The Sword of Gryffindor

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 182592

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:

Shelley:
> > 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. 

<Snip>

Carol:
> 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. 

<Snip>

> 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. 

<snip>

> 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. 

Geoff:
I have been following this thread from Wales over the weekend but 
have not previously commented further because I did not have access 
to my HP books and needed to check some facts before rejoining the 
fray.

I think that, like a lot of topics on this group, we tend to put forward 
our own theories as likely possibilities. We are not able to offer absolute 
and final answers to these queries. I have my own take on this as 
does every other person responding. However, I think I can excavate 
enough out of canon to back up some of my thinking.

I'm rather inclined to side with Shelley in that a genuine call for help 
would go to the respective House Head.

But, looking at Dumbledore's part in this, Carol suggests that 
Dumbledore arranged for Fawkes and the Sword to go to Harry's aid 
because he knew that Harry would face a basilisk.

But did he?

'At last Dumbledore straightened up.
"She's not dead, Argus," he said softly.
Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of 
murders he had prevented.
"Not dead?" choked Filch, looking though his fingers at Mrs. Norris. 
"But why's she all - all stiff and frozen?"
"She has been petrified," said Dumbledore ("Ah! I thought so!" said 
Lockhart). "But how. I cannot say..."
"Ask him!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tear-stained
face to Harry.
"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly.
 "It would take magic of the most advanced...."'
(COS "The Writing on the Wall" p.108 UK edition)

Basilisks kill by looking; this much Dumbledore would know. But 
what previous evidence of one of these creatures causing petrification 
is there? Also, since when did a Basilisk write messages on walls?
There is obviously a human agency at work here, whatever else 
may be involved. So, I am not totally swayed by the theory that 
Dumbledore set up the Phoenix situation knowing what Harry was 
likely to face.

I reiterate what I suggested previously. What made him think that 
Harry would go looking for the Chamber - or if he did that he would 
succeed where others hadn't over the centuries?

I think that it all revolved on luck and a series of fortunate coincidences. 
Much of real life is like that after all.

Returning to the question of the Hat summoning help from the other 
House Heads, Carol said:

> 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.

It isn't. Dumbledore's actual words are:
'"You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to 
those who ask for it."'
(COS "Cornelius Fudge" p. 195 UK edition)

Note two things. Help will be given "at Hogwarts" and also, not to 
"those who need" but to those "who ask". Which is a very different 
scenario.

Interestingly, while I was mulling over this information, my mind 
suddenly went back to the times when I have postulated that JKR 
wrote her books from a Christian point of view and the words of 
Jesus jumped unbidden into my mind: "Ask and it will be given to 
you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to 
you." (occurring in both Matthew 7 and Luke 11).

And this is what Harry does, though not strictly in that order. He 
learns how to 'knock' on the door of the Chamber and gain 
admittance; he is seeking Ginny and finds her and he asks for 
help in great need and receives it. I am not suggesting in this 
that JKR is using Harry in a Christian allegory but that her 
outworking of the story might have been triggered by a memory 
of this comment.

However, as I said in the beginning, my main point was that 
Dumbledore did not necessarily foresee how events would unfold. 
It might have been sheer serendipity that he sent Fawkes - if he 
did and the bird didn't act on its own because it sensed Harry's 
loyalty. There is much about Phoenixes of which we are not aware; 
like much of the Wizarding World, there is an  'unwritten canon' - 
for want of a better term - whose presence we seem to sense 
but which we haven't got in black and white.