Opal Necklace and Dumbledore

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 169710

--- "limerent4ever" <limerent4ever at ...> wrote:
>
> ...
> 
> ... Harry ...hiding in Borgin & Burkes while Draco is
> browsing....  The opal necklace is stated as 'claiming
> the lives of nineteen muggle....'  So my question is 
> why did Draco seem to think giving it to Dumbledore
> would result in his (DD's) death?  ...
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> limerent
>

bboyminn:

Well, there are lots of Opals in the world and many of
them have probably been made into necklaces, so unless
the sender was foolish enough to include the Warning
Card, how would Dumbledore, or anyone else, know it
was a cursed necklace? 

Remember this was supposed to be a half-hearted 
desperate attempt on Draco's part, so it isn't suppose
to make a lot of sense. I think Draco hoped that 
Dumbledore might open it out of curiosity and before
realizing it, pick up the necklace, in which case he
would then be dead. But that is a lot to hope for. 

It is even more to hope that a random person might be
able to make it into the castle with the necklace, 
get past Filch, and somehow give the package to 
Dumbledore without raising suspicion. Really a bad
plan all around.

We have discussed this before and it seems that there
was a real-life Cursed Opal Necklace that was handed 
through the Spanish aristocracy, until someone 
realized the necklace was infected with the Plague. 

Also, Opals are very brittle and can crack, chip, or
break very easily, so that helped re-enforce the idea
that they were bad luck in general. Then when people
began dying, as indicated above, that solidified Opals
reputation as generally being cursed. I think this is
where JKR got the idea for a cursed Opal necklace.

For what it's worth.

Steve/bboyminn