On a new post on her official web site, J.K. Rowling, while talking about her recent experience appearing live in New York with Stephen King and John Irving, has admitted she made a mistake when she was asked, what question have you never been asked that you ought to have been asked? She said:
My mind went blank. Blame long years of trying not to give away the plot. But it occurred to me almost as soon as I got off stage that there IS a question I’ve always been surprised nobody’s put to me, and that I really should have said it while I was still on-stage. I can’t make amends to the girl who asked, but it is in tribute to her that I give the answer, belatedly.
Why did Dumbledore have James’ invisibility cloak at the time of James’ death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak? There IS a significant – even crucial – answer.
www.jkrowling.com 9/13/06
When Harry receives his father’s cloak in the very first book, it was accompanied by this note:
Your Father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it Well.
SS/PS pg. 202/148
We know now that Dumbledore left that note. But why did he have the cloak in the first place? I never gave it much thought, but perhaps now we should, since J.K. says it’s crucial to the story.
In the same book in which Harry receives his father’s cloak and reads the note, in the very same chapter in fact, Dumbledore tells him he doesn’t need one to be invisible:
“And it showed your friend Ron himself as head boy.” “How did you know–?” “I don’t need a cloak to become invisible,” said Dumbledore gently.
SS/PS pg. 213/156
So, if Dumbledore didn’t need a cloak, why did he have James’ cloak?
I had originally assumed that somehow Dumbledore acquired it after James and Lily’s deaths, and kept if for Harry when he was old enough. But that’s not exactly what the note says, is it? It says, “Your father left this in my possession before he died.”
So, we come back around to J.K.’s question, the answer to which she says is significant, even crucial. Why did Dumbledore have James’ cloak at the time of James’s death?
I think a logical answer is that James gave it to Dumbledore for safe keeping. But why was protecting the cloak so important? Having heard the prophecy, and suspecting Voldemort might think the part that referred to “Born to those who have thrice defied him” meant them, James and Lily had already taken steps to protect themselves and Harry with a secret keeper. So, why give James’ invisibility cloak the extra-special protection of removing it to Dumbledore’s safe keeping? Why was the cloak so important? What made the cloak so special? Or perhaps most importantly, what about the cloak made it so important that it be kept out of the hands of Voldemort?
We’ve suspected for a long time that Harry is a descendant of Godric Gryffindor. We also know that Voldemort wanted to collect one keepsake that was a relic of each of the Hogwarts founders. He Salazar Slytherin’s locket and we suspect Helga Hufflepuff’s cup. If James (and therefore Harry) was a descendant of Godric Gryffindor, then perhaps the cloak belonged to him as well. And maybe James was afraid Voldemort would want the cloak because it was a relic of Godric Gryffindor.
With the importance placed on them in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, we could even suspect that James’ invisibility cloak was one of Voldemort’s horcruxes. But I think this is unlikely. Although Dumbledore suspected Voldemort might try to make horcruxes, he wasn’t sure Voldemort was doing it until after the events in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, at the end of which Dumbledore learns Tom Riddle’s diary was one of Voldemort’s horcruxes. So, it’s unlikely they were on the lookout for Voldemort’s horcruxes 12 years earlier.
But what if it’s not a Voldemort horcrux? Could it be a horcrux of someone else? Logical candidates for this would be James or Dumbledore. But Dumbledore’s note to Harry strongly implies the cloak was James’ property, which would point us to believe it was a James horcrux.
And if the cloak is a James horcrux, then it could be a significant, even crucial part of the final battle between Voldemort and Harry, as it could facilitate James to come back from the dead and team up with Harry to defeat Voldemort. This would explain why it would have been so important to leave the cloak in Dumbledore’s safe keeping, and to keep it away from Voldemort at all costs.
The cloak could even be a Godric Gryffindor horcrux! In which case Harry would have the ultimate power of a Hogwarts founder in his corner!
These are just my thoughts. What do you think? Is there another reason James’ invisibility cloak could be so important that James would want it specially protected by giving it to Dumbledore?
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it can’t be a horcrux, because you have to commit a murder to make one. So if what you are saying is true, than Godrick or James seems to be a murderer, which seems very unlikely does it not?
Hm. I tend to agree with that. But there’s another article on this site, Dumbledore’s Horcrux, which puts forward the opinion that you only have to kill someone to make a horcrux, not murder them…
That’s too simple. Even if you believe for some reason that taking a piece of someone’s soul (even if was just laying there for the taking) to extend your own life ISN’T a dark thing; you’d need certain “things” to make a horcrux. Components, such as a vessel to contain it, and anything else that the spell might require. This is very advanced sorcery, who knows what would be needed. At the very least, I would guess that one doesn’t just create a horcrux on the fly. “Oh look, he died! Hey, I should make a horcrux!”.
If we can assume (I know, but everyone else is assuming things) that it takes “some” degree of advanced planning to create the horcrux, doesn’t that demonstrate evill intent? Sure, we know very little of Dumbledore’s 150 years, and maybe he was a dark wizard who reformed himself. But if he wasn’t, then creating a horcrux doesn’t fit. If Dumbledore had to kill someone in self defense, or even for another noble goal (again with the assumptions), why would he be prepared to create the horcrux? To deliberately benefit from the death of someone, regardless of how it occurs, hardly feels like a noble or even okay thing.
So if Dumbledore WAS evil in the day, sure fine. But James? Would he have done something like that? What reason on earth would he have had, as an, by all accounts, good person, to create something so dark? How would he have even known? Dumbledore wouldn’t have likely told him about it.
This feels like grasping at straws. The cloak being a possession of Godric makes sense, but I think you’re all off the deep end with the horcrux thing.
what if the only way for harry to get into the house at godric’s hollow is to use the cloak?
Okay the horcrux thing is not possible with James – remember you have to commit murder to make a horcrux. Godric we don’t know much about, but it is unlikely that he would be a murderer. The possibility that it is a GG relic is more to the point and makes ever so much more sense for James to give it to Dumblewdore for safekeeping as a part of Harry’s legacy as a descendant.
I don’t think the cloak was a horcrux for James, Lily, or Godric Gryffindor. Hocruxes are meant to be foul, cruel, etc., but that’s just my opinion. Personally, to make a hocrux I think the person has to put thought into the murder, think of whom they want to kill and not just go up to them and kill them for no apparent reason. Also, horcrux seem to be fairly uncommon knowledge in the wizard
world or else everyone would’ve known/guessed that LV can’t have died because of them.
Also if we go back to the interview JKR gave in 2005 to leaky and mugglenet she implied that Harry might NOT be related to Godric Gryffindor. Though I do think that it might be relevant that he lived in a village called Godric’s hollow but I don’t think Harry has any connection with the school founder himself.
Now as for why James left his cloak with DD well it could be the latter asked to borrow it but didn’t explain for what it would be used. I just don’t think and can’t see the cloak being used as a horcrux, James just doesn’t seem the type that would do something like that. Also, JKR already explained that the hero (harry) has to face LV face-to-face and I just can’t see her bringing James back to life to fight alongside Harry.
I don’t think the cloak is a horcrux because: firstly, the information about horcruxes is top secret and James is hardly to have known it; secondly if it were realy a horcrux Dumbledore wouldn’t have entrusted the cloak to so young wizard. (Harry could have lost it)Perhaps the cloak Is very important, but in some other way
What if the cloak is the last piece of ravenclaw and dumbledore played dumb with harry so he can find out later and guard it better knowing now that dumbledore is dead, cause harry in my opion wasnt ready to fight dumbledore or even learn all that he needs to survive.
Now that dumbledore is dead he has to… More determine to make it happend to learn, to fight….
What do u guys think…
I understand the process of making a horcrux as being a truly evil act, and I can not imagine anyone in the story, other than Voldemort of course, who would create one.
Like Anne, I think everyone is getting a little out of hand with the horcrux theories. John’s idea about using the cloak to enter Godric’s Hollow was excellent.
What do you all think of this idea? I don’t think Harry is the heir of Gryffindor, I think that Godric’s bloodline died out, and I think it happend when Dumbledore was murdered on top of the Astronomy tower.
If Dumbledore was an heir, that would explain why he had the sword of Gryffindor in his possession, and maybe why Voldemort has so far stayed away from Gryffindor relics. As far as Godric’s Hollow goes, perhaps it belonged to Gryffindor, and was passed down each generation. Maybe it was Dumbledore who offered the cottage as a hiding place.
What does this have to do with the cloak? I’m not sure. Maybe nothing. But I think it could help get an important train of thought moving… we are being to literal in trying to solve this. Lets try to be more abstract.
I think a lot of these suggestions have been great so far, but we have to take into account that Jo is really good at throwing curveballs and introducing aspects of HP canon that completely change the course of the books – our biggest example thus far has been the horcruxes introduced in book six. Speculation on the path and life of Harry Potter pre-Half-Blood Prince is now basically moot, because no one could have forseen these dark objects containing fragments of Voldemort’s soul as coming into play in the plot (If you did, maybe you should look into the position of Divination teacher at Hogwarts!).
My point is that Jo can always introduce new material or backstory into the plot which is impossible for us to guess at before-hand. Maybe there’s another spell or enchantment on the cloak that we don’t know about? Also, where did James get the cloak in the first place? Maybe there’s something there, but at this point, I think finding the answer involves too much guesswork to get us anywhere concrete.
actually i think james and dumbledore knew it had once belonged to godric gryffindor, and they wanted to keep it away from voldemort to prevent him to make another horcrux. maybe, just maybe, (and i know it’s hard to think it could happen) dumbledore forgot about this and didn’t see that there may be only 6 horcruxes… one less to destroy i guess…
but i can’t stop thinking about what John Rinaldi from Fairlee VT said… “what if the only way for harry to get into the house at godric’s hollow is to use the cloak?” that’s very interenting.. which leads us to..
exacly WHAT could harry find in godric’s hollow..?
I like that last question–there’s definitely something to be found in Godric’s Hollow. The other thing to think about is what if the cloak itself wasn’t important but the fact that Dumbledore needed to use it for someone else who couldn’t make themself invisible. Isn’t it also stated that someone else was there the night the Potters died? Maybe Dumbledore gave to cloak to someone else to use–maybe someone like Snape. I just have a feeling that Snape was much more invovled in this whole thing.
I’ve been re-reading HBP. As Dumbledore takes Harry away from Privet Drive, he tells him to always keep his invisibility cloak at hand. What is the significance of this?
Susan: Its probably a matter of hiding. As we’ve seen before, the OotP has used invisibility cloaks several times when they didn’t want to be seen. Should something happen, Harry can always toss on the cloak and hide.
Though your question MIGHT have some more relevance with regards to the “did Dumbledore plan his death” question.
I’ve read the idea that Harry is a decendant of Gryffindor. What about going one step further? Hermione is brilliant and mentions once that the Sorting Hat almost put her in Ravenclaw (Order of the Phoenix) – what if she is a decendent of Rowena Ravenclaw? (admittedly an explaination is needed for her Muggle parents. Perhaps a squib in her family tree?) Ron is extremely loyal to Harry – what if he is a decendant of Helga Hufflepuff? Now the three heirs of the original founders would battle against the Heir of Slytheran which JK foreshadowed in her explaination of what happen when Salazar left Hogwarts (sorry, forgot which book this was in).
I think that the invisibility cloak is need to get into the Potter House, but not in the way everyone thinks. Remember that Peter Pettigrew was the secret-keeper for the Potters, so how did DD, Hagrid, Sirius, et al. find the house once the Potters were killed? Remeber in Order of the Phoenix that even if someone knows the location, you still need to to know the location FROM THE SECRET KEEPER to find the place.
The obvious answer is that the good guys were able to find the house since once the Potters died that the secrecy charms ended, but I don’t buy it. I think that somewhere on the cloak, Peter Pettigrew wrote the Potter’s address. James then gave it to DD so that he could find the house (which explains why DD got it before he died). Harry will need to reveal the address to enter his old house.
Even if the address of Harry’s old house was written on the Invisibility Cloak (and if that could be done, wouldn’t the address be invisible?), the house was destroyed. So there’s nothing there for Harry to enter. Going back to Godric’s Hollow is different from returning to a non-existent house.
Godric’s Hollow itself was not invisible to ordinary people (in the first book we are told that Hagrid got baby Harry out of the ruins of the house before the muggles descended on it) so, although the village had a name that connected it to the wizarding world, it was a normal village with ordinary citizens living there.
It’s plausible that Harry may need the cloak to find the village or even to find the location of the original house, but I doubt that the ruins would have been left untouched for 15 years. Someone’s probably built a new house on the lot by now and another family may be living in it.
No one in their right mind, I guess, would touch Potters’ house. Especially after Voldemort did something with it.
where is invisibilty cloak now.? Did harry get back his cloak after he left it on astronomy tower?
Harry kept on losing it..but somehow he always got it back..
That’s true, but if the cloack is so special, then why would Dumbledore (if it’s him) give it back to Harry each time he lost it. When someone can’t take care for such important stuff, then you won’t give it back each time, would you?
Hannah brings up a difficulty – How do wizards own houses in a muggle community without filing all the muggle paperwork? Consider the ingorance of Mr. Weasley.
I think its safe to say, Harry deciding to go the GH must be critical to the story, which leads me to guess prehaps there is no house rebuilt.
I think the invisibility cloak being returned to Harry repeatedly is probably like a parent catching a child as it learns to walk. Let’s face it, Harry has been in over his head since page 1 book 1. I do find it interesting that we are always told when Harry gets it back.
What I am wondering is how can Harry or LV kill the other when their wands do the prior incanto thingie? This is what’s making me think somebody else will be involved with the killing. I wrote what I called the ‘perfect ending’ (my version) and in it I had Harry propel LV inbetween himseld and the Avada K curse Bellatrix was sending his way. Howver, even then, I had Harry wandless.
I feel Harry, or any great wizard, should not be limited by a wand. Harry vanished the glass plate without words or wand in book 1. That is serious magic if you think about it. This makes me think that ‘power’ behind magic is passion. People who love, tend to be more passionate, focused and directed than people who hate because they make a choice to love. Hateful creatures like LV just seem to hate everyone except themselves.
Whatever JKR does, it will be interesting. Gotta go.
I’m not sure Hannah that the house would certainly have been rebuilt. There is cloaking magic that might hide it from prying eyes, similar to that which hides Hogwarts isn’t there? Muggles would, I think, only see flattened ruins, or something like a bog or swamp, whatever. Harry, of course, would find it easily enough being a wizard.
I’m also interested in this idea of magic not being limited by a wand and how it will affect Harry in Book 7. Yes, Harry has always been able to use his powers, often without realising what it was (pre-Hogwarts) and the way he was able to repel Voldemort during the fight with Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic (OotP) by his deep feelings must have taught him something.
What concerns me, particularly after his mega teenage angst in OotP is his apparently inability to control very strong feelings and his judgement falters e.g. he dismisses Hermione’s reasonable arguments before their dash to the Ministry and rushes on headlong without thought.
Will the death of Dumbledore bring about a final maturity to Harry, and allow him to track down horcruxes and solve several puzzles (although I think he will still need Ron and Hermione)? I think GH may have a part to play, and James’ cloak, if only Harry is not too reckless; he has relied on sheer luck, protection of others and a fair degree of his own skill but he will need, I think, to be more of a grown up when he tackles Voldemort
Marjorie, the Potter House was unplottable unlike St. Mungo’s hospital which is just made to look abandoned. When something is unplottable, only the secret keeper and those the secret keeper tells can find it. I am troubled by the muggles being aware of the chaos at the Potter house….. Pettigrew (the secret keeper) was still alive and therefore (it seems to me) the place should still be unplottable regardless of its condition.
Curiouser and curiouser this is. I agree with you about Harry’s reckless nature, but then most guys are that way at his age.
I been thinking about the Cloak alot the past few weeks and in reading some very interesting things here..Ive came up with a idea..
I wonder if, the Potters, knowing LV was after them and that they would be killed if, they and DD come up with some old magic where DD could somehow bestoe there love and maybe sprits into the cloak to help protect harry? The idea hit me when James and Lily came out of LVs wand in the graveyard fight and maybe DD knows this in HBP and needs snape to kill him so he too may enter the cape? possibly Sirus knew this too when he died? It has been provin that LV is week agenst harrys love and Im just thinking that, somehow DD figured this out and there all sorta traping there selfs in the cloak and that in the end they will do that thing (like in the graveyard where they came out of the wand) and they will all combine there love with harrys love and it will distory LV…
I know the movies arent the gospel so to speak but, if you look at DDs expression on his face in GoF when he discovers what had happen in the graveyard, with harrys parents helping him escape..I dunno, its like he had just found a tidbit he was looking for..
I know, this is far fetched but, its something to think about..
I also, wounder if, Harrys aunt somehow helps harry find his way back to the Potters old house? Maybe, thats the final key to Harry beating LV? Meaning that Harry could get a enormus boost of feelings of love from that place or something.. My 2 cents anyway…
Congratulations to everyone who was guessing that Snape was under the invisibility cloak the night the Potters died at Godric’s Hollow (Rebecca in Albuquerque first hinted at it, Noel G. in Malta first to suggest it completely).
It was a good enough guess that J.K. felt it important enough to post on her web site today that it’s not true!
What does this mean? Someone else important was under the cloak at Godric’s Hollow? Or that Snape was somewhere else crucial that night?
Thank you Dave. So we know for sure NOBODY was hiding under that cloak at GH. We also know the crucial question is WHY DID DD have it which takes importance off the cloak itself.
So far, I don’t recall any deatheaters ever wearing or having an invisibility cloak. Madeye had 2. Perhaps LV desprately wanted an invisibility cloak for his death eaters.
What if the cloak allowed J&L; to spy of LV or his deatheaters and LV didn’t know fur sure how James was accomplishing it. That might explain why it was with DD.
John, I think you misread that. We don’t know for sure that NOBODY was under the cloak at GH. We just know for sure it wasn’t Snape.
Do you think there’s more to Sturgis Podmore’s use of the cloak when he was guarding the Department of Mysteries? Could he be a double agent?
Dave, here is what the article you kindly quoted says: Why did Dumbledore have James’ invisibility cloak at the time of James’ death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak? There IS a significant – even crucial – answer. (www.jkrowling.com 9/13/06)
I read it to mean that DD had the cloak when James died, therefore I conclude nobody must have had that cloak at the Potter house at that time. UNLESS DD was there, which I simply can not believe.
Sorry, John. Obviously I was confused. I did not properly put what J.K. said yesterday in context with the previous quote.
So, this makes what J.K. said yesterday very interesting doesn’t it? Why go out of your way to point out one specific person was not under the cloak at GH when you’d previously said no one could have been?
Anyone else smell something fishy? Like a red-herring?
So, if I am interpreting what John and Dave clarified above correctly, since DD had the cloak when James died, the cloak was not at GH at all but in DD’s possession. Therefore, no one was hiding under it that fateful night.
JKR is so good at sending us all scampering in different directions and leaving her to weave her special magic.
Since, as she said previously, DD had the cloak at the time of the Potters’ deaths, it isn’t a question of who was hiding under it but of why DD had it at all. Why did James leave it in DD’s possession so that it was returned to Harry in his first year? There is a significant, even crucial answer? Crucial to what? To vanquishing LV? It has to be crucial at this point in the story so it can’t just be a question of offering Harry protection as it has in the past. Yes. DD told Harry that he wanted him to carry the cloak with him at all times from now on (I’m loosely quoting from Book 6). And, we all saw how it offered Harry protection at the end of Book 6. But, we already know about that property of the cloak. So, Harry’s being invisible may become crucial to the outcome of the story or the cloak itself may have other properties we are not aware of yet (although, I’d be willing to bet that an obscure and insignificant comment made in one of the early books could be a powerful clue to this mystery). Could it contain powers that Harry will need in the final battle? Could it give Harry strength, insight, or a recollection that will enable him to proceed on his final journey? Or will it protect Harry from fatal danger? I’m always amazed at how answering one question as JKR did yesterday always seems to create hundreds more? Does anyone have any guesses or theories?
This seems to be a good time for a reread of the earlier books-just in case there’s a needle in the proverbial haystack.
I think the cloak was a possesion of Salazar Slytherin. Wouldn’t that make it a reason to keep it from Voldermort?
Plus it would make things terrible for Harry. That’s the way Jo works.
Hannah, thank you for the brillant observation – ‘crucial to what?’ I now realize its crucial to TWO things – WHY DD had it specifically when James died and how it relates to DD being able to make himself invisiable without it.
I suspect we’re grasping for the obvious… but at the same time becasue JKR makes words to do her bidding, we have to try to isolate everything we know about that small portion of time – which isn’t a heck of a lot.
One thing that bothers me… somebody pointed out in an earlier post that DD wrote ‘its time it was returned to you.’ when Harry got the cloak at Christmas.
Okay, someone help us out of the forest please…
Dumbledore had James� invisibility cloak �at the time� of James� death. Does �at the time� mean he got it exactly at that precise moment? This would mean that Dumbledore was at the Potter�s house when they were killed. There is a significant and even crucial answer. �Significant and crucial� to something that is going to happen? Most of the comments I�ve read seem to convey that the answer to the question is going to be �significant and crucial� to something that is going to happen in the last book, but I don�t think so. I think it�s more relevant to something that has already happened in one of the previous books.
In �half-blood prince� Harry is under the cloak �at the time� of Dumbledore�s death and he could not do anything because Dumbledore had petrified him. Maybe James or Lily had done the same thing to Dumbledore before they were killed by Voldemort, and this is how the cloak came into Dumbledore�s possession. They might have done this because they knew that they were going to die and their son would be safe with the person Voldemort feared the most. How is it that it is only Dumbledore who knows the full details of the Potter�s death? He was the one who told Harry that Voldemort first killed James and then Lily.
So this means that Dumbledore was only free to move after the Potters died and Voldemort was killed when his curse backfired. Then Dumbledore probably destroyed Voldemort�s body so that the death-eaters could not take it back from the house(or maybe he transformed it into something). Peter Pettigrew must have come looking for his master, and when he didn�t find him, he destroyed the Potter�s house. This is when Sirius arrives in his bike and goes after Pettigrew, while Hagrid borrows Sirius� bike and takes Harry to Privet Drive.
I don’t think the Invisibility Cloak is a Horcrux – not Voledemort’s, Dumbledore’s, or James’ – and I think thats just what Jo wanted us to suspect.
It is interesting that Dumbledore wanted Harry to carry the cloak with him at all times in HBP. Was this merely so Harry could escape from bad situations, or was there something more? Yet right before their mission to retrieve the (fake) locket, when Harry asks to retutrn to his dormitory to get the Cloak, Dumbledore isn’t even upset. Why is this?
well, this is a theory my wild head popped that somehow the cloak’s posession with DD has something to do with the night the potter’s died. but i mean their actual death. and the fact that lily died to save her son. we all know that but did she allow LV to kill her or did she kill herself to invoke the ancient magic that made the AV rebound on LV? was the ancient magic related to protection of harry’s ancestors (gryffindors?) over him and the cloak being the ancestral property? obviously they knew of the prophecy which is why DD performed the Fidelius charm and all. they knew LV would try and kill harry so they placed some sort of an insurance with DD. i don’t have the remotest idea of HOW and WHY all this connects but i just have the feeling there’s some connection between the two. what’s your thought?
To Javed:
Dumbledore did not know details of the Potter’s death. Harry came to know about them himself in the third year when the boggart dementor caused him to relive the last moments of his parent’s deaths. He heard his father saying he would hold LV off to give time to Lily to run with Harry.
If the cloak was a GG relic, then that might tie in to the scene in CoS, when harry pulls Godric’s sword from the sorting hat. Dumbledore later says that “only a true Griffindor could have pulled that from the hat.” Did Albus mean someone who was meant to be in Griffindor house, or did he mean a descendant of GG?
If DD had been at the Potter’s house, frozen under the invisibility cloak at the time of their death, He surely would’ve destroyed Lord Thingy’s wand after the spell was lifted- don’t you think? Also He would have taken Harry straight away, remember, Hagrid pulled him from the wreakage and delivered him to Dumbledore. I don’t think DD was there at all.
How does this sound…. DD loaned the cloak to Snape while he was at Hogwarts so nobody could see him DURING the time he had become a double agent for DD and OOtP. After LV’s fall, Snape became a teacher at Hogwarts.
We know DD trusts Snape beyond all doubt. It would make sense not to tell Harry what the cloak was being used for, or James for that matter because LV is an accomplished legimis.
We also know Snape started when Harry was 1 because of his interview with Umbridge (OOtP) and that he overheard the prophecy almost 2 years prior to that (HBP Trelaney).
So far the only people who see through the cloak are DD and MadEye, and MadEye would have been too busy to be at Hogwarts at that time.
This is crucial because it tells us Snape is DD’s man and that Harry has 2 allies in LV’s camp (Snape and Pettigrew)
What do you think?
well, John, your theory is good but that doesn’t explain why the ‘cloak’ is so important. if the cloak was with DD it definitely wasn’t so he could loan it to someone else. it looks like it was given to him for safekeeping.
What if DD and Harry are somehow related by being distant descendants of GG? All pure-blood families are inter-related…and James and DD are both pure-blood! Maybe that’s why DD has a special bond with him and if the cloak is really a GG relic, it makes sense as to why James would give it to DD!
Just like the sword and the hat helped Harry in the CoS, maybe the cloak will do something similar, Harry being a ‘true Gryffindor’. Like Vipra said.
I�ve been reading all of your comments in this subject.
Alot of good points takes out the other.
I think the cloak is nothing more than a cloak.
Ron said it was rare. That has to mean it�s really hard to get one.
The cloking must be the answer why it�s so important.
And if you just think. If your enemy can�t see you, woulden�t that be why DD told Harry to keep it with him on all the time.
An idea popped into my mind. It’s just that what we’re talking about here is the Invisibility Cloak. I don’t see anything special on that cloak. Plainly, on the cloak itself, is plain. I mean, its some kind of stuff that can be bought somewhere in the Wizarding World. And a plain Invisibility Cloak that makes you invisible – do you think that you can use that against Voldemort? There must be a pretty Dark Magic to snuff you out of invisibility, so its useless to have it as an important weapon to LV’s defeat. But I have a feeling that the Invisibility Cloak has something to do between LV and Harry, but not as a weapon. Something unusual (yeah, unsual).
Just a thought. Correct me if I’m talking too much.
And Vipra, about your question, its about Albus saying someone, a true Gryffindor (the house), can get the sword out of the hat. DD said this because Harry was in doubt of his belonging in Gryffindor, of the reason that in CoS he found out that he can speak Parseltongue.
Consider that James gave the cloak to DD before he died. Why? As David Haber says in his article, “for safekeeping”. The question we should be asking is why did it need to be kept safe. For Harry, of course. What if the property of the cloak that necessitates safekeeping is that it is a connection to his father and therefore a connection to his magical heritage perhaps all the way back to Griffyndor? I know others have said this but I am beginning to think (this is not a fully formulated idea, yet) that the cloak’s lineage is important to Harry because in it there is a secret, magical “message” that Harry will need to have. Not a written message but in the same way the Dementors caused Harry to hear his mother’s last moments and his father’s voice, the cloak may be able to trigger a memory, a thought, or an idea that Harry will need to vanquish LV. A voice from the past, if you will.
Magical message? I think that’s unlikely. The cloak is more likely to be a password or a weapon or a shield. And for those who pointed out that the cloak in itself is plain, think again. The Sorting Hat was a talking hat and that was pretty much all we thought it could do until Harry pulled out GG’s sword from it. It had another hidden power. Maybe the cloak does too…
Michael,
The material for an invisibility cloak comes from the Demiguise. A peaceful, herbivorous creature which resembles an ape, has large black eyes and long, silky hair and is described in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
I do not think the cloak is more than a cloak. Wizards seem to us spells to lock things and the only key type device I remember through out the books is MadEye’s super chest.
If it is James’ horcrux, maybe the death was a accident. Maybe when he was holding someone in the air by the ankle, he accidently let them fall, and they died. You never know.
I really liked John’s idea that the importance of DD having the cloak was not related to ‘the time of James and Lily’s deaths’, but to the time period between their deaths and when Harry turned 11 and came to Hogwarts. At that time DD returned the cloak to Harry. Whoever had been using it in the meantime would no longer need to have it. (No point, he’d be at Hogwarts with Harry)
I don’t think Snape was at GH hiding under the cloak the night the Potters were murdered, but I do think DD and Snape took responsibility for Harry’s safety from the moment of the Potters’ murders to the present. Perhaps Mrs. Figg wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on Harry at 4 Privet Drive. She had good intentions, of course, but couldn’t have ever done any magic to save or rpotect Harry while she was there.
I think what’s crucial is that Snape has always and will always place Harry’s safety at the top of his priorities. There are ots of theories as to why this is so, but I think JKR will fill in all of the blanks for us in Book 7.
What’s significant, even crucial, is knowing that Snape is Harry’s protector. A nasty, unpopular, mean-spirited protector, but his protector none the less. Perhaps this is how he means to do his penance for Lily’s death following Snape’s relaying of the prophecy to V.
I didn’t finish reading all the comments so I don’t know if anyone mentioned this, but it was said on another website that James got the invisibility cloak from his father. I read that someone thought it might have been a gift when Harry was born. Thought that might help.