DH reread CH 6-7

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186334

Pippin:
> > <snip> Dumbledore never meant to convey the sword itself to Harry by means of his will. As Scrimgeour says, it's not legally Dumbledore's and the Ministry would not allow Harry to have it, as Dumbledore surely would know.  The will was a backup plan for letting Harry know that he would need the sword without letting anyone else know why. <snip>
> 
> Alla:
> 
> I am really confused about what you seem to be saying here Pippin. So, basically you are saying that Dumbledore does not own the sword, right? However, he deemed it quite fine to will it to Harry. <snip>
> 
> You also seem to be saying that will is just a symbolic gesture? Just a warning to let Harry know that he will need it? However two objects that they will need as well, are also willed and not as warning? <snip>

Carol responds:
I'm not Pippin, of course, but I made a similar point in my own post, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186314, that the sword is not Dumbledore's to give and that he's telling Harry through the will that Harry will need the sword to destroy the Horcruxes. (He's counting on Hermione, I think, to make the connection between Horcruxes and Basilisk venom and pass on that information to Harry, as she does after Scrimgeour leaves.)

Scrimgeour is our only authority on the matter of the sword's ownership, and I see no reason to doubt his word. Here's what he says in "the Will of Albus Dumbledore" after he tells Harry that DD has willed him the sword and Harry asks where it is:

"Unfortunately, that sword was not Dumbledore's to give away. The sword of Godric Gryffindor is an important historical artifact, and as such belongs--"

Just whom it belongs to, we don't find out (the school? All Gryffindors? The WW?) because Hermione interrupts with "it belongs to Harry! it chose him, he was the one who found it, it came to him out of the Sorting Hat--"

Apparently, that feat does not make the sword Harry's (and certainly wouldn't make it Dumbledore's). Scrimgeour responds with, "According to reliable historical sources, the sword may present itself to any worthy Gryffindor. That does not make it the exclusive property of Mr. Potter, whatever Dumbledore may have decided." (The "reliable historical sources" bit is a shrewd move on Scrimgeour's part because it shuts Hermione up, but I see no reason to doubt the statement. Evidently, the sword has "chosen" other worthy Gryffindors before, and we'll see it do so again with Neville. Dumbledore, we later see from his portrait's instructions to Snape, is as familiar with the sword's history as Scrimgeour is, emphasizing that the sword must be taken under conditions of "need and valor." Given those instructions, I suspect that DD knew quite well that he couldn't will the sword to Harry or just hand it to him and tell him that it's his. The sword has to be earned or deserved. To paraphrase Ollivander, the sword chooses the wizard, but unlike most wands and their chosen wizards, the relationship is not permanent.)

At this point Scrimgeour asks Harry why he thinks that DD wanted him to have the sword, and the discussion deteriorates into accusations and name calling, two stubborn people, each with his own agenda, misunderstanding and distrusting each other and spectacularly failing to become allies. 

To return to the Sword of Gryffindor, I think it's pretty clear that Scrimgeour is right: Dumbledore can't will it to Harry because it can't be given by one person (even a worthy Gryffindor) to another. It has to be earned under conditions of "need and valor." That the Sword resided in Dumbledore's office did not make it his to give. He had never, so far as we know, earned it himself, and even if he had, it would not have been his to give. He was only its guardian as headmaster of Hogwarts (as Snape was in his turn, though not himself a Gryffindor).

The sword came to Harry in CoS (as DD must have known it would) when he desperately needed it to kill the Basilisk and strove valiantly to save Ginny; it did *not* come to Harry as he dived into the pool to retrieve it (maybe "valiantly" diving into icy water and "needing" the sword to destroy Horcruxes didn't satisfy its criteria for "need and valor"?); it did come to Ron, who valiantly saved Harry and needed the sword to cut the Horcrux chain from Harry's neck (and through his actions earned the right to use it to destroy the Horcrux); it did not stay with Griphook, who took it under the wrong conditions (and was not a Gryffindor); it did come to Neville under conditions of need and valor as he bravely faced Voldemort and earned the right to slay Nagini.

All in all, I'd say that Scrimgeour was right. The Sword of Gryffindor does not belong to Dumbledore or to Harry (or Ron or Neville, both of whom later earn the right to wield it--once). It belongs, in a sense, to all Gryffindors and will present itself under the right conditions to the Gryffindor of its own choosing (with or without the aid of the Sorting Hat). Surely, Dumbledore knew that--and knew that Scrimgeour or whoever proved the will would not allow it to be given away. He did, however, wish Harry to know that he would need the Sword of Gryffindor in his quest to destroy the Horcruxes. How better to do that than to "bequeath" it to Harry in his will? As Pippin says, willing the sword to Harry (without actually giving it to him) let Harry know that he would need the sword without letting anyone else (specifically Scrimgeour or whichever Ministry official read the will) know why Harry needed it.

With regard to Alla's question about the other objects that are willed to the Trio without explanation, Scrimgeour does try unsuccessfully to unravel their secrets, but DD must have known that he would fail. More important, however, those objects were his to give as the Sword of Gryffindor was not. (Technically, the Snitch was already Harry's and DD was restoring it to its owner.) Unlike the Sword, they did not need to be earned or retrieved in some particular fashion.

Carol, who actually snipped a whole section of this long post because it related to Scrimgeour and Harry rather than to the sword and DD's will