taken. So they couldn't just apparate and say "hey Harry, what's up?"
Most of the Potters' friends were also in The Original Order of the Phoenix. For a full list go to page 173&174 in OTP (American Hardcover)book 5. Moody shows Harry a picture of the Order and explains how each one was ed or tortured by Voldy and his followers.
2. Harry to visit graves of his parents. Harry states at the end of book 6 that he wants to visit his parents graves and visit Godrics Hollow to see where they were ed. I doubt there was much time for s because things happened so fast. The Eaters who were caught, were sent to Azkaban, those who weren't..ie: Lucious Malfoy tried to go back to their everyday lives claiming they were under the Imperious Curse.
3. Regarding Ginny being a Horcrux or posessed by Voldy, here is another quote from the Leaky/ Mugglenet Interview with JKR.

MA: Someone put it to me last night, that if Ginny, with the diary -

JKR: Harry definitely destroyed that piece of soul. You saw it take shape, you saw it destroyed, it's gone. And Ginny is definitely in no way possessed by Voldemort.

MA: Is she still a Parselmouth?

JKR: No.

MA: Does she have a life to Harry from Book 2?

JKR: No, not really. Wormtail is different. You know, part of me would just love to explain the whole thing to you, plot of Book 7, you know, I honestly would.

Hope ths clears up some of your questions:)

Posted by Shannon Daniel from Spokane, Wa on October 11, 2006 10:00 AM

There are lots of comments about Horcruxes, but we only we only found out about them in Book 6. In Jo's last diary entry she says she has been looking for a new word for something:

"Sitting at my desk trying to invent a word yesterday brought back memories of the last time I did so...."

This could be a clue that something equally important be revealed in Book 7, which as yet we know nothing about?

Lots of questions but no answers.

Posted by Holly from London on October 12, 2006 04:54 AM

I think Hannah and A.J. have got a good case for Harry being a horcrux. I was thinking along the same lines when I read HBP. This whole argument about the Priori I while interesting may be overlooking an easy explanation as to why a shadow of that spell wasn't seen in GoF. Couldn't LV have prepared the horcrux vessel prior to confronting the Potters? The AK curse that LV used on HP wasn't seen obstensibly because HP wasn't ed. Maybe a special AK has to be done to include the making of a horcrux. Since LV's soul would've been ripped twice with the ings of James and Lily just prior to attempting to Harry isn't it plausible that while the AK failed to HP LV may have inadvertenly directed a piece of his soul into HP rather than the intended horcrux vessel? As far as LV's soul not being able to reside in HP (a really good point) DD stated that he doesn't think LV can feel it when a piece of his torn soul is destroyed so maybe he wouldn't feel anything once his soul was torn and it could reside in HP afterall.

Prediction: HP s LV and then realizes that he must sacrifice himself ala Arnold in Terminator 2 to keep LV from coming back (or get a really good plastic surgeon).

Also, a small aside - in Task 1 of GoF why didn't Harry just use "accio dragon's egg"? Certainly not as entertaining I admit.

Posted by bart from Denver, Colorado on October 12, 2006 3:25 PM

Bart: Maybe you can't accio living things (otherwise we'd be seeing people annoy others by accioing each other!) Or maybe he was afraid that he might accio one of the real dragon eggs and break it in the process by accident.

Posted by Dave Haber from Los Angeles, CA on October 12, 2006 3:29 PM

Bart, agreed that LV might have created the Horcrux vessel prior to ing James and Lily. But to actually encase part of his soul in it, he'd need a spell to do so. But I don't think LV created a Horcrux vessel because:

1. Whatever objects he wanted to use for Horcruxes (the cup, the locket, the diary...) were right infront of him.

2. What was the use of performing the Horcrux spell before an actual ing, where there's no ripped soul and no part of it to encase in the Horcrux?

So, LV would have had to perform the spell right there at Godric's Hollow if he wanted to make a Horcrux with Harry's . I don't think he did, even if that's what he'd intended.

Also, about LV's soul living in Harry. True he was so maimed that could no more feel like normal people did. So that means, he wouldn't be able to know whatever happened to his soul, if it was inside Harry. Even if Harry's pure heart destroyed such a vile, evil thing. Does that make sense?
If LV's soul is indeed inside Harry, it be destroyed by his goodness but LV wouldn't know about it.

Posted by Aditi Dani from Nagpur, India on October 13, 2006 12:26 AM

Aditi - I don't understand what you mean by "Whatever objects he wanted to use for Horcruxes (the cup, the locket, the diary...) were right infront of him". Can't we assume that they were already horcruxes and hidden away by LV? I just wonder if the horcrux curse failed like LV's AK curse but still caused an unintended affect (the transference of some of LV's power - and possibly soul). Maybe since LV failed in creating his intended horcrux you would not see the shadow of the spell, much in the same way you don't see the shadow of the AK curse when LV failed in ing HP but essentially ed himself. Wouldn't a shadow of LV have come out of the wand if all uses of the wand (failed or otherwise) appeared as a shadow in priori incantem (sp?).

Another aside, since LV knows that his diary horcrux has been destroyed, isn't it likely that he create another to total 7 (i.e., the Bones ). So instead of 5 known Horcruxes (hufflepuff Cup, the locket,Slytherns ring, the diary, and LV himself) and 2 unknowns, there may be three unknowns.

Posted by bart from Denver, Colorado on October 13, 2006 10:54 AM

Bart, I guess I misunderstood you. When you said 'LV created his Horcrux Vessel' I thought you meant like literally he 'made' one. You were obviously referring to 'making those objects Horcruxes'. Oops!:)

Well, Bart the shadow of the unintended Horcrux too, would have appeared in the Priori Incantatem. The shadow of the failed AK did not appear because it DID NOT either Harry or LV, and not because it backfired unintentionally on LV himself. He already had 5 Horcruxes made so he couldn't . The shadow of AK curse is always the shadow of the victim. So, no victim; no shadow.

But the Horcrux spell is a different case. If did end up in Harry instead of his intended object, the shadow of something related to Harry (like his scar) would have come up in the Priori Incantatem. The spell was succesful technically, but not according to LV's wishes. I hope that clears up your first doubt.

For your second question, there was quite a lot of discussion on that in the past comments. Maybe you'd like to check up on that.

According to DD, LV was still one Horcrux short when he entered Godric's Hollow to the Potters. So that means, up until his regeneration he made no more Horcruxes (thanks to dear Priori). The diary he knows was destroyed so, if he wants a goal of 7 he have to make 2 more Horcruxes. Which incidentally ties up with the 2 important s of Bones and Vance. We don't know for sure though if LV ed them in person.

Posted by Aditi Dani from Nagpur, India on October 13, 2006 1:28 PM

Aditi - Yes, my point was maybe he prepared a horcrux vessel (preformed the curse on the object - something of ravenclaw's perhaps) to have it ready prior to attempting to kil Harry. Like opening a jar before pouring his ripped soul in. I guess the whole issue is murky to me and likely remain so until Book 7. It just seems like alot of conjecture is being taken as canon. I mean how is he able to transfer his powers accidentally but not his ripped soul? Also, I was under the impression that it was the AK that backfired on LV and left him as a spirit and the only thing keeping him alive was the existence of the other horcruxes. But I guess he would have needed a horcrux to regain his body, unless the last part of his soul had remained in his spirit when his curse rebounded. Aagh my head hurts. JKR needs to hurry up on that Book 7.

Posted by bart from Denver, Colorado on October 13, 2006 3:36 PM

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