The Sword of Gryffindor

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182557

Carol earlier:
> > 
> > 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).
> 
> <snip>
> 
> >  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.
> 
> Geoff:
> I read the COS incident differently. The sword was not inside the
hat when Fawkes brought it. It appears that the Hat responded to a
direct plea from Harry:
> 
> '"Help me... help me..." Harry thought, his eyes screwed tight under
the Hat. "Please help me!"
> 
> There was no answering voice. Instead, the Hat contracted, as 
though an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly.
> 
> Something very hard and heavy thudded onto the top of Harry's head,
almost knocking him out. Stars winking in front of his eyes, he
grabbed the top of the Hat to pull it off and felt something long and
hard beneath it.
> 
> A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the Hat.....' (COS "The
Heir of Slytherin" p.235 UK edition)
> 
> To me, this implies that a deep magic had been invoked, not by
Dumbledore and whether it was from the Hat or the sword -or both -I'm
not sure but it certainly seems that the sword possesses powers of its
own to give assistance. It's one of those very magical objects, like
the Room of Requirement and the Hat which are appear to be sentient
and react to need.
>
Carol responds:

And yet Fawkes brought Harry the Sorting Hat. Wouldn't he have done so
on Dumbledore's orders rather than on his own initiative? Yes, Fawkes
himself seems to have come to Harry's aid when Harry expressed loyalty
to Dumbledore, and Fawkes alone put out the Basilisk's eyes and
provided Phoenix tears to heal the Basilisk's bite, but Harry needed
the hat with the sword magically concealed inside (and I mean neither
visible nor tangible but nevertheless still there) to kill the
Basilisk. otherwise, what was the point of bring what Diary!Tom
scathingly calls "an old hat"?

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old
hat?" (SS Am. ed. 316). Unless Diary!Tom is mistaken, and JKR provides
no alternative explanation, Dumbledore arranged these protections.

Earlier, Dumbledore had told Harry (who was hiding under the
Invisibility Cloak) that help would come at Hogwarts to those who
asked for it, and, as you point out, Harry quite literally called
"Help!" before the sword actually appeared. So Dumbledore must either
have known that the sword was sometimes concealed in the Sorting Hat
and would come out when Harry called for it, or arranged for it to do
so (as it does again with Neville in DH--when Voldemort, of all
people, summons the Sorting Hat. Surely, the Sword of Gryffindor is
again concealed in it, this time by some power in the Sword itself).

So even if Dumbledore (who, of course, was away from the school
because Lucius Malfoy had bullied the Board of Governors) didn't
arrange the spell that caused the sword to be concealed in--or come
out of--the Sorting Hat, he seems to have known about it. Otherwise,
it would have been pointless to tell Fawkes to take the Sorting Hat
with him when he responded to Harry's defense of Dumbledore. ("You
must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber, Harry. Nothing
but that could have brought Fawkes to you," 332.)

Either way, it's magic. The Sword comes to Gryffindors in conditions
of need and peril. Or, in the case of Ron rescuing Harry, need, peril,
and chivalry--with a little help from the Slytherin headmaster of
Hogwarts. And since the Sword and the Hat both belonged at one time to
Godric Gryffindor, and the Hat, at least, is a sentient object, maybe
there's some arrangement between them, originally set up by Gryffindor
(who must also have arranged with the Goblin maker of the Sword to
have it respond to Gryffindors in peril: As DD says, "Only a true
Gryffindor could have pulled *that* out of the hat, Harry," 334).

So, the Sword is magical and Dumbledore is familiar with the magic.
And the magic relates to Gryffindors, not Goblins (or Slytherin soul
bits), so Griphook is out of luck (as is Diary!Tom).

It seems to me that Dumbledore, anticipating that Harry, as a
Parselmouth, will find a way to get into the Chamber and that he will
be in peril when he gets there, arranged for Fawkes to come to Harry
when he expressed loyalty to Dumbledore and to take the Sorting Hat
with him. Whether he himself hid the sword in the hat or whether he
knew that Godric Gryffindor had arranged for it to appear there at
need can't be determined from the evidence. But unless *Fawkes* knew
that the Sword was in the Sorting Hat (or could be summoned from it at
need), and Fawkes acted on his own initiative in bringing the Hat to
Harry, Dumbledore must have arranged for him to do so (as Diary!Tom
suggests, and DD himself implies when he tells Harry that help will
come at Hogwarts to those who ask for it).

Whether the Sword could be summoned without the Sorting Hat, I don't
know. It certainly didn't come to Harry at Godric's Hollow when he was
in dire peril from Nagini (and expected to find it at Bathilda's
house). And Snape actually had to arrange circumstances of "need and
peril" so that Harry or Ron could retrieve the Sword. (I think he knew
that Ron had left the group; was Ron's role part of his original plan,
or did he bring him into it when he saw him wandering in the forest?)
Evidently, the sword only comes to Gryffindors via the Sorting Hat if
the Gryffindor happens to be at Hogwarts. Neville doesn't even ask for
help--he just draws the Sword of Gryffindor from the flaming depths of
the Sorting Hat (which seems not to have been harmed by Voldie's
spell). How did he know to look there? I don't think he knew the
details of Harry's encounter with the Basilisk. I guess the only
answer is, "It's magic."

Carol, wondering whether JKR even thought about these details or was
only going for excitement (and rewarding her characters for valor)