love magic, sacrifice, and the "gleam" [was: Dumbledore and the slaughtered pig]

[zeldaricdeau]

No: HPFGUIDX 175227

> > dumbledore11214 Wrote:

> > Are you discounting Dumbledore's gleam in GoF? 
 

> Eggplant wrote: 

> No I am not, but I think you are discounting the fact that the gleam
> of triumph only lasted a fraction of a second followed by renewed
> gloom. For the first time Dumbledore figured out a way to kill
> Dumbledore hence the triumph, but a fraction of a second later he
> realized it would involve Harry's death hence the gloom. 

zeldaricdeau now:

Forgive me if I've missed something completely (I've only barely been 
keeping up with the new posts and haven't posted myself in ages) but my 
interpretation of the "gleam" was a bit different. 

My understanding was that DD had known since *before* GoF that 
Voldemort would eventually return because he had created at least one 
if not more horcruxes and that one of them was Harry: meaning that, to 
DD's knowledge, the only way to kill Voldemort was for Harry to die, 
thus killing the soul bit inside him (which, incidentally puts a whole 
new spin on the "favoritism" he seems to show Harry in earlier books--
extreme guilt perhaps?). 

The "gleam" came about because DD, for the first time in GoF, saw a way 
that Harry *might* be spared death. Since Voldemort had used Harry's 
blood for his own resurrection (an act of arrogance which makes 
apparent his inability to understand the nature of the magic behind the 
mother love sacrifice Lily made) he was now walking around with some of 
that very magic inside him. DD deduces that, because of this, there is 
a chance that Harry will not die if *Voldemort* kills him but will 
instead be anchored to life by the bit of his blood still within 
Voldemort himself, allowing only the soul bit to be destroyed.

If this is the case, then DD wasn't sure that Harry would actually die 
but didn't want anyone else to know that.

Perhaps not JKRs most elegant bit of plotting but that's how I 
understood it.

-ZR