Headmaster Portraits (was Re: Dumbledore dead?)

[Leonard Kim]

No: HPFGUIDX 151656

> najwa now:
> I also believe that the portrait means that Dumbledore is dead

Leonard:

This has been cited by several people as the most convincing 
evidence in favor of Dumbledore being dead.  Is this really fair?

Clearly portraits in that office are of former Headmasters.  I don't 
think we can necessarily infer anything more.  Is Headmaster a life 
position?  Did all former Headmasters keep their position until 
death?  If not, does a portrait appear when a Headmaster steps down 
(and is now a "former Headmaster" or not until they actually die?

I think in general, one can certainly have magical portraits of 
oneself without being dead.  Someone will have to check this, but 
Gilderoy Lockhart would be my guess as a canonical mention of a 
living, portraited person if there is one.

I personally think the portrait is evidence only for Dumbledore no 
longer being Headmaster of Hogwarts.  He's not necessarily dead.

The Headmaster position is obviously more than a title.  Recall the 
office locking out "Headmistress" Umbridge.  So I don't think a 
counterargument is that no Dumbledore portrait appeared during her 
short reign.

Quick point about Snape and AK.  I agree that the forceful blasting 
of Dumbledore off the tower is not consistent with other 
descriptions of AK (where people simply drop dead without a mark.)  
But Rowling does explicitly mention the green light in Snape's AK.  
Is there evidence that green light is exclusively linked to AK (its 
signature) or is there a canonical mention of another spell that has 
green light (and thus might support a ruse.)

Finally, people have mentioned it, but I think it's a much stronger 
point than is let on.  Dumbledore has been strongly associated with 
phoenixes through the entire series.  This can't be coincidence and 
there's no effective literary reason for this in my view other than 
his eventual "return from the dead."  It may be even foreshadowed in 
the fight at the ministry when Fawkes was briefly killed with AK.  
An in an interview, Rowling took pains to clarify that Fawkes is 
specific to Dumbledore, and not some kind of perk for being Hogwarts 
Headmaster.

Leonard