Why not summon Fawkes? (Was: Comparing Secret Keeper plan and UV plan)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166279

Julie wrote:
> Or if Dumbledore hadn't deliberately drank the poison from the
> cave, knowing it would be if not fatal certainly debilitating
> to his ability to defend himself. Yes, I know one can say he
> wasn't expecting the DEs to show up that very night, but the
> timing is still a bit suspicious to me <snip>
> Might we also blame Fawkes, who didn't even bother to show up
> to protect/save Dumbledore? Not that I believe this, because
> if Fawkes could have saved Dumbledore he would have been there. 
> Clearly he couldn't, whether he understood that or Dumbledore
> somehow communicated that to him. The absence of Fawkes is 
> in fact one of the strongest reasons for my belief that 
> Dumbledore's fate was sealed on the Tower. If Fawkes couldn't
> save him at that point, then nobody could (Snape included).

Carol responds:
I think that Dumbledore could have summoned Fawkes (which doesn't
require a wand, IIRC) had he chosen to do so. I can think of only a
few reasons why he chose not to. One is that he knew he was dying from
the poison, perhaps combined from the ring curse, and could not be
saved. Another is that disappearing off the tower when Draco was
supposed to be killing him would solve nothing; it would just increase
Draco's danger. He would have failed in his mission, and if the DEs
didn't kill him, Voldemort would. Draco's death might well trigger
Snape's UV, killing him for failing to protect Draco. (Harry, of
course, would be stuck on the tower in his Invisibility Cloak, frozen
there until someone discovered and rescued him.) The third is that
Dumbledore, knowing that he was dying, wanted Snape to kill him or
appear to kill him. It's possible that all three were operating
simultaneously, at least once Snape arrived on the tower.

But I'm sure of one thing. If Dumbledore thought he could save his own
life--without endangering the lives of others--by summoning Fawkes, he
would have done so. I think he knew from the time he saw the Dark
Mark, and perhaps from the time he sent Harry for the Invisibility
Cloak that Harry was supposed to carry with him at all times, that he
would die that night. His subsequent actions indicate that he had been
anticipating his death all year.

Carol, who agrees that Snape could not have saved Dumbledore, at least
not once the DEs arrived, and probably not in any case