Dumbledore's portrait (Was: CHAPDISC: HBP 29, The Phoenix Lament)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164090

Alla asked:
<snip rest of post>
> Do portraits even know how the people in them died? Aren't they made
beforehand and magical imprint of the memory is taken earlier?

Carol responds:
Excellent question, and not one I think we can answer at this point.
However, it seems to me that Dumbledore could have had a portrait
painted (or made through whatever magical process creates one) as part
of the many preparations he seems to have made before or during
Harry's sixth year for his own death. Right before the trip to the
cave, DD sends Harry for the Invisibility Cloak that he's ordered
Harry to keep with him at all times (a ploy to get rid him if there
ever was one, though I think he's intentionally allowing Harry to make
his own preparations, too). Clearly, Dumbledore is up to something (a
last-minute consultation with Snape, perhaps). Is it possible that DD
could have activated the already-painted portrait during Harry's
absence, so that it knows everything he's done to this point, or the
gist of it? In that case, it would know why DD trusted Snape and what
he planned for him and their contingency plans in the event that the
third provision of the UV was activated. That would take of the
problem Alla stipulated of the magical imprint of the memory being
placed in the portrait too far in advance.

Even supposing that's possible, the questions I have are 1) How much
can a portrait know, regardless of when it's created and the memory
(or whatever it is) implanted? and 2) As Alla also wonders, can a
portrait know the details of its subject's death despite not being
present at that time? (A portrait *can* learn and react new
information, as we see with Phineas Nigellus's reaction to Sirius
Black's death.)

Carol, wondering how the portrait could appear in McGonagall's office
so quickly if DD hadn't planned for that to happen