Connections...again

[snow15145]

No: HPFGUIDX 158279



I promised a scenario about Fawkes in my response to Chapter 
Discussion, which I have been working on for a few days, however it 
is more than just a phoenix I will be discussing.

Dumbledore may certainly be dead but will his spirit live on to give 
direction?

My thoughts start with the Connection (I wrote about in message 
109837 before HBP) between Dumbledore, Fawkes and Harry. I hadn't 
thought about the connection again until recently when I reread The 
Phoenix Lament and found a further connection to my first summary. 

Basically it goes something like this:

(1) Harry's first true introduction to Fawkes was hearing his arrival 
by way of phoenix song in the Chamber immediately after saying "He's 
not as gone as you might think!" {COS pg. 315}

Dumbledore confides to Harry that only true loyalty to him could have 
caused such a reaction from the phoenix.  This is when and how the 
connection may have been created between the three of them. 

(2) The next connection that we see is in the Priori Incantatem 
chapter of GOF when the brother wands that have Fawkes cores, connect 
and form a webbed dome which simultaneously induced music:

"And then an unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air
It was 
coming from every thread of the light-spun web[ 
 ]" {GOF pg. 664}

This was a sound that Harry recognized because he heard it before; it 
was the phoenix song. To Harry "It was the sound of hope" {GOF pg. 
664} and "He felt as though the song were inside him instead of just 
around him
 It was the sound he connected with Dumbledore "{GOF pg. 
664}

This connection Harry made between the sound of the phoenix song and 
Dumbledore was giving Harry orders:

"Don't break the connection."

(3) In the OOP we have yet another example of the connection between 
the Phoenix, Dumbledore and Harry but different from the first 
examples. This time the sight of Dumbledore induces the feeling that 
the Phoenix song gives Harry. 

"A powerful emotion had risen in Harry's chest at the sight of 
Dumbledore, a fortified, hopeful feeling rather like that which 
phoenix song gave him. {OOP pg. 139}

(4) The final connection we see in HBP, there are three separate 
instances.

(a) Harry had just announced to the persons visiting Bill that 
Dumbledore was dead:

"-more Death Eaters arrived – and then Snape – and Snape did it. The 
Avada Kedavra." Harry couldn't go on. {HBP pg. 614}

At these words Madam Pomphrey bursts into tears and Ginny 
whispers "Shh! Listen!" {HBP pg. 614}

This is when everyone notices that the phoenix song is filling the 
air outside but Harry felt as though "[ 
] the music was inside him, 
not without: It was his own grief turned magically to song that 
echoed across the grounds and through the castle windows." {HBP pg. 
615}

(b) Again we see that Harry's statement to Bill's room of visitors of 
Snape's comment "He shouted, `It's over," [ 
] "He'd done what he'd 
meant to do." {HBP pg. 621} is directly followed by more feelings 
induced from the phoenix song, which Harry relates to Dumbledore when 
he thinks what has happened and will happen to Dumbledore's body.

(c) The final mention occurs at Dumbledore's funeral {HBP pgs. 644-
45} directly after Harry has come to terms with the fact that 
Dumbledore really is dead and that there was no one left to protect 
him. At almost this precise moment "white flames had erupted around 
Dumbledore's body", white smoke was obscuring the body which made 
strange shapes one of which Harry thought was a phoenix 
flying "joyfully into the blue". 


In example (1) Harry unknowingly calls Fawkes by making a loyal 
statement that Dumbledore is the greatest wizard that ever lived and 
is not as gone as Voldemort thinks he is. Voldemort snickers and 
comments that Dumbledore sent Harry a songbird and an old hat. 

Dumbledore told Harry that his loyalty called Fawkes to him and yet 
Voldemort states that Fawkes was sent: "This is what Dumbledore sends 
his defender!" {COS pg. 316}
However it may be important to notice that although Harry didn't know 
what use Fawkes or the hat could be, Harry took comfort that at least 
he wasn't alone. (Unusual that Harry would take comfort I would think 
to not feel alone with a bird and an old hat that tells you were you 
will be sorted)

In example (2) Harry's wand, which was created from Fawkes feather, 
spins a web that not only soothingly sings to Harry but also gives 
orders to Harry of what he should do. Now the music seems to not only 
be around him but in him to the point of telling Harry what to do. 

In example (3) the sight of Dumbledore induces the same feeling Harry 
found comforting about the phoenix song he heard in the graveyard. 
This example is quite unique since Harry doesn't actually hear the 
song but equates how the song made him feel to be the same as seeing 
Dumbledore; it gave Harry hope. 

 (This makes me think of a quote from the bible "So faith, hope, love 
abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 
13:13 
Harry possesses great quantities of love; Harry feels hope inside his 
very soul when he hears phoenix song; Faith is all that is left for 
Harry to capture of the three.)

In example (4a) we find the announcement that Dumbledore is dead at 
the hand of Snape directly followed by phoenix song that Harry felt 
was in him and about him (his own grief over Dumbledore's death).

In example (4b) Harry recounts the storyline of what happened that 
night with all parties involved and when he reaches the concluding 
statement that Snape had done what he meant to do, Harry finds 
himself lost in the music from the phoenix song thinking about 
Dumbledore's body, which in turn causes Harry to ask for a funeral.

The final example (4c) is my favorite because it happens like an 
answer to a question. Harry is questioning himself and the loss of 
his mentors and protectors to a final conclusion that he is all alone 
when all of a sudden Harry envisions a phoenix joyfully flying from 
the place were his mentors body lay into the blue sky above. It's 
almost like Dumbledore could read Harry's thoughts and gave him a 
sign that he's not alone. 

Just a few extra thoughts

Examples (2) and (4a) are quite similar since both of these instances 
conclude with Harry feeling the phoenix song is inside him. It isn't 
simply that Harry hears the song but that he feels the song strongly 
enough that it becomes part of him, like a bond. 

Examples (4a) and (4b) also have something in common
both instances 
of phoenix song occur just after Harry concludes important messages 
about Snape killing Dumbledore. The first message is that Snape did 
the Avada Kedavra the second message was "He'd done what he'd meant 
to do." 

I will end this with but one more thought from COS pgs. 263-64:

"However," said Dumbledore [
] "you will find that I will only truly 
have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also 
find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for 
it."

Is Dumbledore really gone
 remember; "He's not as gone as you might 
think!"

Snow