Here's the NAQ:
...Why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak at the time of James' death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?
Prior to posting this I had a quick look on-line, and realised that some fans have been speculating about this question. However, nobody has ever asked me about it, and they really should have done...
It seems to me there are only two possibilities: Either James felt the cloak wasn't safe with him (the least likely possibility -- I would think one would be much more concerned with keeping other things safe, like, say, one's infant son), or Dumbledore needed it for someone else's use.
Who could that person have been? Well, almost anyone in the Order of the Phoenix. Given that Dumbledore knew, thanks to the Prophecy, that either Harry or Neville could be in danger from Voldemort at any time, I wouldn't be surprised to learn someone was posted to stand watch under an invisibility cloak in Godric's Hollow. After all, we saw the same tactic used with Mundungus standing watch (poorly) at 4, Privet Drive. Presumably the person standing guard would be the person (one of the people?) who was present for Voldemort's attack on the Potters.
We'd all come up with the same list. Pettigrew, Snape -- really, anyone from the Order is probably eligible to be on that list. The list gets narrowed down a bit when one realizes that Dumbledore had to get the cloak back somehow -- Pettigrew, for instance, wouldn't have been in a position to return it.
There is much more to say -- and much is said at Beth Priest's well-thought-through blog. I just can't seem to get my mind spinning around the whole issue -- I have no idea why. Do I subconsciously think that Rowling is trying to distract us by misdirecting us? Am I just too wrapped up in my own stuff at the moment? Not sure...
But while I can't come up with my own thoughts for whatever reason, I'd love to hear yours...
2 comments:
That no one chomps at the bit to ask the question has to do with the way Rowling presented the cloak, I think. An "anonymous" gift to Harry his first Christmas at Hogwarts, with the information that it was his father's, and was being returned by the person who had it in his keeping. I remember the first time I read the book, there was no doubt in my mind that Dumbledore was the one who had had it.
Given that it is Dumbledore that's involved, the readers tend to take it without question. After all, how much do we question of Dumbledore's actions or judgements? He's presented as utterly reliable (in the reader's eyes).
However, I'm not so certain that, if it was being used by someone on guard duty, the guard was in Godric's Hollow wearing it. No one that we know of has indicated that there was such a guard there - either by failure, or grief at the guard's loss, or any other way. If that was the use of the cloak, I'd say that Neville was being guarded by someone wearing the cloak.
It's intriguing that Rowling says it is a question we should be asking. I would take a leaping guess because of that statement of hers that Neville was indeed the one being guarded, and that the guard was Snape. Snape has often behaved and made comments that would indicate he might be aware of the existence of the invisibility cloak. His references to James' sneaking around Hogwarts, his suspicion of someone's presence in corridors when Harry has indeed been present under the cloak. If Snape knows of the cloak, and if he does indeed have a gift of reading minds, those actions of his are not just the reaction of someone very paranoid. He would know, but not be able to prove, that Harry was present. Because I don't think that Dumbledore would necessarily tell Snape that he'd returned James' cloak to Harry.
Just some rambling thoughts.
Well, here is my stab at it. I picked Arabella Figg for the job since she was a member of the original Order and she's perfect for that sort of work since she's a squib (it's also a parallel to what she does in Little Whinging). But there are problems with it as I note in the entry. I've also tried to break down the 24 hours between Voldemort's attack on the Potters and Hagrid's arrival at the Dursleys.
http://felicitys-mind.livejournal.com/4129.html
Post a Comment