Fawkes possible absence (was: Magical animals in canon/ Fawkes and Snape)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166313

Carol earlier:
> <snip>
> > There's also, of course, the Draco plot, which, if it fails, will
bring revenge against Lucius Malfoy for failing to retrieve the
Prophecy, and if it succeeds, will kill Dumbledore, the biggest
obstacle to capturing and killing Harry Potter.
> <snip>
> 
> Dana:
> Was DD really the biggest obstacle to capture and kill Harry? In
> PS/SS he faces Voldemort alone, in CoS he faces Voldemort alone
> (even if Fawkes helps), in GoF he faces Voldemort alone. The only
> time DD actively prevents LV from killing Harry is in OotP. The
> things that help Harry during these events are not dependent on DD's
> presence and I do not think with DD out of the way he is stripped of
> this help either.

Carol responds:
In SS/PS, Quirrel!mort is defeated, not by Harry, who would have died
if it weren't for DD's timely arrival, but by the spell DD has put on
the Mirror of Erised preventing anyone who wants to *use* the stone
from getting it out of the mirror. (Quirrell dies when LV leaves his
body, not because Harry killed him, as in the film.) Harry's presence
is actually completely unnecessary since Quirrell!mort would have been
stymied by the mirror and caught by Dumbledore in any case.

In CoS, Fawkes arrives with the Sorting Hat containing the Sword of
Gryffindor because of the protections Dumbledore has set up: "Help
will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it" (CoS Am. ed.
264). Harry can pull the sword out of the Sorting Hat because he's a
true Gryffindor, but if it weren't for Dumbledore, there would be not
sword to pull out--and, since Fawkes is DD's bird, most likely no
Fawkes to blind the basilisk or heal the deadly wound caused by the
Basilisk's venomous fang, either. As DD tells Harry, "You must have
shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. *Nothing but that* could
have called Fawkes to you" (332).

In PoA, which you don't mention, it's Dumbledore's idea to send Harry
and Hermione back with the Time-Turner to save Sirius Black and
Buckbeak (which, of course, he couldn't have done had Snape not
conjured those stretchers and brought them to the hospital wing in the
first place, ;-) ).

In GoF, admittedly, Harry fights Voldemort alone, but it's the
Phoenix-feather wand core that causes the Priori Incantatem effect and
saves his life, so in a sense Fawkes, an extension of Dumbledore,
keeps Harry alive.

In OoP, as you say, it's definitely Dumbledore who rescues him (Snape
has requested Sirius Black to stay behind and fill him in; Kreacher
does it instead). Voldemort's humiliating defeat at Dumbledore's hands
gives him additional reason to want Dumbledore dead, if not to make
DD's death his number-one priority.

In all the years of VW1 and the two years since his resurrection,
Voldemort has not directly attacked Hogwarts despite its being a place
of great importance to him, both in terms of its secrets and his own
history. It would provide a virtually impregnable fortress for him if
he could seize it, and as Steve is fond of pointing out, holding its
students hostage would provide a great strategic advantage. That he
has not done so before now is surely because Albus Dumbledore, the
greatest living wizard (until the end of HBP) and "the only one he
ever feared," is headmaster of Hogwarts.
> 
> Carol:
> > While Voldemort may not have forgotten about the Prophecy, and may
well be planning to kidnap Trelawney in DH, it no longer seems to be a
major concern. He seems to be doing the best (or should I say, worst)
he can without it.
> <snip>
> 
> Dana:
> Well, I do not believe it is no longer a major concern because he
still has not figured out how to kill the kid, as even possession did
not work.

Carol:
Let's say, then, that it's no longer his sole or primary concern, as
it was in OoP. We certainly don't see him making any effort to secure
information on the prophecy in HBP, and we do see, all through the
book, a plot to kill dumbledore. LV knows that the Prophecy orb is
broken. If he wants to get to Harry, as he surely does, he has to
figure out some other way to do it. He doesn't actually need the
Prophecy (we know that it wouldn't help him if he did); he just needs
to get to Harry and deprive him of his wand. And the first step in the
process is to get rid of that meddling old fool (the Malfoys' view,
not mine), Albus Dumbledore. (I doubt that Voldemort himself
underestimates Dumbledore, the man who prevented him from teaching at
Hogwarts and saw through him since he was eleven years old.)
> 
> Carol earlier:
> > Regarding Fawkes, I've already explained why I think he was absent
from the tower: Dumbledore didn't summon him. And he's probably absent
from the funeral because he's already sung his own lament; human
rituals are meaningless to him. <snip>
> 
> Dana:
> Personally, I still see a possibility for DD to ask Fawkes to be on
alert, but not for himself or Harry (DD understands perfectly well
that LV would not allow any DE to touch Harry), but to get Trelawney
out if there is any indication someone tried to get to her. It is just
a thought. I was not talking about his absence from the funeral. <snip>

Carol:
Dumbledore's chief concern throughout the books has been Harry and/or
the defeat of Voldemort, and, IMO, Fawkes's role reflects these
concerns. Except for acting as a messenger when Mr. Weasley is injured
and providing DD himself a means of escape from Fudge et al. in OoP,
Fawkes has served primarily as a means of helping or saving Harry. I
doubt very much that he was on Trelawney duty the night that DD died.
DD knew that *if* Draco succeeded in getting DEs into the castle,
their job would be to act as backup, insuring that he completed his
assigned task of killing Dumbledore.

Trelawney, who has been predicting disaster (but not believing her own
predictions) all year, comes into the picture just at the point when
Harry has heard Draco whooping in the RoR. Had she not distracted him
by accidentally revealing that Severus Snape was the eavesdropper who,
in Harry's view, "killed" his parents, Harry might have persuaded
Dumbledore that Draco was indeed on the verge of bringing DEs into
Hogwarts. She operates as a diversion, accidentally helping the events
of the night unfold as they did, rather than the focus of Voldemort's
plans of the moment. Dumbledore has repeatedly sent her away after
hearing her complaints of "the usurping nag." If he's heard her
predictions of impending calamity, he's chosen to ignore them. And
Harry himself has just prevented her from telling her story of being
evicted from the RoR.

Carol, who thinks that Voldemort had every reason to fear Dumbledore
and want him dead but also hopes that Dumbledore's death will inspire
in Voldemort a false confidence that will prove fatal