"Magic always leaves traces..."

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 135750

"Magic always leaves traces, sometimes very distinctive traces. I
taught Tom Riddle. I know his style." (Chap. 26 p. 563, US version)

Did anyone else find Dumbledore's magical deconstructions one of the 
most interesting parts of the cave scene? I'll miss his insights 
into the mysteries of magic. No one else seems to understand magical 
ability in quite the same way. He does seem to be making a point of 
passing on his knowledge to Harry, at least.

It also struck me that he refers to the cave as Riddle's style, not 
Voldemort's. Either Dumbledore is once again refusing to acknowledge 
who Riddle has become, or he literally means Riddle placed the 
locket in the cave as far back as the murder of Hepzibah Smith. 
There are moments in the cave when he says 'Voldemort', but in that 
particular instance he refers to Riddle.

The big question is, did Harry learn enough in the cave to recognize 
and defeat Voldemort's obstacles surrounding the remaining 
Horcruxes? Sometimes clever, sometime crude, mixed with a fear 
of 'darkness and death'...that seems to be Riddle's preoccupation at 
the time he created the protections in the cave. Although I think 
Dumbledore is saying that like any creative art, a magical style is 
recognizable across time and skill levels. So even Voldemort's 
advanced magic would presumably have undercurrents of Riddle's 
preoccupation with darkness, death, dismemberment, etc. 

Jen, sorry if this posted twice but I got a strange error message on 
the first one.