The Sword of Gryffindor

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182586

Shelley wrote:
> But, there's the assumption- that the HAT responded. I think it's
much more likely that the Sorting Hat is merely a conduit- channeling
that call for help to the House leaders who would determine what
appropriate help the student needed. The Sword was in Dumbledore's
possession, as was Fawkes. I don't think the Hat picked those two
items of Dumbledore's but more likely that Dumbledore picked those
items for Harry to use.
> 
> So, by extension of my reasoning, any Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or
Slytherin who had the Hat in a time of danger and called for help
would get magical items sent to them from their House leaders. Snape
would have been choosing items to send to the Slytherin student,
Sprout would have been sending items to the Hufflepuff, and Flitwick
would be sending items to Ravenclaw  students, or some other teacher
in their house. Of course, it's possible that the Headmaster would
hear all calls, and be the one responding, but I still think he'd send
items that would be aligned by the House that student was in.

Carol responds:

I agree with you that the Hat itself is not responding to the plea for
help (surely, it's the Sword of Gryffindor that's responding, coming
out of the Hat only after Harry calls for help, with the hat having
been brought by Fawkes, not coming to Harry on its own).

Also, I agree that Dumbledore, himself a Gryffindor, arranged those
particular protections for Gryffindor Harry: his own
Gryffindor-colored Phoenix, Fawkes, and the Sword of Gryffindor--with
the Hat as not so much a conduit as a container that Fawkes can easily
grasp in his claws. That the Sword also comes out of the Sorting Hat
for Neville in DH (after LV has Summoned the Hat--it doesn't come on
its own) suggests that this particular arrangement was placed on it
either by Dumbledore bdfore Harry's encounter with Slytherin's
monster, or, more likely, by the original owner of the Sorting Hat,
Godric Gryffindor. And, with or without Dumbledore, the Sword responds
to Gryffindors under conditions of "need and valor." (I don't think it
would have come to a Gryffindor outside the school or the grounds had
it not been for Snape, however, and he, of course, was acting on
Portrait!DD's orders. It certainly didn't magically appear to Harry in
the graveyard in GoF or when he faced Nagini in DH, to give just two
examples. If the Sword appeared to him whenever he needed it, with or
without the Sorting Hat, his life would be much easier!)

As I said earlier, I think that DD knew that Harry would be facing a
Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets and arranged his protections
accordingly. But *he* did not hear Harry's cry for help; he had been
evicted from the school by the Board of Governors under threat from
Lucius Malfoy. If it were the HoH who heard the plea, it would have
been McGonagall, not Dumbledore, who sent them, but it's clear from
both Diary!Tom's words about "Dumbledore's defender" (Harry) and DD's
own words in Hagrid's Hut that it's DD who arranged the protections to
be sent when the need arose. (The "songbird" and "old hat" appear when
 Harry expresses loyalty to DD, and Fawkes blinds the Basilisk before
it can attack Harry, also crying to heal his wounds with Phoenix tears
just as he's about to expire from the venom; the sword appears only
when he cries for help, showing "need." he has already shown "valor"
by standing up to Memory!Tom--or Horcrux!Tom as I suppose we should
not call him.)

Now, DD does say that "help will always come at Hogwarts to those who
need it," but I'm not sure how true that statement is. DD has clearly
prearranged particular protections for a particular student. And, of
course, Harry would have died the previous year (not yet sharing a
drop of blood with Voldemort) if DD hadn't realized just in time that
the urgent message from the Ministry was a hoax. 

Does "help will always come at Hogwarts to those who need it" really
apply? We see Snape saving Draco (and he also saves Montague from the
toilet after he finds a way out of the Vanishing Cabinet), and until
the Battle of Hogwarts, no one (except Quirrell, who has forfeited any
right to the school's protection) actually dies in the school or on
its grounds. TT!Harry saves himself and his friends from the Dementors
(after Snape has conjured stretchers to get them all to the hospital
wing). McGonagall, however, is hit by four Stunning Spells to the
chest and no one comes to save her. Nor does anyone or anything come
to save Dumbledore and prevent Snape from having to kill him. Is the
school actually providing protection, or is the protection being
provided by DD, Snape, Harry, and Harry's own uncanny luck? I think
the latter. If the school were as protected as Snape and DD believe it
is, DEs could not have gotten into the school in HBP. Neither, for
that matter, could Fake!Moody in GoF, Umbridge in OoP, and the Carrows
in DH.

Carol, who thinks that DD really meant, "Help will come to you [Harry]
when you enter the CoS because I've arranged for your protection"