Why advertise the Ring?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 150523

Triinum
> 2) There is a logical reason, why Dumbledore wants to advertise his
> having the ring. Could it be a signal of something to someone else,
> rather than Tom? Dumbledore doesn't wear it *all* the time. 
> 
> And further: Tom knows that the diary horcrux is destroyed. How do we
> know that he hasn't replaced it yet?
> 

Pippin:
The idea seems to be that Riddle wants to make seven and only seven
horcruxes. Making more might weaken the spell, even if some of the
orginal seven have been destroyed. 

The ring was definitely a signal to Slughorn. Dumbledore was letting
him know that he hadn't been fooled by the fake memory and allowing
him to suspect that he'd found a horcrux despite Sluggy's lack of 
cooperation. 


It may have been a way to let Sluggy know he was not going to be
safe even if he didn't give up the memory --sooner or later Voldemort
was going to realize that Dumbledore knew his secret, and he would
probably want Slughorn dead in revenge, whether Slughorn actually
gave information to Dumbledore or not.

Pippin