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Journal Ethelred Unraed's Journal: Harry Potter and the Bride of Ethelred [SPOILER ALERT] 26

Journal by Ethelred Unraed
*** SPOILERS *** SPOILERS *** SPOILERS ***

If you are one of the 1.75 people left on Earth who has not yet read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Paisley Prince, I suggest you IMMEDIATELY depart this Journal at once. Or else.

Anyway.

BoE had a rather interesting idea as to the real meaning of the end of HPATHBP (pronounced "thbpbpbpbpbt"). And now that I think about it, Rowling is dropping major clues all through the end, so I think she's on to something.

Her theory: Dumbledore is an Animagus who can turn into a phoenix.

Think about it. Dumbledore keeps a phoenix as a pet (Fawkes); Fawkes laments for him; his burial was in (white, obviously magical) flames that "obscure his body"; as the flames subside and before the tomb appears, a phoenix takes off (it doesn't say it was Fawkes, either).

Here is the exact passage from the funeral:

Then several people screamed. Bright, white flames had erupted around Dumbledore's body and the table upon which it lay: higher and higher they rose, obscuring the body. White smoke spiralled into the air and made strange shapes: Harry thought, for one heart-stopping moment, that he saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue, but next second the fire had vanished. In its place was a white marble tomb, encasing Dumbledore's body and the table on which he had rested.

If true, Dumbledore is indeed the greatest wizard EVAR, because it would be a stroke of genius. He's not exactly immortal, but certainly it'd nearly impossible to kill him.

Dumbledore may thus have known that the potion covering the horcrux was deadly, and known that as a phoenix he could survive it.

Snape could also have known this and "killed" Dumbledore fully aware that he would come back. There have been hints that Dumbledore and Snape share some secrets (none of the other members of the Order seem to know why Dumbledore trusts Snape so much): so it would make sense that Snape would thus be able to kill Dumbledore. Snape also had ample opportunity to kill Harry at the very end, but didn't.

It adds up very well indeed. Maybe too well...

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Harry Potter and the Bride of Ethelred [SPOILER ALERT] More

Harry Potter and the Bride of Ethelred [SPOILER ALERT]

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  • hmm (Score:1)

    by sparky4 ( 695739 ) *
    having read none of the books , and not knowing anything past the end of movie 3, you almost make me curious enough to read some them.

  • Wow. (Score:1)

    by Deamos ( 108051 ) *
    Damn.

    I didn't pick up on any of that. I was just left dumbfounded.

    Then again that's what I get for reading the damn thing as fast as I did. I should go back and read carefully and see what I get out of it.

  • That's me (Score:2)

    by Tet ( 2721 )
    If you are one of the 1.75 people left on Earth who has not yet read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Paisley Prince

    So who's the other 0.75 then? In all truth, I can't understand why anyone has read it. The hardbakc is just hugely overpriced, and I'll be waiting for the paperback release.

    • Me. I have the audiobook version, but have yet to listen.
      I don't remember having read the last one yet, though.
      See, I got a little unhappy at having a 3 book box set, that's way obsolete now, so I decided to stop buying them until they were all out :) I guess that's an example of taking the geek mentality a bit too far in the real world?
    • So who's the other 0.75 then?

      That'd be me -- i've read the first 120 pages. Not sure when (and if) i'll get a chance to finish it, though -- maybe i can borrow the book from someone who has it (i'm definitely not going to buy it, and i'm almost positively not going to download it, as it'd be a pain to read it on a computer screen).

    • Honestly, I got the hardback on the second day out for like 60% off cover price at B&N, which worked out to around $10. I can handle a $3 premium to get hardcover over paperback.
  • The Animagus part is a good catch. I was thinking that he had somehow attached himself to Fawkes in a way that would allow for this type of resurection. Couldn't think of how, though. Also, a lot of people are convinced that Snape has shown his true colors in killing D, and that he can't possibly come back from that. I don't see how that would work. Snape has got to be still acting on the Order's side. Otherwise, Dumbledore was wrong for trusting him, and the one person who has never been wrong in the
    • Otherwise, Dumbledore was wrong for trusting him, and the one person who has never been wrong in the books is Dumbledore

      Ya. I also thought of that, thinking back to the one of the scenes where Harry meets Dumbledore in his office. Dumbledore makes a pointed remark about how he's also sometimes wrong. My antennae immediately went up, because 1) it's either a major case of foreshadowing or 2) a deliberate feint by Rowling (and showing what a wonderfully humble guy Dumbledore is). The easy reading is that

  • I dunno -- I just think people are having a hard time coming to grips with the idea that Dumbledore could have died.

    The theory is an interesting one, but I think he's dead[, Jim].

    *Maybe* we might get a bit of Obi-Wan Kenobi out of him, like he's available for consultation... but that's too obvious a ripoff of Star Wars.

    I think that he's dead, because that's just the down-to-earth, straight-facts reality of the situation. Rowling seems to follow Roald Dahl's model pretty closely. And in Dahl's fiction,
    • I dunno -- I just think people are having a hard time coming to grips with the idea that Dumbledore could have died.

      Originally, I thought he was dead, too, and wasn't really all that surprised (I'd heard the news that someone dies in the book, and soon expected it to be Dumbledore very early in the book). So I was actually willing to go along with it. But BoE uncorked her theory on me this morning, and it grew on me...

      And in Dahl's fiction, the bottom line is that even the best adults are flawed, that

      • i am impressed with this theory. inform BoE that others are intrigued by this product of her devious german mind.

        if it turns out that snape is not evil, it may be difficult to explain why he is such an asshole. but you and i already both know that i'll be tuning in to book seven as soon as it comes out. if i can wrestle it away from madith to read it first, that is.

        and we already know that there is a portrait of dumbledore at hogwart's now. so even if it's only his echo, he'll be around in book 7.

        on an
        • "on an aside, the avada kadavra curse must take special concentration or extreme determination or something extra. otherwise death eaters would use it a lot more indescriminately."

          Oh my goodness. That's the key to the whole thing, isn't it?

          I thought BoE's theory was brilliant, but I saw a major hole in it... if Dumbledore is an animagus, he's still mostly human. It seems to me he'd have to be killed in Phoenix form in order to rise again. If he died as a human he would not be able to transform; if not able
          • if Dumbledore is an animagus, he's still mostly human.

            Not necessarily. Think of Bill Weasley's being a not-quite-werewolf with a taste for raw meat, without transforming into a wolf. Apparently Animagi do assume some characteristics of the animals they are able to transform into (or vice versa).

            The key seems to be that Animagi are one and the same creature, but with two forms. Unlike a werewolf, they don't lose or change their personality when they make the transformation; they just appear in a differe

        • if it turns out that snape is not evil

          BoE insists that Snape can't be evil, because he's played by Alan Rickman, who makes her go all mushy.

          Well, so much for being impressed with her devious German mind. ;-)

          if i can wrestle it away from madith to read it first, that is.

          Easy. Just make sure it's delivered on a weekend when she's visiting family [slashdot.org].

          Though I have to admit that I decided to be nice^W^W^W^Wchickened out and let her read it first.

          Cheers,

          Ethelred

    • Hmm? Gandalf... err I mean Dumbledore could certainly come back.

      In fact, judging by everything she's ripped off, he's pretty much guaranteed to.

  • Sorry, but I can't resist. I haven't read any of the books, so I have the most tenuous of ideas about characters and such, but upon reading that "Dumbledore may thus have known that the potion covering the horcrux was deadly", I thought: hey! deadly poisons covering enticing-sounding marvels, that's the Churning of the Ocean in search of the Soma, as told in the Mahabharata. The gist of it is, the Soma appeared covered by a deadly posison, but Siva promptly drank it to protect the gods from its fumes, and t

  • I like that. I did not go as far as the animagus-- but I don't think he's necessarily dead. I think we may see him relatively early on in the next book - ala Return of the King. But then again....
     
    Cracking good story either way.
  • Does that mean at least one of us does not exist on planet earth?

  • I haven't read the book yet, so I'm kind of reading this post and this thread with one eye open and one eye closed, but I have heard about the Snape / Dumbledore thing, and that in turn led me to this journal entry.

    It seems to me that having Dumbledore die and be somehow resurrected would be a kind of cheat against the rules that J.K. Rowling has set up for her world. When people in the Harry Potter books die, it's real, it's permanent, and it's irreversible, just like in our world. Harry's parents are go

    • Urgh. I would love to reply, but am afraid to spoil the book for you...

      Trying to be careful: I think Dumbledore could come back in a number of ways where the "old" Dumbledore is gone. Sort of along the lines of Spock in ST2:TWOK and ST3:TSFS. Maybe the "new" Dumbledore lacks the memories or powers of the original.

      While I agree that Rowling generally has the "once they're gone, they're gone" perspective, but this is after all a magical world, and Dumbledore is (was?) its greatest denizen. Anything could

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