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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?
> Read the full articlePages: << < 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 ... > >> Reader Comments: (Page 34) I agree that James gave the cloak to Dumbledore as a gesture of love and sacrifice. He knew Voldemort was after them and it was likely he would . Just like Lilly, he gave what he had of value to save his son. And this is why the cloak is important; per JK. Those who loved Harry gave him things, cloak, life, Grimmauld Place, protection (from Dumbledore), etc. And their love, the love he has in his heart, and the love that surrounds him from his friends allow him the strength and power to defeat Voldemort. Love conquers all. Posted by tom from columbus on January 14, 2007 07:13 AM
ummm is it only me that remembers that horcruxes are extremely evil and dark magic and dumbledore or JK has said that dumbledore has never made a horcrux so why would James someone to make a horcrux when ing is the most evil deed one can do. The same goes for Godric Gryffindor. Posted by Michael S from Baltimore, MD on January 14, 2007 12:50 PM
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The reason Dumbledore had James' cloak was that he was lending it to Petunia to visit the Potters. I know, I know...she hated them and she hated magic. But, either for the same reason that she begrudgingly took in Harry or maybe because of something else entirely different that we don't yet know of (...maybe to do with that "creaky step" in Privet Drive) Petunia knew more than she let on to Vernon. Thats why dumbledore's howler said "remember my last" It meant that there had been other correspondences..
So, this may mean that petunia had been to godric's hollow and so, may have information (horcrux, RAB, etc) that help harry in his quest.
I considered that she might have actually been at Godric's hollow when voldemort ed lily and james, but in sorcerer's stone she is described as either chatting or gossiping happily on the phone. Clearly she had not known at that point, that her sister had been ed. However, her reaction to vernon, when he asked if she'd heard from her sister, fits perfectly, if she'd been hiding that she had been secretly visiting them. (Remember, that even though she speaks as having hated her sister, she also sounds like she had been jealous, "Oh it was always Lily this and Lily that..." I don't know but its the only reason I can think of that JKR would ask why Dumbledore had the cloak...Think about it!
This theory would also explain Jo's assertion that, while petunia is not a witch or a squib, There is more to her than meets the eye. Posted by Leah from New York on January 14, 2007 6:48 PM
What did Dudley see when he faced the Dementors in book five?
JK Rowling replies -> Ah, good question. You'll find out!
Leah,
As you said about Petunia using the cloak to visit Godrics Hollow and maybe she was there on the night Harrys parents met their demise and maybe Dudley went with her and witnessed something a small child shouldn't be subjected to! Posted by glorfindel from aberdeen on January 14, 2007 10:44 PM
I think the cloak has no magical power in itself, except of course to provide invisibility. It might be kind of a tracker: if James had to warn Dumbledore, he could do it through the cloak (changing color or something like that) and he did it the fatal night.
If this is true, Dumbledore was probably there when Voldemort tried to Harry. He could have saved Lily, but decided not to do it, because the prophecy had to be completed (the same as when Hermione stopped Harry from interfering in PoA). That would explain why Dumbledore doesn't tell much to Harry: telling the truth would be so difficult. Maybe, Dumbledore was about to tell the whole story to Harry at the end of OotP, but did not when he saw how Harry reacted so badly to Sirius' . Harry was not mature enough to hear that defeating Voldemort was more important to Dumbledore than his mother's life. Posted by herve from strasbourg on January 15, 2007 01:21 AM
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I originally thought that snape might have been under the cloak but of course JK said that was not true on her web site.
I am very intrigued with the idea of Petunia being under the cloak. This would explain alot. There is more to her than meets the eye. The whole scene of Dumbledore telling her to remember my last and her apparent knowledge of the wizarding world would point to a more familiar knowledge than one who considered her sister a "freak". Likewise her knowledge of how James and Lilly d is interesting. (How else would she know?) Perhaps because she had visited Lilly or was under the cloak and saw Lilly . In fact it makes it easier for me to understand why Dumbledore has the cloak, and why she took Harry in. I can think of no good reason James would give the cloak to Dumbledore. But he would give it to a relative to protect them, it was afterall a family heirloom. Dumbledore could have then retrieved the cloak from Petunia when he dropped off Harry.
JK does tend to leave clues along the way, but they are not obvious until we look in retrospect. When we look at the information that is at our disposal this makes sense.
One other thing, did JK say that we would see the Mirror of erised again or is it gone for good? Posted by Jeff from San Augustine , TX on January 15, 2007 8:54 PM
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Jeff, Petunia being there is a great idea. Imagine that Harry was devoted by Voldemort to become his living Horcrux. Voldemort would have ripped away Harry's soul and replaced it by a part of his own soul. Years later, being a grown-up wizard, Harry/Voldemort would have ed (vanquish) Riddle/Voldemort (which fulfilled the beginning of the prophecy that Voldemort heard of) and Voldemort would go on living through Harry's body, with more powers and more to live.
To ensure that someone would take care of Harry/Voldemort as a child, he needed Lily. But she prefered because she loved Harry as a human, body and soul altogether, and could not accept Harry's soul to be taken off (and as said Jo, any normal mother would have reacted the same).
When it became obvious to Voldemort that Lily would not help him, he ed her and went for Petunia. She accepted (he probably told her he was the most powerful and feared wizard and that she had no real other choice)and made with him an Unbreakable Vow, as follows:
To raise Harry and take care of him, so that nothing serious happen to him.
To let him go to Hogwarts if Harry receives a letter that tells him to do so.
Not to say a word about that night.
This would perfectly explain Petunia's behaviour, why she is so frightened, why Harry cannot get away from Privet Drive, why she does not tell anything (imagine that a single word you say might you, you would suppress some words from your glossary), why they try to escape from letters about Hogwarts. Posted by herve from strasbourg on January 16, 2007 01:33 AM
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Well, Jeff, actually, Dumbledore couldn't have retreived the cloak when he dropped off harry, because we see that scene from his arrival to his departure. He doesn't enter the house. He doesn't speak with Petunia. He doesn't even make some bizarre hand gestures that we can interperet as a heretofore not percieved nonverbal Accio! or something. No, I think at the time he drops off harry, dumbledore already has the cloak. But if it had been used by Petunia at some point to visit lily, it begs to questions...Why? and what plot significance might it have?
What was her purpose in visiting-was it just to visit or did they ask some sort of favor of her? Could they have asked her to hold (hide)something for them...Or, while visiting, could she have "borrowed" something interesting she saw?
When the Weasley boys come to resue harry from Privet Drive, in COS, Harry cautions Fred and George who are going to fetch his trunk from downstairs, "Watch out for the bottom stair...it creaks." Would Petunia have a creaky stair in her perfect home? Why is there a creaky step? Is it a hiding place (like the loose floor board in Harry's room) Could Petunia be hiding something? Posted by leah from New York on January 16, 2007 03:02 AM
i dont think the cloak belongs to godric gryffindor...
because even dumbledore can become invisible without the help of the cloak... and certainly gryffindor would be much more powerful wizard than dumbledore...in 2nd book McGonagall says that the 4 founders are the greatest witches and wizards of time...when saying about chamber of secrets... so he doesnt need an invisibilty cloak. Posted by dileep kumar from chennai,india on January 16, 2007 06:33 AM
Leah, That is an excellent thought. JK said there is more to Petunia. I had not thought of the creaky step. It is odd that this perfect housekeeper would have something as irksome as a creaky step. The thought that she could have one of the horcux in her house, possibly the unknown relic of Gryffindor, is a very real. We are going to get to know more about James and Lilly in the next book and I expect more of Petunia. She may be a stick in the mud but she has knowledge of the wizarding world and does seem to have a soft heart at times. This is a very intriguing theory. Posted by Jeff from San Augustine, TX on January 16, 2007 5:37 PM
Jeff, Your theory is very intriguing but, I noticed something though, Dumbledore said in HBP that Voldemort never did find any relics from Godric Gryffindor. So that leaves great room for speculation on what the relic is that Petunia has in her house under the creaky step. If petunia was indeed under the cloak, (as i suspect she was) she would have seen the of Lily and James, also much more important, The attack on Harry. I think at some point lily and/or james might have had a relic of Godric Gryffindor, and maybe one of them was going to give it to petunia for safe keeping. At the exchange in Godrics Hollow, Petunia was under the cloak and a relic of GG was out. Volemort then attacked harry and his soul was transferred into this object. And petunia took it. She may not have known what it was but thought it important all the same. Posted by Bennett from Keller, TX on January 16, 2007 7:38 PM
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There are facts which make it difficult to believe that Petunia was at "Godric's Hollow" the night Lily and James d.
In chapter one PS right in the beginning it says:
"The Dursley's had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it.They couldn't bear it if anyone found out about the Potter's. Mrs.Potter was Mrs. Dursleys sister, but they hadn't met for SEVERAL years.
The Dursley's knew that the Potters had a small son too, but they had never even seen him."
Would Jo really pull the wool over her reader's eyes, right at the beginning of her books?
We can ask ourselves now, how did she know that Lily had a little boy named Harry when she wasn't in contact with her sister for several years? Maybe the logical explanation is, that Harry's Grandparents still lived and they informed their daughter Petunia what was going on in Lily's live.
Or is this where Dumbledore's letter come into play? Because Jo told us that there were besides the first letter to the Dursley, (the night Harry was left at their doorstep) and the famous Howler, other letters, addressed only to Petunia by him.
Also, we are told in the book that Petunia knew that her sister got "blown up" She probably learned that from Dumbledore's letter.
I scarcely believe she had the invisibility cloak. Why else would Jo say" Why did Dumbledore have James's coak"?
Assuming she went to Godric's Hollow that night, how was she able to find Lily? We are told that only the secret keeper, this being Peter Pettigrew, knew where the Potter's lived.The same HOUSE, who was under the Fidelius Charm?
I think what happened was that Petunia, afraid Dudley could also have inherited his aunt's magical ability, made some kind of bargain with Lily/Dumbledore in case Dudley would be a wizard!
It says in the books that whenever a magical child is born, Professor McGonagal is informed.I bet the first to know are the people who work at the "Departement for Mysteries". Where I am sure Lily worked. Lily, knowing her sister's animosity against the magical world, made sure Petunia was informed. Petunia went amok and made sure Dudley was Memory-charmed...
That would also explain her "oddly flushed" face, when Dumbledore told her Dudley was abused by his parents! Because she would of changed her son's destiny without his knowledge! Posted by Mistral from Switzerland on January 17, 2007 12:56 PM
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