[HPforGrownups] Re: Horcruxes, the Prophesy, where Dumbledore goes, and other secrets

[Kemper]

No: HPFGUIDX 154134

> aceworker wrote:
> >
> But something is suspicious about that sleeping
> > portrait.
> >
>
>
> Tonks replied:
> I think it makes sense to have the portrait of DD asleep. He had a
> hard day for one thing. And we need to make the transition from DD
> alive to DD dead before we can see the portrait communicating with
> anyone. Seeing his portrait asleep helps us realize that DD is dead.
> And he is resting peacefully. Isn't that what we say, the image that
> is planted in us by our traditions of funeral homes and funerals?
> Our loved one is asleep. The body is laid out as if asleep and at
> peace. So I don't see the fact that DD is asleep in his portrait as
> unusual or suspicious. It would seem weird IMO to see him talking
> and acting normally when people are still morning his death and
> there hasn't been a funeral yet. I think that probably all of the
> headmasters portraits looked that way until sometime after their
> funerals.
>
> I agree with the person that said that Phineas will be the first to
> volunteer information to McG. Would be fun to be a mouse in the
> corner to hear that one. Maybe DD will still be asleep when it
> happens.
>
> 


Kemper now:
Hi Tonks!  The Phineas comment was mine.

I'm not sure if anyone knows, but I'm a DD lives fan.  Putting that
aside, I don't think the portraits of the past Headmasters denote a
Headmaster who is dead.  IIRC, they are always referred to as 'past'
or 'former' Headmasters.  To me, this suggests that a Headmaster could
retire and still have a portrait.

Putting it another way (for the Americans), if the Headmasters were
Supreme Court Justices, then Sandra Day O'Connor's portrait would be
yucking it up with William Rehnquist's portrait:  one retired while
the other died.

Kemper