{"id":626,"date":"2017-04-11T12:39:04","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T17:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/?p=626"},"modified":"2018-04-08T07:34:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T12:34:11","slug":"harry-potter-and-the-problem-with-the-pensieve-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/2017\/04\/11\/harry-potter-and-the-problem-with-the-pensieve-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter and The Problem With The Pensieve Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-646\" src=\"http:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/30650690_4c3fb7ce56_z.jpg\" alt=\"30650690_4c3fb7ce56_z\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;ve read each of the Harry Potter books multiple times. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HBP), Dumbledore takes Harry through a half-dozen memories &#8212; some his, some those of others that the Headmaster has collected. And for years, something was troubling me about them &#8212; they didn&#8217;t add up.\u00a0Over the last few days, I&#8217;ve finally pieced together why.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(If you\u2019re reading this, I\u2019m going to assume that you know the books rather well.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>The Six Memories: A Timeline<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are the six memories in the order that the recollected events occurred. (We\u2019ll begin exploring when Dumbledore collected the memories later.) I\u2019ll be relying on these memories throughout, so, it&#8217;s good to have a point of reference.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1924 or 1925: The arrest of Marvolo and Morfin Gaunt (Bob Ogden&#8217;s memory)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1938: Dumbledore meets Voldemort <a class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"Throughout this, I\u2019m going to refer to Tom Marvolo Riddle as Voldemort, even if he hadn\u2019t taken the name yet. It\u2019s just easier, given that I\u2019m going to be talking about both Tom Riddle Sr. and Marvolo Gaunt as well.\" id=\"return-note-626-1\" href=\"#note-626-1\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a> in the orphanage (Dumbledore&#8217;s)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1943: Voldemort asks Slughorn about creating multiple Horcruxes (Slughorn&#8217;s)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1943: Voldemort and Morfin Gaunt argue before the murder of the Riddles (Morfin Gaunt&#8217;s)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometime between 1955 and 1961: Voldemort visits Hepzibah Smith <a class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"http:\/\/harrypotter.wikia.com\/wiki\/Tom_Riddle#cite_note-HBP-21\u00a0is really helpful here\" id=\"return-note-626-2\" href=\"#note-626-2\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/a> (Hokey the House Elf&#8217;s)\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometime between 1965 and 1971: Voldemort visits Dumbledore at Hogwarts (Dumbledore&#8217;s)\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(It\u2019s unclear which of the two memories from 1943 happened first, but it\u2019s immaterial.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ll need to address most if not all of these six memories, but the Bob Ogden one was the one that didn\u2019t sit right with me. As it turns out, it&#8217;s not all that important, but let\u2019s start there anyway &#8212; because I did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>What is Ogden\u2019s Memory About?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first one is the memory of Bob Ogden, the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, who investigated Morfin Gaunt (Voldemort\u2019s uncle) for using magic in front of a Muggle (who happened to be Tom Riddle Sr., Voldemort\u2019s eventual father). Ogden shows up, finds out that Morfin and his father Marvolo are poor wizards who are mean to Merope (Morfin\u2019s sister and Voldemort\u2019s eventual mother), who they believe to be a Squib. The Gaunt men are also pureblood elitists who believe that they are above the law, especially when it comes to how they act toward Muggles and those they believe to be Squibs. <a class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"Neither man seems to understand why Morfin\u2019s attack on Riddle Sr. was unacceptable. Similarly, Marvolo tried to strangle Merope when he learned that she had a crush on Riddle Sr.\" id=\"return-note-626-3\" href=\"#note-626-3\"><sup>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>For us readers, this establishes where Voldemort came from and his family tree. Like Harry, we learn that the Gaunts are descendants from two major Wizarding families. First, we again learn they are descendants of Salazar Slytherin\u2019s (which we knew about already from the Chamber of Secrets) when we find out that the Gaunt family owns Slytherin\u2019s locket, which Merope wears around her neck. We also find out that Voldemort is a descendant of the Peverell family, specifically Cadmus Peverell (as we\u2019ll learn later) because Marvolo shows Ogden a ring he\u2019s wearing. Marvolo calls the markings on the ring\u2019s stone the \u201cPeverell family crest\u201d and, in the words of the book, \u201cthe ring sailed within an inch of his [Ogden\u2019s] nose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear why Dumbledore shares this memory with Harry otherwise, though. Unlike the other memories, it doesn\u2019t do much to help inform what or where the remaining Horcruxes are. It introduces the ring but Dumbledore already has that, and for that matter, it\u2019s already been destroyed. It also introduces the locket, but Hokey\u2019s memory does that too, and Hokey\u2019s memory is critical for Harry to see regardless. (And Dumbledore thinks he is relatively close to finding the locket, in any event.)<\/p>\n<p>The memory may serve two other purposes, though. First, it kind of, sort of helps establish that Voldemort never experienced love, not even through the relationship of his parents, which was loveless. It explains why Voldemort grew up in an orphanage even though his father and uncle are both alive at the time. Voldemort doesn\u2019t understand love, and that &#8212; love &#8212; is \u201cthe power the Dark Lord knows not,\u201d according to Dumbledore\u2019s interpretation of Trelawney\u2019s first prophecy. If Dumbledore thinks Harry is skeptical about this \u201cpower,\u201d driving it home by showing Harry this memory makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n<p>The other purpose &#8212; and the one I\u2019m more interested in: Harry now has a critical clue about the identity and location of the Resurrection Stone. Of course, at that time, he has no idea that there is such thing as the Resurrection Stone, but when he learns about it and the other Hallows in the seventh book, Harry uses this memory-learned connection to the Peverells to figure out that the Stone is real (which he then perhaps aggressively concludes is inside the Snitch). In telling Ron and Hermione this in Book 7, Harry admits that he couldn\u2019t make out the sign of the Deathly Hallows from Ogden\u2019s memory (\u201cThere was nothing fancy on there, as far as I could see; maybe a few scratches. I only ever saw it really close up after it had been cracked open\u201d) and couldn\u2019t be sure it was the same sign. But he made the connection nonetheless.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Why Did Dumbledore Seek Out Ogden\u2019s Memory?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This is simple to answer at first &#8212; when sharing Morfin Gaunt\u2019s memory, Dumbledore tells Harry that he \u201cwas able to secure a visit to Morfin in the last weeks of his life, by which time I was attempting to discover as much as I could about Voldemort&#8217;s past.\u201d It makes sense that he&#8217;d interview the Ministry official who investigated Riddle&#8217;s magical family.<\/p>\n<p>But keep in mind that this is a wild goose chase. While Harry (and by extension, us as the reader) learn a lot from this memory, Dumbledore didn\u2019t. He already knew that Voldemort was the son of Merope Gaunt, the grandson of Marvolo, and the nephew of Morfin. Dumbledore already knows that Tom Riddle Sr. was Voldemort\u2019s dad. Dumbledore was also a member of the Wizengamot and almost certainly knew about Morfin&#8217;s attack on Tom Riddle Sr. and on Marvolo&#8217;s attempt to defend his son against Ogden and the other authorities. In other words: Dumbledore already knew why Ogden went to the Gaunt shack and how that basically played out. Seeing Ogden&#8217;s memory of the events doesn&#8217;t add much to that. What was Dumbledore hoping to see?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;ve seen a few explanations, but only one makes sense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>First, maybe Dumbledore was looking for clues about Horcruxes. That&#8217;s unlikely, for a few reasons, most notably because the memory is older than Voldemort himself. (That said, the memories do establish that both Marvolo Gaunt&#8217;s Ring and Slytherin&#8217;s Locket &#8212; two of the Horcruxes &#8212; were Voldemort&#8217;s family heirlooms.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second, maybe he was looking for clues as to what Trewlany&#8217;s first prophecy meant when she said that Harry (or Neville, but nevermind that) has the &#8220;power the Dark Lord knows not.&#8221; That certainly makes sense given the previous section, but the timing seems weird. Ogden was at least 20 years old when he visited the Gaunts in 1925 &#8212; and probably much older, given his title of Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad &#8212; and the prophecy wasn&#8217;t until 1980 (and Harry wasn&#8217;t marked as the survivor for a year after that). At best, Ogden was 75 or so. Most likely, he was long dead. <a class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"Yes, I know that in general, we&#8217;re led to believe that Wizards live longer than Muggles, as Dumbledore himself is 115 when he dies and Abeforth is only a few years younger. This never sat right with me either &#8212; where are all the great-grandparents? Wizards have kids young &#8212; Harry was born to 20-year-old parents, and Harry had his first child at 23 or 24. The Great Wizarding War aside, there should be generations of wizards, particularly old ones, everywhere. But, nope.\" id=\"return-note-626-4\" href=\"#note-626-4\"><sup>4<\/sup><\/a> (In HBP, Dumbledore tells Harry that Ogden &#8220;died some time ago, but not before I had tracked him down and persuaded him to confide these recollections to me.\u201d) It&#8217;s plausible, but it really requires you to force the math.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And finally, Dumbledore had no idea what he was looking for but figured it was worth the look. We generally think of that as a good idea: when you\u2019re dealing with the Dark Lord, leave no stone unturned, right? But that\u2019s not consistent with what we already know \u2014 Dumbledore began his investigation into Voldemort\u2019s past starting with the Voldemort of 1943 if not before, as also established by Morfin Gaunt\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n<p>So that leads us to a question:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Why was Dumbledore investigating Voldemort\u2019s past before Voldemort was Voldemort?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Here, to quote Dumbledore, we\u2019re \u201centering the realms of guesswork and speculation.\u201d I have three theories as to why Dumbledore began this investigation. All are plausible, but I prefer the last one because it\u2019s novel (I think), it\u2019s more likely (as I describe) and because it\u2019s more fun.<\/p>\n<p><b>Theory 1: He\u2019s Investigating the Chamber of Secrets<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few months before the events of the two 1943 memories happened, Voldemort opened the Chamber of Secrets. He framed Hagrid for it but Dumbledore was skeptical. Dumbledore probably suspected Voldemort, having already learned (during his visit to Voldemort at the orphanage) that Voldemort was a parsletongue, and therefore a potential heir to Slytherin. Dumbledore also likely knew the events of Bob Ogden\u2019s arrest of Morfin and Marvolo, even if he didn\u2019t have the memory yet, which would have further helped establish that Voldemort was Slytherin&#8217;s heir. If Dumbledore wanted to exonerate Hagrid, and had Dumbledore noticed the clues above, researching Voldemort\u2019s history would have made a lot of sense. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is a perfectly plausible explanation &#8212; it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if J.K. Rowling endorsed it &#8212; but it doesn\u2019t sit right with me. Dumbledore never does anything with the information. And it wasn\u2019t like Dumbledore was going to find any more information. Voldemort\u2019s life was straightforward until that point: he was born, given up for adoption, came to Hogwarts, and\u2026 is still at Hogwarts. The only thing odd is the murder of his Muggle father and grandparents, but again, Dumbledore investigated that. Dumbledore &#8212; even if he doesn\u2019t have Ogden\u2019s memory yet &#8212; definitely has enough to get the Ministry and\/or Wizengamot to investigate the theory and is at a dead-end otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019d think that, if you had a murderer in your student population &#8212; even one who already graduated &#8212; you\u2019d do something about it. But Dumbledore didn&#8217;t. So it&#8217;s unlikely he had Ogden&#8217;s memory while Voldemort was still at Hogwarts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Theory 2: He\u2019s Investigating the Murder of Tom Riddle Sr and Voldemort\u2019s Grandparents<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This one almost works. The reason it doesn\u2019t is the key.<\/p>\n<p>In 1943, Voldemort &#8212; a student without any friends or family, but one that Dumbledore knew well &#8212; shows up one day wearing a new ring. Just weeks before, his father and grandparents were murdered by his uncle. The uncle confessed but didn\u2019t talk much about it; instead, he carried on about a lost ring. That\u2019s going to set off alarm bells, no? Dumbledore already distrusts Voldemort; this link, I think, is something Dumbledore is going to investigate.<\/p>\n<p>Dumbledore investigates this crime by obtaining Morfin\u2019s memory. There isn\u2019t much to the memory; as Dumbledore later concluded, Voldemort tampered with it. But it gives us three key clues.<\/p>\n<p>First, it demonstrates that Voldemort was at his uncle\u2019s house right before the murder. That\u2019s pretty important!<\/p>\n<p>Second, in the memory, \u201cMorfin pushed the hair out of his dirty face, the better to see [Voldemort], and Harry saw that he wore Marvolo&#8217;s black-stoned ring on his right hand.\u201d So, we have proof that before Voldemort visited Morfin, Morfin had the ring.<\/p>\n<p>And third, there\u2019s what Dumbledore tells Harry after the two have viewed the memory <a class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"I&#8217;m using some pdf of the book I found online to make quoting easier; there may be some typos\" id=\"return-note-626-5\" href=\"#note-626-5\"><sup>5<\/sup><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So the Ministry called upon Morfin. They did not need to question him, to use Veritaserum or Legilimency. He admitted to the murder on the spot, giving details only the murderer could know. He was proud, he said, to have killed the Muggles, had been awaiting his chance all these years. He handed over his wand, which was proved at once to have been used to kill the Riddles. And he permitted himself to be led off to Azkaban without a fight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>All that disturbed him was the fact that his father&#8217;s ring had disappeared. &#8216;He&#8217;ll kill me for losing it,&#8217; he told his captors over and over again. &#8216;He&#8217;ll kill me for losing his ring.&#8217; And that, apparently, was all he ever said again. He lived out the remainder of his life in Azkaban, lamenting the loss of Marvolo&#8217;s last heirloom, and is buried beside the prison, alongside the other poor souls who have expired within its walls.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That second paragraph is evidence of two things &#8212; first, that Marvolo didn\u2019t have the ring upon his arrest, which occurred almost immediately after the murders; and second, that Dumbledore had reason to look into the whereabouts of the ring. <a class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"On the other hand, it makes Morfin sound insane, which he probably was, so the officials probably discounted any truth behind Morfin\u2019s statements about the ring.\" id=\"return-note-626-6\" href=\"#note-626-6\"><sup>6<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And, from Slughorn\u2019s memory, in still tampered form, we learn that Voldemort had the ring right after the murder:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Harry saw that [Voldemort] was wearing Marvolo&#8217;s gold-and-black ring; he had already killed his father.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Dumbledore didn\u2019t have Slughorn\u2019s memory until probably the 1980s &#8212; Slughorn only tampered with it well after Voldemort graduated and moved onto greater, darker things. But Dumbledore didn\u2019t need the memory to establish that Voldemort was wearing the ring at the time because Dumbledore was there, in the school, to see it for himself. Dumbledore had all the evidence you\u2019d need to show that Voldemort was a triple-murderer: he had two memories (Ogden\u2019s and Morfin\u2019s) showing that the ring was previously in the possession of Morfin Gaunt &#8212; including one memory where Voldemort is present while Gaunt still has the ring; he has Gaunt\u2019s persistent anguish about losing it; and he has the ring sitting there on the finger of the last person to see Morfin before the murders took place.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And again: You\u2019d think that, if you had a murderer in your student population, you\u2019d do something about it. In this case, though, Dumbledore may not have been able to paint the full picture. All the clues are there: Tom Riddle Sr. is dead. Tom Riddle Jr. appears with a new ring. The Chamber has been open by the heir of Slytherin, and Tom Riddle Jr. is a Parseltongue. Voldemort&#8217;s own memory tells us that Dumbledore kept an annoying watch on Voldemort after the Chamber was opened; it&#8217;d be ludicrous to think that Dumbledore <em>wouldn&#8217;t<\/em> investigate the murders of the Riddle family, given the previous two sentences. All he needs is evidence, and that can come in the form of their Ogden&#8217;s memory (establishing Voldemort as an heir of Salazar Slytherin) or Morfin&#8217;s (establishing that Voldemort was at the house that day etc.). So it makes total sense for Dumbledore to be on the hunt for that evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But in 1943, he didn&#8217;t have it, otherwise Voldemort would have been expelled. But<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0he kept investigating, and part of that on-going investigation brought him to Bob Ogden. <a class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"Or maybe he went for Ogden\u2019s memory first, dunno. As it turns out, I don\u2019t really think it matters if Ogden\u2019s came before or later.\" id=\"return-note-626-7\" href=\"#note-626-7\"><sup>7<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That makes a ton of sense, right? Dumbledore was investigating Voldemort in conjunction with the murder of the Riddles and, therefore, obtained Morfin\u2019s (and Ogden&#8217;s) memory.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But wait &#8212; that\u2019s not what Dumbledore told Harry, right? Dumbledore said that he was \u201cattempting to discover as much as [he] could about Voldemort&#8217;s past.\u201d Why lie?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okay, now we\u2019re really going into speculation and guesswork. I think Dumbledore\u2019s explanation &#8212; attempting to discover stuff about Voldemort\u2019s past &#8212; is a lie. But that\u2019s because he was ashamed of telling the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Theory 3: Dumbledore wasn\u2019t really interested in discovering more about Voldemort\u2019s past or investigating the murder of the Riddles. He was investigating the whereabouts of Marvolo\u2019s ring.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the theory I\u2019m going with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Part 1: Dumbledore&#8217;s Lie<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Deathly Hallows, Harry and Dumbledore reunite at some space-time between life and death, represented as King\u2019s Cross train station. Dumbledore is dead. Harry has sacrificed himself to Voldemort\u2019s killing curse. There\u2019s really no need for Dumbledore to lie to Harry about anything &#8212; and yet, he does. To set it up, we need first to revisit Lily Potter\u2019s letter to Sirius Black.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda who has always been sweet to us and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn\u2019t come, but the Order\u2019s got to come first, and <\/span><b>Harry\u2019s not old enough to know it\u2019s his birthday<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> anyway! \u00a0James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell\u2014also <\/span><b>Dumbledore\u2019s still got his Invisibility Cloak<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, so no chance of little excursions. (emphasis added)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OK, got that? Now, to something Dumbledore said to Harry at King\u2019s Cross.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou. You have guessed, I know, why the Cloak was in my possession on the night your parents died. <\/span><b>James had showed it to me just a few days previously<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It explained so much of his undetected wrong-doing at school! I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I asked to borrow it, to examine it. I had long since given up my dream of uniting the Hallows, but I could not resist, could not help taking a closer look . . . It was a Cloak the likes of which I had never seen, immensely old, perfect in every respect . . . and then your father died, and I had two Hallows at last, all to myself!\u201d (emphasis added)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Harry was born on the last day of July; his parents were murdered on Halloween. That\u2019s a three-month gap. It\u2019s possible that Lily didn\u2019t write the letter until a few days before Halloween, but that\u2019s unlikely. It\u2019s much more likely that Dumbledore is lying &#8212; especially when you look at what precedes this part of the encounter at King\u2019s Cross.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To set up the scene, Harry meets a broadly-smiling Dumbledore in some place between the planes of living and dead. As the conversation continues, Dumbledore\u2019s smile gets bigger and bigger &#8212; and then Harry brings up the Deathly Hallows. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Deathly Hallows,\u201d [Harry] said, and he was glad to see that the words wiped the smile from Dumbledore\u2019s face.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAh, yes,\u201d he said. He even looked a little worried.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWell?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the first time since Harry had met Dumbledore, he looked less than an\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">old man, much less. He looked fleetingly like a small boy caught in wrongdoing. \u201cCan you forgive me?\u201d he said. \u201cCan you forgive me for not trusting you? For not telling you? Harry, I only feared that you would fail as I had failed. I only dreaded that you would make my mistakes. I crave your pardon, Harry. I have known, for some time now, that you are the better man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d asked Harry, startled by Dumbledore\u2019s tone, by the sudden tears in his eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Hallows, the Hallows,\u201d murmured Dumbledore. \u201cA desperate man\u2019s dream!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBut they\u2019re real!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cReal, and dangerous, and a lure for fools,\u201d said Dumbledore. \u201cAnd I was such a fool. But you know, don\u2019t you? I have no secrets from you anymore. You know.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat do I know?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dumbledore turned his whole body to face Harry, and tears still sparkled in his brilliantly blue eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMaster of death, Harry, master of Death! Was I better, ultimately, than Voldemort?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOf course you were,\u201d said Harry. \u201cOf course\u2014how can you ask that? You never killed if you could avoid it!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTrue, true,\u201d said Dumbledore, and he was like a child seeking reassurance. \u201cYet I too sought a way to conquer death, Harry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNot the way he did,\u201d said Harry. After all his anger at Dumbledore, how odd it was to sit here, beneath the high, vaulted ceiling, and defend Dumbledore from himself. \u201cHallows, not Horcruxes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHallows,\u201d mumbled Dumbledore, \u201cnot Horcruxes. Precisely.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even in death, Dumbledore was ashamed of his obsession with the Hallows. Here\u2019s more on that from their conversation:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After another short pause Harry said, \u201cYou tried to use the Resurrection Stone.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dumbledore nodded. \u201cWhen I discovered it, after all those years, buried in the abandoned home of the Gaunts\u2014the Hallow I had craved most of all, though in my youth I had wanted it for very different reasons\u2014I lost my head, Harry. I quite forgot that it was now a Horcrux, that the ring was sure to carry a curse. I picked it up, and I put it on, and for a second I imagined that I was about to see Ariana, and my mother, and my father, and to tell them how very, very sorry I was . . . <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI was such a fool, Harry. After all those years I had learned nothing. I was unworthy to unite the Deadly Hallows. I had proved it time and again, and here was the final proof.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhy?\u201d said Harry. \u201cIt was natural! You wanted to see them again. What\u2019s wrong with that?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMaybe a man in a million could unite the Hallows, Harry. I was fit only to possess the meanest one of them, the least extraordinary. I was fit to own the Elder Wand, and not to boast of it, and not to kill with it. I was permitted to tame and to use it, because I took it, not for gain, but to save others from it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBut the Cloak, I took out of vain curiosity, and so it could never have worked for me as it works for you, its true owner. The stone I would have used in an attempt to drag back those who are at peace, rather than to enable my self-sacrifice, as you did. You are the worthy possessor of the Hallows.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shame. Lots of it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, if Dumbledore were looking into people&#8217;s memories to find himself one of the Deathly Hallows, he&#8217;d probably be ashamed to admit it &#8212; and he&#8217;d probably lie. Just like he lied when his afterlife-self told Harry that he only had the cloak for a few days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Part 2: Dumbledore&#8217;s Obsession<\/span><\/p>\n<p>That quote above has another key passage: th<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">e Ressurection Stone was \u201cthe Hallow [Dumbledore] had craved most of all.\u201d \u00a0I don&#8217;t think I need to spell this one out, but just in case: after the death of his sister (perhaps at his hands), Dumbledore gave up the search for the Hallows, but only temporarily. He ends up acquiring the Elder Wand, takes the Cloak for a bit longer than he should have, and, as he admits above, he wanted to see his deceased family members again, and the Stone could bring that dream to fruition. And when he finally obtained the Stone, the normally calculating and logical Dumbledore makes the fatal mistake of putting the cursed ring on his finger &#8212; all in hopes of seeing his sister and family again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hallows were an obsession of his youth; I think it&#8217;s fair to say that Stone was a life-long obsession.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So, let&#8217;s revisit the second theory<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Again, it&#8217;s 1943. Voldemort &#8212; a student without any friends or family, but one that Dumbledore knew well &#8212; shows up one day wearing a new ring. Just weeks before, his father and grandparents were murdered by his uncle. The uncle confessed but didn\u2019t talk much about it; instead, he carried on about a lost ring. That\u2019s going to set off alarm bells, no? Dumbledore is probably going to end up getting a look at that ring. What he&#8217;s going to see is the mark of the Deathly Hallows. <a class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"When Harry opens the Snitch, revealing the ring, the book states that \u201cthe black stone with its jagged crack running down the center sat in the two halves of the Snitch. The Resurrection Stone had cracked down the vertical line representing the Elder Wand. The triangle and circle representing the Cloak and the stone were still discernible.\u201d\" id=\"return-note-626-8\" href=\"#note-626-8\"><sup>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>His obsession is now within his grasp. Almost. Shortly thereafter, the ring vanishes.<\/p>\n<p>So, he goes hunting for it. There are two living people who have possessed the ring: Voldemort and Morfin. Dumbledore probably isn&#8217;t going to get much out of Voldemort here &#8212; he may have tried, for all we know, but as we&#8217;d later find out, Voldemort wasn&#8217;t about to tell anyone where he hid the now-Horcrux ring. Morfin, of course, gives Dumbledore his memory. That&#8217;s a bit of a dead end <a class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"In fact, we never find out how Dumbledore discovered the location of the ring\/Horcrux.\" id=\"return-note-626-9\" href=\"#note-626-9\"><sup>9<\/sup><\/a>, so the wild goose chase begins. Only one other person in recent memory, dead or alive, possessed the ring &#8212; Marvolo Gaunt. And the only person still alive who we know interacted with him? Bob Ogden.<\/p>\n<p>Ogden&#8217;s memory doesn&#8217;t help Dumbledore locate the ring, but it does confirm (or close enough) that the ring is the Resurrection Stone. Marvolo pushes the ring &#8220;within an inch of [Ogden&#8217;s] nose,&#8221; so maybe Dumbledore got a good look at it; if not, Marvolo proclaims that the crest of the Peverell family is engraved upon it. Remember, as discussed above, that Harry makes the connection between the Peverell crest and the mark of the Hallows; Dumbledore surely would have realized Marvolo&#8217;s error.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Final Piece of the Puzzle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s one memory I&#8217;ve almost entirely glossed over, and that&#8217;s Hokey the House-elf&#8217;s memory of the murder of Hepzibah Smith. It&#8217;s critical to figuring out that Slytherin&#8217;s locket and Hufflepuff&#8217;s cup (and by extension, Ravenclaw&#8217;s diadem) are Horcruxes. The timing, again, has a problem.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at the timeline at the top, you&#8217;ll see that the events of Hokey&#8217;s memory occurred no earlier than 1955, more than a decade after Voldemort murdered his Muggle family. And after the murder of Smith, Voldemort disappears for a decade. In other words, there&#8217;s really no reason for Dumbledore to seek out Hokey&#8217;s memory if his objective is to learn more about Voldemort, because at the point of Smith&#8217;s death, Voldemort&#8217;s basically a nobody. Once again, you need to give Dumbledore a ton of credit for having the foresight to collect this memory &#8212; more foresight than even he is due.<\/p>\n<p>But my theory makes it work without that stretch. Here&#8217;s another quote from Deathly Hallows which explains why:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>By the time Hokey was convicted, Hepzibah&#8217;s family had realized that two of her greatest treasures were missing. It took them a while to be sure of this, for she had many hiding places, having always guarded her collection most jealously. But before they were sure beyond doubt that the cup and the locket were both gone, the assistant who had worked at Borgin and Burkes, the young man who had visited Hepzibah so regularly and charmed her so well, had resigned his post and vanished. His superiors had no idea where he had gone; they were as surprised as anyone at his disappearance. And that was the last that was seen or heard of Tom Riddle for a very long time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You&#8217;re Dumbledore. Voldemort&#8217;s involved in an event where rare, treasured artifacts &#8212; including one owned the Gaunts &#8212; have disappeared. Is there a chance that Hepzibah Smith had the ring? Or that Tom had it when he visited her? There&#8217;s only one way to find out, and that&#8217;s to get that memory from the aged Hokey before he dies. Which is exactly what happens.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some Concluding Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As with any theories about works of fiction, this one has lot of holes. That&#8217;s what makes it fun.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I think my version of the events makes Dumbledore a lot more human &#8212; and a lot more sympathetic. If you believe that he was investigating Voldemort&#8217;s background from a very early point, he seems brilliant and wise, yes, but ultimately ineffective because he&#8217;s insisting on going it alone. (This is also the vibe you get from him in Order of the Phoenix, so it&#8217;s a fair takeaway.) Mine, though, he&#8217;s still brilliant and wise, but he&#8217;s also flawed. And that flaw makes him accidentally effective &#8212; in the search for clues about the Hallows, he ends up learning a lot about Voldemort, his weaknesses, and the Horcruxes.<\/p>\n<p>And you know what? I like that Dumbledore. He&#8217;s the greatest wizard of all time &#8212; that doesn&#8217;t mean he has to be perfect, or even should be.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"simple-footnotes\"><p class=\"notes\">Notes:<\/p><ol><li id=\"note-626-1\">Throughout this, I\u2019m going to refer to Tom Marvolo Riddle as Voldemort, even if he hadn\u2019t taken the name yet. It\u2019s just easier, given that I\u2019m going to be talking about both Tom Riddle Sr. and Marvolo Gaunt as well. <a href=\"#return-note-626-1\">&#8617;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"note-626-2\"><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/harrypotter.wikia.com\/wiki\/Tom_Riddle#cite_note-HBP-21\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">http:\/\/harrypotter.wikia.com\/wiki\/Tom_Riddle#cite_note-HBP-21<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0is really helpful here <a href=\"#return-note-626-2\">&#8617;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"note-626-3\">Neither man seems to understand why Morfin\u2019s attack on Riddle Sr. was unacceptable. Similarly, Marvolo tried to strangle Merope when he learned that she had a crush on Riddle Sr. <a href=\"#return-note-626-3\">&#8617;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"note-626-4\">Yes, I know that in general, we&#8217;re led to believe that Wizards live longer than Muggles, as Dumbledore himself is 115 when he dies and Abeforth is only a few years younger. This never sat right with me either &#8212; where are all the great-grandparents? Wizards have kids young &#8212; Harry was born to 20-year-old parents, and Harry had his first child at 23 or 24. The Great Wizarding War aside, there should be generations of wizards, particularly old ones, everywhere. But, nope. <a href=\"#return-note-626-4\">&#8617;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"note-626-5\">I&#8217;m using some pdf of the book I found online to make quoting easier; there may be some typos <a href=\"#return-note-626-5\">&#8617;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"note-626-6\">On the other hand, it makes Morfin sound insane, which he probably was, so the officials probably discounted any truth behind Morfin\u2019s statements about the ring. <a href=\"#return-note-626-6\">&#8617;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"note-626-7\">Or maybe he went for Ogden\u2019s memory first, dunno. As it turns out, I don\u2019t really think it matters if Ogden\u2019s came before or later. <a href=\"#return-note-626-7\">&#8617;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"note-626-8\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Harry opens the Snitch, revealing the ring, the book states that \u201cthe black stone with its jagged crack running down the center sat in the two halves of the Snitch. The Resurrection Stone had cracked down the vertical line representing the Elder Wand. The triangle and circle representing the Cloak and the stone were still discernible.\u201d <a href=\"#return-note-626-8\">&#8617;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"note-626-9\">In fact, we never find out how Dumbledore discovered the location of the ring\/Horcrux. <a href=\"#return-note-626-9\">&#8617;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve read each of the Harry Potter books multiple times. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HBP), Dumbledore takes Harry through a half-dozen memories &#8212; some his, some those of others that the Headmaster has collected. And for years, something was troubling me about them &#8212; they didn&#8217;t add up.\u00a0Over the last few days, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlewis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}