Missing Horcrux = Ravenclaw's

[jjjjjuliep]

No: HPFGUIDX 137038

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "esmith222002" <c.john at i...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jjjjjuliep" <jjjjjulie at a...> 
> wrote:
 
> > > I certainly don't believe Nagini is a Horcrux!!
> > 
> > I do.  Here's why:
> > 
> > 2.  From the POV of trusting the characters:  Why would 
> > Dumbledore tell Harry things that were not true?  Why would he 
> > send Harry on a wild goose (snake?) chase, waste precious time,
> > and possibly endanger him for no good reason?  
> 
> In HBP (and the subsequent interview) JKR has set up the 
> possibility that DD makes mistakes - and when he makes them they 
> tend to be big! Of course, there is the other possibility that DD 
> just wants Harry to be aware that living things can be Horcruxes 
> (leading onto Harry a Horcrux etc etc.)

The first time I read Dumbledore's comment

--------------
"Naturally I do, but as I have already proven to you, I make mistakes 
like the next man. In fact, being — forgive me — rather cleverer than 
most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger." 
--------------

I took it to be a foreshadowing of his misjudgment of Snape.  By the 
end of the book, and rereading the second time, I believe that even 
more firmly.  I believe when push came to shove, Snape chose to save 
his own live, by killing Dumbledore.  I believe that from a dramatic 
or storytelling point of view, this action, coupled with this 
statement, is pretty much the pinacle of JKR's achievement in this 
book.  The betrayal of Dumbledore by Snape is one of the riskiest 
things JKR could have done, and it gives the book, and now the 
series, an emotional richness it would otherwise not be able to 
attain.  And now in Book 7 she will be able to show us how Snape 
attempts to redeem himself, in a parallel--but not exact--scene to 
the scene were Dumbldore tries to convince Draco to give up his 
task.  I know that this is probably the hottest of the hot button 
issues in HBP, but I am convinced that although JKR has made every 
single thing about Snape deliberately ambiguous, I think his actions 
have been true to his own evil purposes.  And because they were not 
part of some big plan he and Dumbledore had concocted, I believe his 
redemption is going to be that much more valuable from an emotional 
and thematic POV. But that probably belongs in another thread.  ;-)

> > 3.  From the POV of JKR:  she's all but said, in her interview
> > last month, that Harry needs to look for the locket, the cup,
> > the snake, and the missing item.
> >
> What she said was - 
> 'Harry now knows — well he believes he knows – what he's facing. 
> Dumbledore's guesses are never very far wide of the mark. I don't
> want to give too much away here, but Dumbledore says, `There are
> four out there, you've got to get rid of four, and then you go for
> Voldemort.' So that's where he is, and that's what he's got to do.'

Right.  None of her quote contradicts the contention I made.  She 
reaffirmed that we can trust Dumbledore on the 4 items he names.

> The phrase 'believes he knows' is very interesting here! It
> suggests that all is not what it seems.

Not necessarily.  It could mean that Harry has a limited view of what 
he truly needs to do and that it's going to get wider and more 
complicated as he actually had to go and track down and destroy the 
Horcruxes.

Again, my personal bias is that the Book 7 is not going to introduce 
any convoluted things into it.  JKR sacrificed a lot to get allllllll 
of that exposition into HBP; now she's going for the action/plot 
payoff.

jujube