Fawkes and the Sea

[erisedstraeh2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 43066

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "bugaloo37" <crussell at a...> wrote:

> IMO, there has to be a connection between Voldemort's desire for 
> Harry's death and Voldemort's demise.  Fear of destruction or the 
> quest for some secret power hidden within Harry (the secret of 
> immortality perhaps-i.e...all the references to the phoenix?, his 
> mother's green eyes?, being the heir of Gryffindor?) seems to be 
> the driving force behind Voldemort's actions in regards to Harry. 
> Harry is the key-why?- we can only guess!!!

Now me:

Hmmm...I've been thinking a lot about the phoenix, since this bird is 
in the title of the next book and Fawkes has played a big role so 
far.  There was some recent discussion about Fawkes being 
Dumbledore's animagus, but I think Fawkes was Godric Gryffindor's 
phoenix when Gryffindor was alive.

I offer the following support for this theory:

(1) We know from FB and WTFT that phoenixes live for a long time 
since they can resurrect themselves from the ashes of their elderly 
selves.  So it's conceivable that Fawkes could have been around for 
1,000 years.  After all, Slytherin's basilisk hung around that long.  
I think Fawkes represents good while Slytherin's basilisk represents 
evil - Fawkes appears when Harry is fighting the basilisk, and 
punches the basilisk's eyes out so it can no longer kill or petrify 
with its glare.  The phoenix song strengthens Harry when he's 
fighting Diary!Riddle in the chamber and Recorporated!Voldemort in 
the graveyard. Also, as the Lexicon tells us, in legend, the griffin 
was believed to be the "adversary of serpent and basilisks, both of 
which were seen as embodiments of satanic demons." Perhaps a clue to 
a possible good-against-evil fight between Gryffindor and Slytherin 
1,000 years ago (there just *has* to be more to this rivalry than 
their disagreement over whether to admit Muggle-borns to Hogwarts, 
IMO!).

(2) Fawkes is scarlet and gold, the colors of Gryffindor House.

(3) Fawkes lives in Dumbledore's office along with the sorting hat 
and sword that used to belong to Gryffindor.  Also, in CoS, we're 
told that the door knocker on Dumbledore's office door was in the 
shape of a griffin.  I believe Dumbledore's office was once 
Gryffindor's office.  I *don't* think Dumbledore is a descendant of 
Gryffindor, however, because I believe Harry is a descendant of 
Gryffindor (as I elaborated in a previous post which explored 
parallels between St. Godric and Harry) and I don't think Dumbledore 
would have left him with those horrible Dursleys if Harry was a 
relative (plus Dumbledore says in SS/PS that the Dursleys are the 
only family Harry has left).

Last night, I was reading David Colbert's book, The Magical Worlds of 
Harry Potter, and was struck by what he says about the Druidess 
Cliodna (one of the famous witches on the trading cards that come 
with the Chocolate Frogs in SS/PS).  Colbert writes: "She is also 
goddess of the sea...She has three enchanted birds that heal the 
sick" (p. 185).  An enchanted bird that heals the sick - sounds to me 
like this could be the healing tears of a phoenix!

And the sea...St. Godric was a sailor/ship's captain.  He was known 
to stop in mid-sentence to pray for ships in danger of shipwreck.  
There are also sea legends about St. Cuthbert, who was St. Godric's 
inspiration.  Also, there's a shot in the beginning of the trailer 
for the second Movie-That-Must-Not-Be-Named that shows Harry sitting 
in front of the sea (with Hedwig fluttering down to sit next to 
him).  I read somewhere that JKR gave the director of the first Movie-
That-Must-Not-Be-Named an advance copy of GoF - I wonder if there are 
sea scenes in OoP that Mr. Columbus got an advance copy of?

~Phyllis