Destruction of Ring Horcrux (WAS: Re: Expelliarmus and backfir...)

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 184619

> Carol responds:
> At any rate, Dumbledore's stupidity in this instance continues to
> astonish me. Did he sense a curse but think that the Sword had
> destroyed it along with the soul bit? Did he simply not sense the
> curse? Did he think that putting on the ring would bring her back, or
> was he putting on the ring as a way of claiming the Hallow that he had
> just cracked along the line of the wand? ("My precious!") Didn't he
> wonder why the ring itself was still intact even though the soul bit
> was gone? Some sort of protective spell must have remained, whether it
> was the deadly curse or something else. 

Zara:
We do not know that Albus destroyed the Ring before putting it on, as 
you surmise. That indeed strikes me as a crazy course of events, which 
I why I do not subscribe to your timeline.

Here is how I see it:
1) Albus searches the Gaunt house for the ring.
2) Albus finds it, and in seeing it close up and in person, identifies 
the stone in it as the Resurrection Stone.
3) In his shock and surprise, delighted to have found an object of his 
youthful dreams and a way to commune with his lost loved ones, he 
unthinkingly puts it on, forgetting Voldem ort has surely cursed it,and 
the instructions for using the Hallow, because that is what one does 
with a ring.
4) He instantly understands his error, as the curse hits. He does what 
his prodigious skills allow to slow/counter the curse.
5) With all speed he returns to Hogwarts and his office. (Probably by 
Apparating - he is the Headmaster, alternatively by instantly creating 
a Portkey, as we know he can).
6) The Horcrux may or may not ALSO be attacking him in some way, and he 
certainly knows this is a possibility if it is not (see e. g. the 
locket and the Diary).
7) So he takes the Ring off and destroys the Horcrux with the sword.

(We do not know enough to assert with confidence that the ring should 
or should not be destroyed. This is magic! Maybe a plain gold band does 
not interest a goblin-made weapon because it will not absorb anything 
new. Maybe the gold band is goblin made. Maybe the Muggle physics of 
collision mechanics accounts for this without any recourse to magic, 
based on the angle of the blow, how Albus has/has not secured the ring 
in place before striking the blow, the crystal structure of the stone, 
etc.)

8) With with his last bit of energy, he summons Severus.
9) Severus arrives and treats him, saving his life (for the time being).

9) is of course the only part we ever see. When Severus comes in the 
room, we know the ring is already cracked - Severus identifies it as 
the vector of the curse, and deduces that Albus destroyed it. (Though 
his conclusion is that Albus did this in a vain hope of stopping the 
curse, since he does not know about the Horcruxes). And the Sword lies 
discarded on the desk, not put away as I would expect given the man's 
obsession with secrecy. This is the key detail that leads me to believe 
an already cursed and dying Albus destroyed the Ring.