Portraits & Photographs

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 190442

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mellaf88" <mellaf88 at ...> wrote:

mellaf88:
> I agree with you and have wondered the extent of the paintings as well. At one stage, Harry walks into Dumbledore's office and interrupts a conversation (more than once I think...) between Dumbledore and the previous Heads. Does this imply that the portraits maintain a certain sentience? Would the same apply to busts, etc? The paintings have opinions, moods, habits but are they "shadows" of their lives or are they like a benign horcrux?

Geoff:
Surely this is a contradiction in terms. By definition, a Horcrux is created when a 
murder is committed and the soul splits as a result.

You cannot have a "benign" murder so I would argue that a comparison of this sort
is not accurate.

I have seen a suggestion that a portrait has a memory of facts up to the time when 
the subject died but it is obvious that a portrait can interact  with current action, for 
example when Dumbledore sends messages after Arthur Weasley is attacked in OOTP.