Calling Fawkes Re: Dumbledore's Actions in MOM Duel

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 83870

 > Jen: <snip> 
> > The effects of the spell on the shield <snip> made me wonder if 
> this was Dumbledore's emergency call to Fawkes. Fawkes shows up 
> shortly after this incident. No, DD couldn't have known LV would 
> conjure a shield, thus making the sound, but it's an interesting 
> thought.
> 
> dc<snip>:
> (Or is the chilling sound a warning for LV, because the spell 
caused 
> no *visible* damage but must have affected him in some way? Nah. 
> Then it would sound like phoenix song to Harry! Speaking of 
phoenix, 
> I think Fawkes just knows when to come, in time to save 
Dumbledore, 
> much as Dumbledore appeared just in time to save Harry. Nice 
> choreography all around.)   

Jen:  Yes, good point dc. After reading the scene and thinking 
about "calling Fawkes" I decided that would be entirely unecessary. 
Fawkes and DD seem to have an unusal simpatico and no call would be 
necessary to bring him to Dumbledore's side (or Fawkes to Harry's 
side, it seems, if COS is evidence and perhaps hearing the Phoenix 
song in GOF). 

 dc:
> Dumbledore's powerful spell causes no visible damage to 
Voldemort's 
> shield.  But Harry finds the sound oddly chilling. Uh oh. Little 
> hairs up on the back of the neck. Because the gonglike note 
> announces that DD cannot damage LV?  Because Harry will be told, 
> before the night is out, that he is the one who has to resolve 
this 
> battle? And that little piece of information is going to 
reverberate 
> for Harry, impact him and everyone around him?  

Jen: Interesting. As you said, *Harry* finds the gong-like 
sound "oddly chilling". That still indicates some kind of warning to 
me, which I initially thought of as the warning call to Fawkes but 
it could be something else. You said later DD is trying to protect 
Harry in this duel more than trying to harm Voldemort, and I think 
the sound is directed at Voldemort for this reason. It obviously 
means *something* to Voldemort because after the sound he makes the 
point, "You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?" (OOTP, chap. 36,p. 
814). Does LV say that just because the spell isn't AK, or do LV and 
Dumbledore both know what spell DD sent his way and what the 
implications are? 

While I like your idea on a thematic level about Dumbledore sending 
a message to Harry (if I understand what you're saying correctly), 
it just seems like this duel is very much between Dumbledore and LV, 
as the two (current)leaders of this battle and long-time enemies. LV 
is making his intentions very clear, that he wishes to destroy DD 
because there's nothing worse than death. And DD is just as clearly 
telling Voldemort--'you're greatest weakness is your belief that 
death is the worst outcome'.


dc:
> I still think DD was using spells to actively trying to stop 
> Voldemort, to protect Harry, who was so close and so vulnerable. 
> Yet ultimately, he couldn't protect Harry; only Harry's emotions 
> threw Voldemort from him. Harry saved himself, even if 
> unintentionally. So does the gong signal the passing of the Dark-
> Lord-Defeater torch from Dumbledore to Harry?  That's kind of 
> nifty.   But think about poor Harry, watching this amazing duel of 
> serious magical powers, and thinking "I can't do that..."
 

Jen: I do think it would be nifty if Harry later thinks back to the 
gong-like sound and realizes that was the pivotal moment when he 
realized 'no one, not even Dumbledore, can fight this battle for me'.
(And maybe that's why you're saying it was "chilling" to Harry, even 
if on a subconcious level--I didn't catch that earlier).

Dumbledore does try to alleviate some of Harry's fears about not 
being a match for LV in the dueling area, when he tells him about 
the room in the Dept. of Mysteries and the "power held within that 
room that you possess in great quantities and which Voldemort has 
not at all." (OOTP, chap. 37, p. 844) I like to think of that as 
foreshadowing that Harry will not be forced to duel with LV, per se, 
but he will have to do something even more difficult in the end. 
Like DD is saying, 'you see how great my powers are, but even I do 
not possess the ability to end Voldemort's reign--you possess 
something far greater'. Ooh, shivers thinking about that.



>   - dc, who has written too much about a single note but finds it 
so 
> interesting.

Jen, who can be equally mesmerized by the smallest details, too....