"I came back ... After a fashion" (was: *When* did Dumbledore die?)

[Dave Hardenbrook]

No: HPFGUIDX 145170

One thing has always puzzled me, and as it relates to the question
of "When did Dumbledore die?", I'll put it in this thread:

What exactly does Dumbledore mean when, on the tower, he tells Draco,
"I came back ... after a fashion" (HBP, US Ed. p. 590) -- Came back
from what?  The cave?  And why only in a figurative sense?

So here's a totally wild idea that swam into my head: Is it possible
that Dumbledore died in the cave?  In this scenario I imagine DD at
the point of death, and while Harry is distracted by his attempts to
fill the goblet with water, DD enchants his own body so that after
death it becomes an inferius and mimics the living DD until the body is
blasted off the tower by Snape's bogus AK!

I realize this idea is wrought with holes, starting with: A) The magic
to animate DD's own dead body should not have worked because DD's
magic should cease after death; B) By the same token, DD's spell
immobilizing Harry shouldn't have worked at all; and C) Would any
inferius be capable of intelligently engaging in a "pleasant
little chat about Ways and Means" anyway? ... But I thought I'd put
the thought out there anyway as a means of starting a "pleasant
little chat" about what DD's words, "I came back after a fashion"
mean, and how they might relate to this question of exactly when
he died and how.

-- 
Dave