The smoke serpent

[Florentine Maier]

No: HPFGUIDX 79337

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> I don't think this has been raised in a thread previously but I am 
> puzzled as to its importance having just reached it on my fifth 
> reading. Anyone got a view?
> 
> OOTP Chapter 22 pp.415-6 UK Bloomsbury edition.
> 
> "Dumbledore now swooped down on one of the fragile silver 
instruments 
> whose function Harry had never known,carried it over to his desk, 
sat 
> down facing them again and tapped it gently with the tip of his 
wand.
> The instrument tinkled into life at once with rhythmic clinking 
> noises. Tiny puffs of pale green smoke issued from the miniscule 
> silver tube at the top. Dumbledore watched the smoke closely, his 
> brow furrowed. After a few seconds, the tiny puffs became a steady 
> stream of smoke that thickened and coiled in the air... a serpent's 
> head grew out of the end of it, opening its mouth wide. Harry 
> wondered whether the instrument was confirming his story: he looked 
> eagerly at Dumbledore for a sign that he was right, but Dumbledore 
> did not look up.
> 
> "Naturally, naturally", murmured Dumbledore, apparently to himself, 
> still observing the stream of smoke without the slightest sign of 
> surprise. "But in essence divided?"
> 
> Harry could make neither head nor tail of this question. The smoke 
> serpent, however, split instantly into two snakes, both coiling and 
> undulating in the dark air. With a look of grim satisfaction, 
> Dumbledore gave the instrument another gentle tap with his wand: 
the 
> clinking noise slowed and died and the smoke serpents grew faint, 
> became a formless haze and vanished."
> 
> OK, so what's all this about? Something to do with Harry 
> being "inside" the snake yet separate from it? Answers on a 
postcard 
> please!
> 
> Geoff

My theory is that the two snakeheads are refering to Tom Riddle and 
Lord Voldemort. They are "in essence divided". Dumbledore wants to 
bring out the human side (=Tom Riddle) in Lord Voldemort, that's why 
he keeps on calling him "Tom" at the duel in the entry hall of the 
MoM.

Florentine