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

[serenadust]

No: HPFGUIDX 145243

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Dave Hardenbrook 
<DaveH47 at m...> wrote:

<snip>
> 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.

I've been mulling over that scene as well and while I don't think 
that Dumbledore literally died in the cave, the quote you cited has 
got to be highly significant.  My personal feeling is that 
Dumbledore knows that he is already a dead man walking at the point 
when he arrived on the Astronomy tower and that he's forcing himself 
through sheer will to use his waning energy to keep Draco from 
destroying himself.  I also think that his strong desire to see 
Snape has more to do with needing to have one more conversation 
about what Snape had agreed to do earlier, than any desperate hope 
that Snape can rescure him from the effects of the horrible potion 
in the cave.

In short, Dumbledore's life was ending regardless of what action 
Draco or Snape took when they met on the tower, and he was well 
aware of that fact.  Whatever his earlier arrangement with Snape 
involved, I think that Dumbledore was making sure that his death 
would somehow further the cause (Voldemort's downfall), and not be 
in vain.

Jo Serenadust, admiring David's imagination but skeeved out by the 
idea of Inferius!Dumbledore