The Gleam Revisited

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 45115

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "bugaloo37" <crussell at a...> wrote:
> I was thumbing through book 1 last night- and just happened to read 
> through the conversation Dumbledore had with Harry at the end of the 
> book.  IMO, Dumbledore's conversations with Harry are always 
> significant in some way.  In this particular conversation, Dumbledore 
> mentions this idea: (excuse my paraphasing) in order to die you have 
> to be human-and Voldemort no longer qualified as such.  At some 
> point, Hagrid makes virtually the same comment to Harry ( I cannot 
> recall which book-sorry).  IMO, I believe Dumbledore's gleam is a 
> result of his realization that Voldemort has regained his human form-
> which now makes him vulnerable in a way he has not been for some 
> time.  This may be a too simplistic view to take-but sometimes you 
> can overanalyze- a fault of which I am terribly guilty- obviously, or 
> I would not be involved with HPFGU.  Please do not get me wrong-I 
> very much enjoy the analyzing of literature (I took novels classes in 
> college-just for fun).  I am just saying that sometimes a duck is 
> just a duck-of course, it is up to each reader to decide when this is 
> the case.
> 
> bugaloo37-who is not in anyway trying to stop a discussion, just 
> putting in her thoughts on the matter.

More often than not, the most simple ideas are the ones that in the end 
are proven to be correct. This principle (known as Occam's Razor) tends 
to be ignored in this list (and I am the first to admit doing so. In 
fact, I once paraphrased Terry Pratchett by saying that, if Occam was a 
listee, he'd grow a beard). However, in this case, my favourite theory, 
MAGIC DISHWASHER, [Grey Wolf waits a few minutes for the groans and 
"not again"s to subside], while probably in direct oposition to Occam's 
razor as a whole, does propose the easiest interpretation to the gleam. 
This interpretation is very close to your, although it does include a 
bit of the rest of the theory with it.

To put it in short (or as short as I can manage, which is more towards 
medium), Dumbledore's eye gleams because one of the big points in his 
plan has finally happened, after long and hard preparation (a more than 
a few gambles). This point was making Voldemort *mortal*. I had a 
pretty fun discussion some time ago about why the vapour!Voldemort was 
more dangerous than the human!Voldemort, that came down to: 
vapour!Voldemort is inmortal, human!Voldemort is not. And to kill him 
and be rid of him once and for all, you need him to be mortal. It gets 
a little more complicated (part of the gleam includes the fact that he 
used Harry's blood, which flaws the potion, according to MAGIC 
DISHWASHER, which was also part of Dumbledore's plan), but the general 
idea is that, finally, his main plan has advanced (after 14 years) and 
finally Voldemort is in a position were he *can* be killed.

(On a side note, Hagrid mentions that "Voldemort wasn't human enough to 
be killed in PS, in the very first mention of Voldemort. This fact is 
later confirmed by Dumbledore, as you yourself have noted)

If you notice, after the gleam Dumbledore is seen (by Harry) to look 
"older than ever". This is because, according to MAGIC DISHWASHER, he 
then realises that, although an important step has been advanced, there 
are still many more to come, and most of those will put many of his 
friends (including, but not exclusivelly, Harry) in great danger. And 
he probably wishes he didn't have to take those steps, but knows that, 
if he wants to rid the world of the danger of Voldemort, those steps 
are necesary. That is enough to depress anyone.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who, as always, recomends anyone interested to read the big 
posts on MAGIC DISHWASHER, although he cautions that the diverse 
threads are probably more than 100 posts long