[HPforGrownups] Death and portraits

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 176404

Ersatz Harry:
> As Snape's memories attest in DH, Dumbledore is still able to
> comprehend and influence events that occurred after his death.  In
> particular, I am thinking of his telling Snape to deliver the sword to
> the Forest of Dean.  It seems odd to call someone dead when he can
> still act in this way, and I don't recall any other portraits having
> quite that sort of ability (or if they did, they never seem to have
> used it).  Are there others that anyone recalls, and can we truly call
> Dumbledore dead when he still has such a hand in the story?
>
> Ersatz Harry, who notices that people don't often append these little
> parenthetical comments to their signatures these days


Shelley:

I think it's because we get to see so little of the portraits in 
Dumbledore's office. Very little of Harry's time is spent with the 
portraits, and in times of emergency (Arthur's snake bite), we do see them 
running errands and delivering messages, but we don't get to see 
Dumbledore's conversations with these "great men and women" of old about the 
importance of it later, because Harry has been quickly shuttled off to 
safety. They do seem to comprehend a lot though- DD has no need to explain, 
for example, what Arthur was doing, where he was, what the Order of the 
Phoenix was, and so forth, so it seems that they have been a part of all of 
that beforehand. What advisory roll they played into DD's wisdom and 
decisions is unknown.

This conversation thread makes me wonder of just how much wisdom and 
information the portraits in St. Mungos have, and if they give medical 
advice. It would seem to me that immediately upon their deaths, these 
healers would be very important to have around- as information on how they 
were currently treating a patient would be relevant, and any specialized 
knowledge they had about treating a certain condition would still be 
relevant. But, as time goes on and medicine moves on, these portraits become 
"outdated", as seen by the very funny comment by the portrait who told Ron 
that his freckles were some nasty ailment that needed to be treated when the 
trio and Arthur's family were visiting after St. Mungo's after Arthur's 
snakebite. Thus, DD's knowledge concerning Harry Potter and what he told him 
in life about his quest would still be useful, because that situation was 
still ongoing, but once Harry had killed Voldemort and life started to move 
on with the rebuilding of the castle and changing of wizarding laws, 
Dumbledore's portrait, too, would become outdated and out of touch, because 
the portraits aren't living reality, but rather just seeing glimpses of it 
through their frames, as we see Phineas complain about when a blindfold is 
put over him. It would really suck to be in a portrait and be stuck in a 
broom closet with nothing to see but spiders moving in, or to have lived 
months and years in an empty house.

Thus, life in a portrait isn't really the same as real life, because in real 
life you get to move on your own, act on your own, read the newspaper, 
listen to the wireless news programs and absorb so much more than what a 
portrait is limited to see, hear and experience. The portraits seem to be 
very much muted, in that they can only do what the limitations of having 
other portraits affords them. Of course, having portraits at places of 
importance becomes a real asset, such as the hospital or the Ministry of 
Magic, but still, they are so very limited in what they get to see and hear 
because they remain stationary while life literally moves on around them. 
Thus, I wouldn't call that "living" in any real sense of the word, and since 
DD isn't truly living, then yes, he is dead, no matter how many portraits he 
would have in important places. It's the other living people around him that 
could ask for his advice, pick his brain for wisdom, but that's all he could 
ever do- give advice- it's the job of those that are truly living to go "do" 
the stuff that is life.

Shelley