JKR has updated her site today -- WEBSITE SPOILER!

[hpfan_mom]

No: HPFGUIDX 158251

<maria8162001 at ...> wrote:
>
> Hello fellow HP4GU members. JKR updated her site today and I guess 
all of the members would be interested to know that she (JKR) 
answered, though belatedly, a question which was asked by one of the 
audience in her NY reading.  The question was supposed to be 
like, "What is the question you have never been asked that you ought 
to have been asked?"
> 
> Her answer can be found in her Extra Stuff section of her website, 
and clicking Miscellaneous.
> 
> S
> P
> O
> I
> L
> E
> R
> 
> S
> P
> A
> C
> E
> 
> The answer is "Why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak at 
the time of James' death, given that Dumbledore could make himself 
invisible without a cloak?"
> 
> She also stated that "there IS a significant -- even crucial -- 
answer."
> 
> maria8162001
>
hpfan_mom now:

I accept JKR's explanation that she blanked when asked this question 
on-stage, but it worked out nicely for her in that she got a chance 
to think about exactly how to phrase the question.

I had previously wondered why DD had James' invisibility cloak, but 
never exactly as JKR suggests we think about it:  AT THE TIME OF 
JAMES' DEATH.

The logical inference for me is that DD received the IC *before* 
James died, in order to actually have it AT the time of death.  This 
would preclude theories about someone taking the IC from the rubble 
of Godric's Hollow.  Instead, we should be thinking about *why* James 
would have given DD the cloak.

As members of the Order who had defied Voldemort at least once and 
perhaps already thrice, the Potters went into hiding.  Why would 
James not keep his IC, surely a useful magical resource for someone 
who doesn't want to be seen?  JKR tells us that DD doesn't need it 
for himself, so did DD need it for someone else?

I can't see that DD would think someone needed the cloak more than 
James, who was so much in danger that he took his wife and toddler 
son into hiding.  ICs are not common, but Moody even has a spare one, 
IIRC.

Is there something about this particular IC that makes it 
significant?  I'm not convinced of this theory either - James 
wouldn't worry about a thing more than his family, would he?  And if 
it were magically significant, wouldn't DD have told Harry by now?

Is it possible that James didn't *give* DD the cloak but that DD 
*took* it?

I know I'm raising questions, not answering them, but hopefully some 
of these questions will lead to a fruitful discussion --

hpfan_mom