The Potion in the Cave Possibly Revealed (Re: Dumbledore MAY be alive....)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 149978

Rebecca wrote:
> 
<snip>
> "The basin was full of an emerald liq­uid emitting that
phosphorescent glow"
> 
> "Was this why he had been invited along - so that he could
force-feed Dumbledore a potion that might cause him unendurable pain?"
> 
<snip scuba diving details>
If there is a greenish light above the potion, one could submit it is
actually absorbing what it can and then reflecting back what it cannot
absorb based on the natural color of the potion in ambient or white
light.  The phosphorescent glow could be the reflection of the white
color portion of the potion - the pink creates an eyeball impression
of a brighter green.
<snip>
> 
> Tricky, tricky that JKR, hm?  IMO, DD drank some souped up Draught
of Living Death.

Carol responds:
I can't claim to be an expert on color and lighting, but AFAIK,
there's no indication that JKR is, either. It's simpler to consider
green as the actual color of the potion and to note the frequent
association of the color green in the HP series with death and poison.
(I'm not talking here about eye color or House colors, just spells and
potions and evil creatures.)

Granted, green is not always associated with evil; Ron's "Eat Slugs"
curse is relatively harmless and the green flames that result from
tossing Floo Powder into a fireplace are safe and useful. But these
spells appear to be exceptions to the general rule, in which green is
usually "poisonous," "venomous," or "acid" and often connected with
death. Avada Kedavra, the killing curse, gives off a "blinding flash
of green light," and the Dark Mark as it appears in the sky appears to
be composed of glittering emeralds. The Basilisk in CoS is described
as "a poisonous green" and the Chamber itself is filled with a
"greenish gloom." That the potion protecting the (fake) Horcrux should
glow a "phosphorescent" green is hardly surprising. It announces
itself as deadly, as if daring Voldemort's enemies to attempt to seize
the Horcrux. And it isn't merely the light that glows green. The
potion itself is green: "The basin was full of an emerald liq­uid
emitting that phosphorescent glow" and "Harry saw his face reflected,
upside down, in the smooth surface of the green potion."

As you stated, the Draught of Living Death is not green, nor does it
AFWK cause "unendurable pain" in the drinker. It's a very powerful
sleeping potion that makes the drinker appear to be dead. (Think Snow
White.) I do think we'll see the DLD in Book 7, but in relation to
faked deaths (the Malfoy or Emmeline Vance, possibly, not Dumbledore,
who is, I think, really dead). 

One remote possibility is the Shrinking Solution, which is a bright
acid green when correctly made and can be poisonous when brewed
improperly, but that seems like a long shot since no shrinking is
involved and if it's acid green, it *won't* be poisonous.

I think it's more likely, as I've suggested elsewhere, that the potion
is some sort of poisoned memory. The stone basin in which the potion
is placed is described as being "rather like the Pensieve," and the
green light emanating from the basin is "misty," like the mist that
rises from a Pensieve. After drinking several gobletsful of the
potion, Dumbledore seems to be "dreaming a horrible dream," reliving
terrible memories that may or may not be his own. (IMO, they're not
his, but that's another topic.) But the potion itself seems to be
causing him pain, physical agony as well as mental anguish:
"Dumbledore drank like a child dying of thirst, but when he had
finished, he yelled again as though his insides were on fire. 'No
more, please, no more ....'" Clearly the potion causes a terrible
burning sensation, an agonized thirst that causes the drinker to crave
water, which he can only acquire by touching the lake water and waking
the Inferi, but it also weakens the drinker, rendering him helpless.
Dumbledore is "drawing great, rattling breaths that sounded
agonizing," and as Harry's Aguamenti spell repeatedly fails, "his
breathing [is] failing." When Harry splashes him with water, he gains
enough strength to grab the locket and cast a fire spell, but he
remains weak, leaning against the cavern wall after they reach the
shore. Harry notes his "extreme pallor and his air of exhaustion." As
Dumbledore says later, "That was no health drink."

Sorry about the level of detail, but I'm trying to show that this
potion, which glows a phosphorescent green like the Dark Mark hanging
in the sky above Hogwarts, is not the Draught of Living Death but a
poisoned memory that causes both mental and physical agony and greatly
weakens the drinker. Though it does not kill the drinker immediately,
there can be no doubt of its deleterious effects, shown later as
Dumbledore slides helplessly down the tower wall. Nothing except
poison could account for such pain and weakness, but only a memory
could account for the mental anguish that accompanies the physical
agony. IMO, the resemblance of the basin to a Pensieve is not
accidental, nor is the color, so reminiscent of the Dark Mark, Avada
Kedavra, and the "venomous green" Basilisk, a coincidence.

Whatever this potion may be, it is not the Draught of Living Death,
which would simply have sent Dumbledore into a deep and deathlike
sleep. It is, as Dumbledore himself says, "something more worrisome
than blood and bodies," something sinister and deadly and cruel.

Carol, who finds Dumbledore's words to Harry at the end of the
chapter, "I am not worried, Harry. I am with you," the saddest line in
the book