The Sword of Gryffindor

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182543

Brenwen wrote:
> 
> In DH - how did the sword of Gryffindor get from the hands of the 
goblin Griphook [after the debacle at Gringotts Bank] back to the 
sorting hat where Neville could grab it and decapitate Nagini?
 
tubazrcool:
> 
> I think it just disappeared ... like magic or something.
>
Carol responds:

Yes, the answer is definitely magic of some sort. I think that the
Sword must have had a spell on it that caused it to come to a
Gryffindor "under conditions of need and valor," as DD tells Snape in
"The Prince's Tale" (DH Am. ed. 689).

Whether Dumbledore set up those conditions or is merely familiar with
them, I'm not sure, but my guess is that they've always been part of
the magic of the sword. Consequently, Griphook, who took the sword
claiming that it belonged to the Goblins, was wrong. It belongs to
Gryffindor House, and just as it came to Harry when he was facing the
Basilisk in CoS, brought by Fawkes, probably on instruction from
Dumbledore, it came to Neville when he bravely faced Voldemort without
a wand and under instructions from Harry to kill Nagini.

Anyway, that's how I answer it for myself.

Carol, at a loss for a sig line