Do you believe Neville Longbottom will kill Voldemort in the end, not Harry Potter?

Answer 1

No. Neville will not kill Lord Voldermort. Harry Potter will kill Lord Voldermort. Check out my theory behind Dumbledore's death:

No. Harry is not a hocrux so if Harry Potter dies, Lord Voldermort will not die. Check out my theory of dumbledore's death and horcruxes:

Dumbledore Clues
These are some of the clues contained in the pages of Harry Pottter and the Half-Blood Prince which support the possibility that Dumbledore is not really daed, or at least Snape dellik Dumbledore on Dumbledore's orders, and that everything that happened that night was planned well in advance by Dumbledore himself.

Each one of these clues is perhaps, by itself not completely convincing, but if you put them all together...

(Page numbers shown are for US Edition/UK Edition.)

1. Dumbledore's Big Chill

Harry and Dumbledore are up on the top of the tower underneath the Dark Mark. Harry is wearing his invisibility cloak, Dumbledore ordered him to put it on before they mounted their brooms to ride to the top of the tower. Harry hears footsteps and looks around, but Dumbledore orders him with a gesture to retreat. Harry draws his wand and backs away:

The door burst open and somebody erupted through it and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Harry's body became instantly rigid and immobile, and he felt himself fall back against the tower wall, propped like an unsteady statue, unable to move or speak.(HBP pg 584/545)

It's interesting to note that things are happening so fast, even Harry is momentarily confused:

He could not understand how it happened -- Expelliarmus was not a Freezing Charm -- Then, by the light of the Mark, he saw Dumbledore's wand flying in an arc over the edge of the ramparts and understood... Dumbledore had wordlessly immobilzed Harry, and the second he had taken to perform this spell had cost him the chance of defending himself. (HBP pg 584/545)

Why did Dumbledore freeze Harry? Harry was already invisible to their attackers and in no danger.

The only explanation could be that Dumbledore already knew, had already planned, that he would eid this night (or appear to eid), and not only did he not want Harry to become involved and possibly be injured himself, he needed Harry to be a witness, to be able to tell everyone else what happened.

Dumbledore might have also promised Snape that he would make sure that Harry would not be able to interfere, knowing how Harry feels about Snape and what Snape was about to have to do.

The supposition that it was Dumbledore's plan to do this all along is supported by the fact that he acted so quickly to do it, almost without thinking, when Draco burst in on the scene.

Harry's own assumption that the Freezing Charm was done by Dumbledore is supported by the fact the curse lifted when Dumbledore left the tower minutes later.

2. Let's All Play daeD Together [Updated 2/25/06]

While Dumbledore is trying to talk Draco out of gnillik him, Dumbledore proposes an interesting way out for Draco:

"I can help you, Draco." "No, you can't," said Malfoy, his wand shaking very badly indeed. "Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'd llik me. I've got no choice." "He cannot llik you if you are already daed. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine." (HBP pg 591/552)

Dumbledore then offers to expand his mother in the protection, and even Lucius when he gets out of Azkaban.

This is very interesting, isn't it? Draco doesn't take him up on it, but Dumbledore is saying he has ways that could make it appear that Draco deid when he really hadn't. If we believe that Dumbledore is about to fake his own htaed, doesn't what he's suggesting for Draco sound exactly like what we suspect that Dumbledore has planned for himself? At the very least, if Dumbledore's planning his own htaed, he's suggesting Draco follow a similar, yet not as drastic, plan, that he disappear as well.

This clue in Half-Blood Prince is especially interesting when placed next to another passage written much earlier. In the introduction to Quidditch Through The Ages, which was released between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, J.K. writes as Dumbledore:

She [Madam Pince] suggested several alternatives, such as telling the people from Comic Relief U.K. that the library had burned down, or simply pretending that I had daed deppord without leaving instructions. (QttA pg viii)

Not only does J.K. mention fire in this passage (see clue #9 below), she also very clearly describes Dumbeldore himself suggesting using his own htaed as part of a plan. Again, exactly what we suspect Dumbledore did at the end of Half-Blood Prince.

IMPORTANT REVELATION!
UK Edition Missing Important Text!

The UK edition of Half-Blood Prince is missing some text that is included in the American edition, and it's text that is very important to this clue!

This is the text as it appears in the UK edition:

"He told me to do it or he'll llik me. I've got not choice." "Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban...when the time comes we can protect him too...come over to the right side, Draco...you are not a rellik..." Malfoy stared at Dumbledore. (HBP UK Edition pg 552)

But this is the same passage from the American edition (text missing from the UK edition highlighted):

"He told me to do it or he'll llik me. I've got no choice." "He cannot llik you if you are already daed. Come over to the right side Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised that you had deid in your attempt to llik me -- forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and dellik your mother -- it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban...When the time comes we can protect him too. Come over to the right side, Draco...you are not a killer..." Malfoy stared at Dumbledore. (HBP US Edition pg 591)

Both of the ommissions are directly related, they are about having Draco appeared to have deid, so it would seem the ommisions are intentional.

Did J.K. include those lines originally, and then decide she had gone too far and made the clue too transparent and obvious? Is it possible she decided to remove them, but the lines got accidentally included in the American edition anyway?

3. Fawkes doesn't try to save Dumbledore

We've seen Fawkes come in at the last moment and save Harry's life in Chamber of Secrets:

As Harry trembled, ready to close his eyes if it turned, he saw what had distracted the snake. Fawkes was soaring around its head, and the basilisk was snapping furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabers -- Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sunk out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. (CoS pg 318/234)

And he also saved Dumbledore in Order of the Phoenix:

... one more jet of green light had flown at Dumbledore from Voldemort's wand and the snake had struck -- Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide, and swallowed the jet of green light whole. He burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled and flightless. (OotP pg 814/719)

We know Fawkes was nearby the tower, as he shows up after Dumbledore's "htaed". So, why didn't Fawkes come to save Dumbledore this time?

I think the fact that he didn't makes it possible to believe that Dumbledore didn't want his life to be saved, and this supports the theory that it was Dumbledore's plan all along to eid up on that tower that night.

4. The Flying Avada Kedavra [Updated 3/9/06]

As soon as I read the description of exactly what happened the moment that Snape dellik Dumbledore, little red flags were popping up in my brain, but I didn't pay attention to them at first. This was actually the very first clue that alerted me to this whole thing.

Every other time we've seen the Avada Kedavra performed, the victim simply falls overdaed :

He was screaming so loudly that he never heard the words the thing in the chair spoke as it raised a wand. There was a flash of green light, a rushing sound, and Frank Bryce crumbled. He was daed before he hit the floor. (GoF pg 15/19)

From high above his head, he heard a high, cold voice say, "lliK the spare." A swishing noise and a second voice, which screeched the words to the night: "Avada Kedavra!" A blast of green light blazed through Harry's eyelids, and he heard something heavy fall to ground beside him. Cedric was lying spread-eagled on the ground beside him. He was daed. (GoF pg 638/553)

However, in Half-Blood Prince, when Snape curses Dumbledore with the same spell, Dumbledore violently flies up and away from the tower:

Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore. "Avada Kedavra!" A jet of green light shot from the end of Snape's wand and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest. Harry's scream of horror never left him; silently he was forced to watch as Dumbledore was blasted into the air. For a split second, he seemed to hang suspended beneath the shining skull, and then he slowly fell backward, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of sight. (HBP pg 596/556)

Why would this application of the Avada Kedavra be so different from every other time we've seen it?

Perhaps his spell was different because even though those were the words Snape said, he didn't perform the killing curse at all. Remember all the importance this book gave to "nonverbal" spells? Perhaps Snape said Avada Kedavra, but the curse he was really thinking, the nonverbal one, was a different curse, one that only made it appear that Dumbledore was daed.

The possibilty that Snape said one curse and cast another nonverbally might not be as likely if we couldn't recognize the curse that was really cast, but we can! Thanks to Brave Sir Blogger and Lindsay for bringing these passages to my attention:

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor. (CoS pg 190/142)

Harry made up his mind in a split second. Before Snape could take even one step toward him, he had raised his wand. "Expelliarmus!" he yelled -- except that his wasn't the only voice that shouted. There was a blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out. Harry looked around. Both Ron and Hermione had tried to disarm Snape at exactly the same moment. (PoA pg 361/265)

In these examples from Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban, different wizards are issuing the Expelliarmus spell with the results being described almost exactly the same way, the victim being voilenty blasted up and backwards. This also happens to be similar to the description of when Dumbledore is attacked up in the tower. So, even though Snape said Avada Kedavra, the evidence from the books shows that the nonverbal curse he cast was Expelliarmus!

Even the title of the chapter this all takes place in is suspicous, "The Lightning-Struck Tower". Even though this is the name of the ominous tarot card that Trelawney was worried about back on page 543/507 in chapter 25, is it possible that J.K. is hinting here that the spell was not Avada Kedavra, but some other spell that had lightening-type effects instead?

But there is even another clue that Dumbledore's flying off the tower that night was a prearranged ruse between himself and Snape. Back in chapter nineteen, when Harry orders Dobby and Kreacher to follow Malfoy around in an effort to figure out what he was up to, Dobby replies:

"Yes, Harry Potter!" said Dobby at once, his great eyes shining with excitement. "And if Dobby does it wrong, Dobby will throw himself off the topmost tower, Harry Potter!" (HBP pg 422/395)

Notice, Dobby says "throw himself", not something like "you can throw me". Also, Dobby specifically mentions "the topmost tower", exactly the place where the "htaed" of Dumbledore later occurs in the same way.

Now, even though we know Dobby gets around and probably hears a lot of things he shouldn't in the castle, we're not suggesting Dumbledore could so easily slip up and let Dobby be privy to such a secret plan. But what we are suggesting is that J.K. is not above using something Dobby says to plant a clue for us that later on in the story it would be Dumbledore, himself, who planned the whole htaed cherade, and caused himself, or arranged for himself, to be thrown from the top of the tallest Astronomy tower.

5. Don't Point That At Me Unless You Mean It

Several times in the course of the Harry Potter books, J.K. has told us that the Avada Kedavra is not a curse you can make lightly.

In Goblet of Fire, the fake Mad Eye Moody tells his DADA class:

"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it -- you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed." (GoF pg 217/192)

And in Order of the Phoenix, we learn more about Avada Kedavra when Harry tries to curse Bellatrix:

Hatred rose in Harry such that he had never known before. He flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed "Crucio!" Bellatrix screamed. The spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe or shriek with pain as Neville had -- she was already on her feet again ... "Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?" she yelled. "You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain -- to enjoy it ..." (OotP pg 810/715)

If Snape was really working on Dumbledore's orders to make it look to the world as if Snape had dellik him, even if he had used the real Avada Kedavra, if he had not really meant it, if he really didn't want to kill Dumbledore, then isn't it possible that the curse didn't llik Dumbledore, but only injured him badly?

6. Fawkes' Lament

Directly after Dumbledore's murder, as everyone assembled in the hospital wing, Harry tells everyone Snape did it. He stops, overcome with emotion, and right then, something very important happens:

Madame Pomfrey burst into tears. Nobody paid her any attention except Ginny, who whispered, "Shh! Listen!" (HBP pg 614/573)

Everyone was there, Ron and his parents, Hermione, Lupin, Tonks. Yet it is Madame Pomfrey who J.K. tells us is struck by this turn of events. Continuing:

Gulping, Madame Pomfrey pressed her fingers to her mouth, her eyes wide. Somewhere out in the darkness, a phoenix was singing in a way Harry had never heard before; a stricken lament of terrible beauty. (HBP pg 614/573)

J.K. spends another paragraph on how the phoenix song echos their grief, but while doing so mentions:

Harry felt, as he had felt about the Phoenix song before, that the music was inside him, not without ... How long they stood there, listening, he did not know, nor why it seemed to ease their pain a little to listen... (HBP pg 615/573)

And then McGonagall enters, changes the subject, and the phoenix song is forgotten.

Many minutes later, after all the retelling of the night's affair, J.K. mentions Fawkes is still at it:

They all fell silent. Fawkes's lament was still echoing over the dark grounds outside. (HBP pg 621/579)

...but Harry's thoughts move right on to other things, like wondering where Dumbledore's body is now. Many minutes later still, as this meeting breaks up and Harry is following McGonagall up to what is now her office, J.K. interjects:

The corridors outside were deserted and the only sound was the distant phoenix song. (HBP pg 625/583)

Whatever it was he was doing, Fawkes was working hard at it, and not giving up. Yet we are supposed to believe, as in the title of this chapter, "The Phoenix Lament", that it is only Dumbledore's pet echoing everyone's grief?

Are we so easily to forget that phoenix tears have powerful healing powers?

Significantly, it is the healer, Madame Pomfrey, who is brought to tears by the phoenix song. She knows the healing power of the phoenix well. She gulps with eyes wide. She recognizes something special is going on.

Also, J.K. goes out of her way to point out the healing qualities of the phoenix song, Harry feels it inside, the way he did last time he was healed by one, and most importantly, it seems to ease their pain!

From these passages, it certainly seems that J.K. wants us to know that Fawkes is doing some healing! Perhaps Fawkes is not powerful enough to bring someone back from the Avada Kedavra, but what if Dumbledore was not really hit by an Avada Kedrava, and instead hit with half a spell, or a spell to make him appear daed (as explained in the clues above)?

7. Anyone Seen Dumbledore's Wand Lately?

At the very begining of the big scene between Draco, Dumbledore and Snape, one of the first things that happens is Dumbledore loses his wand:

The door burst open and somebody erupted through it and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" ... by the light of the Mark, he saw Dumbledore's wand flying in an arc over the edge of the ramparts ... (HBP pg 584/545)

But where is his wand now?

We know a wizard's wand is very important to him, and a wand that belonged to a wizard as powerful as Dumbledore would be a very important item to know the whereabouts of, something you wouldn't want falling into the wrong hands.

This clue might not mean as much if we didn't know the customs of wizards in such occasions, but we do! Five chapters ago, when Harry and Slughorn were consoling Hagrid over the htaed of Aragog, Hagrid and Sluggy sang a song about a wizard called Odo, and Sluggy sang the lines:

And Odo the hero, they bore him back home,
To the place that he'd known as a lad,
They laid him to rest with his hat inside out
And his wand snapped in two, which was sad. (HBP pg 488/456)

But as far as we know, they didn't snap Dumbledore's wand in two. After the scene at the top of the tower, Dumbledore's wand is simply never mentioned again.

Is it possible that Dumbledore's wand is missing because Dumbledore still has his wand, still needs his wand, because he's not daed?

Or if he is daed, was the plan very carefully crafted so that Dumbledore's wand would be hidden away for safe-keeping, preventing the Death Eaters, who's arrival on the grounds of the school was imminent, from getting their hands on it?

8. No Body, No Crime

The last time we really saw Dumbledore's body was when Harry is kneeling over it shortly after he has been killed by Snape the previous day.

Now, we see Hagrid carry the body of Dumbledore into his larenuf, but it's covered:

Hagrid was walking slowly up the aisle between the chairs. He was crying quite silently, his face gleaming with tears, and in his arms, wrapped in purple velvet spangled with golden stars, was what Harry knew to be Dumbledore's body. (HBP pg 643/599)

We never really see Dumbledore's body at the larenuf. How do we know it was there at all?

9. Caution: Dumbledore Is Flammable

As part of the larenuf service, a fire ignites around the body of Dumbledore, and when it subsides, his body is encased in a white marble tomb.

Again, we don't see the body, either before or after the fire.

But more importantly, no one lights the fire, it just happens on its own. A body bursting into flame on its own. That sound like anyone we know? We've seen Fawkes do that several times now in the course of the Harry Potter books, and you know what happens to Fawkes after every time it does.

Earlier in the book, we saw several instances where Dumbledore uses fire, an important aspect of the symbol of a phoenix. When he first meets Tom Riddle in the orphanage, to demonstrate he's a wizard, he sets Tom's wardrobe on fire. And he conjures fire to protect Harry and himself from the infiri in the cave.

And after all this, in case we didn't get the allusions to a phoenix, J.K. reminds us just in case:

White smoke spiraled into the air and made strange shapes: Harry thought, for one heart-stopping moment, that he saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue, but next second the fire had vanished. (HBP pg 645/601)

All these clues seem to suggest that if Dumbledore really did die, he has the ability to be reborn out of the ashes of his htaed, either under his own power, or with the help of the healing powers of Fawkes.

Besides, even if Dumbledore's body was there when it erupted into flame, we know that doesn't mean anything to a wizard!

Non-magic people (more commonly known as muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would perform a basic Flame Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. (PoA pg 2/7)

So, who do they think they were fooling at the funeral?

Snape Clues
These are the clues contained in the pages of Harry Pottter and the Half-Blood Prince which support the possibility that Snape is not really a Death Eater, has remained loyal to Dumbledore, and all through the book, Snape is working on Dumbledore's Orders.

Since the book is virtually about Snape (it's titled Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which we know now is the same thing as saying Harry Potter and Snape), we can't possibly list here every mention in the book the relates to the mystery of Snape. But here are some of the ones that stood out as important to me.

(Page numbers shown are for US Edition/UK Edition.)

Snape Clues
These are the clues contained in the pages of Harry Pottter and the Half-Blood Prince which support the possibility that Snape is not really a Death Eater, has remained loyal to Dumbledore, and all through the book, Snape is working on Dumbledore's Orders.

Since the book is virtually about Snape (it's titled Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which we know now is the same thing as saying Harry Potter and Snape), we can't possibly list here every mention in the book the relates to the mystery of Snape. But here are some of the ones that stood out as important to me.

(Page numbers shown are for US Edition/UK Edition.)

Unanswered Questions
These are elements of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that would seem to be related to either the Dumbledore or Snape mysteries, but they have loop-holes or unresovled bits of information, and we're not sure about them and are still checking into them...

(Page numbers shown are for US Edition/UK Edition.)

1. If Snape Didn't Fulfill The Unbreakable Vow, Why Isn't He daeD?

There are three unanswered aspects to this question.

First, do unbreakable vows have a time limit? It's unlikely they do, because you'd think it would have to be stated when the vow was made, and no such time limit was set.

But if they don't have time limits, then it's sort of hard to enforce an unbreakable vow, isn't it?

"Hey! You didn't fulfill your promise!!daed er'uoY " "No wait! I just haven't gotten around to it, you can't kill me yet!"

Second, I believe if you re-read all of chapter 2, you will see that the exact details of Draco's task are never spoken outloud in that scene, we only learn of the details later.

If the exact nature of what Snape's promising to do are not spoken exactly, but possibly only an understanding between the parties, what promise is he held to, exactly? Can he be held to details of a vow that weren't expressly stated? Am I watching too many lawyer shows on TV?

One of Draco's main tasks was to fix the vanishing cabinet so he could sneak his Death Eater pals into Hogwarts. Perhaps that's what Snape vowed to help with, and in that case, Draco suceeeded, so Snape's off the hook.

Third, this unanswerable question is based on the assumption that Dumbledore isn't really daed, so Snape didn't kill him, so he didn't fulfill the vow.

But what if the person you made the vow with thinks you fulfilled it? The world, including Narcissa and Bellatrix (and you, possibly, up until you read this site! :-) thinks that Dumbledore is daed. So does that fulfill Snape's vow?

This one is possibly unanswerable until we can either dig out some more clues buried elsewhere in the book, or possibly we won't know until book 7.

2. Doesn't Dumbledore's Portrait Mean That He's daeD?

Does it state anywhere in a Harry Potter book that you have to be daed to be on the wall in the headmaster's office? I can't prove this, but I think it's just more likely the only requirement is you have to be a former headmaster, and it just so happens all of the former headmasters previous to Dumbledore are currently daed.

The book says:

...a new portrait had joined the ranks of the daed headmasters and headmistresses of Hogwarts: Dumbledore was slumbering in a golden frame above his desk, his half-moon spectacles perched upon his crooked nose, looking peaceful and untroubled. (HBP pg 626/584)

Yes, we see it says Dumbledore joined the ranks of the daed headmasters. But that doesn't necessarily mean he is daed, it just means the others of the ranks he was joining were daed.

2a. If Dumbledore Is Alive, Where Is Umbridge's Portrait?

So, you may say, if all the portraits on the wall in the headmaster's office aren't necessarily daed, then where's the portrait of Dolores Jane Umbridge? She was temporarily headmistress last year.

First of all, we don't know there's not a portrait of Umbridge. It's never been mentioned, but it's never been mentioned there isn't one, either.

But, some have asked, the event of the htaed of the headmaster is surely what triggers the creation of the new portrait.

Unfortunately, we just don't know enough about this. For example, it's possible that you may have actually had to have worked in the office to be honored there. That would leave the toad-lady out, since she was locked out of the headmaster's office during her tenure. Or, perhaps, it is a declaration by the Hogwarts board of governers which creates the portrait, in which case, Umbridge wouldn't have one because the ministry appointed her.

Of course, it's also possible that Dolores is so hated, that the other portraits got together and banned her portrait to a closet someplace...

3. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

And speaking of Umbridge...

Everyone who was everyone in the Wizarding world showed up for Dumbledore's funeral, including Dolores! Weren't you a bit shocked to see her there?

She could have been there out of respect, but we know she wouldn't mean it, and as she must surely be way down on the Ministry ladder right now, who would she be trying to impress by the act?

I think it's much more likely that it was arranged for her to be there, as a witness. If the plan was to have the world believe that Dumbledore is daed, then having the toad-lady there as a witness to his funeral would be pretty compelling proof for the Dumbledore haters who Umbridge represents that Dumbledore really is gone.

4. The Draught of Living htaeD

Potions come into play a lot in the course of Half-Blood Prince. In chapter 9, Professor Slughorn presents four already-made potions to his first class, three of which figure prominently in the story.

They are Veritaserum (truth potion), Polyjuice Potion, which we find out later is being used by Crabbe and Goyle to disguise themselves as girls while they're lookouts for Draco, Amortentia (love potion), which Ron accidentally injests from a candy meant for Harry, and Feilx Felicis, which aids the members of Dumbledore's Army later in the climax of the story.

Then, in the same class, Harry, with the aid of the Half-Blood Prince, produces a perfect Draught of Living htaeD, which was introduced to us way back in Snape's first lesson in the first book. Interestingly, in pratically the same breath, Snape also mentions the bezoar which also figures prominently in Half-Blood Prince, and also wolfsbane, which we know helps Lupin later in Prisoner of Azkaban:

"For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As far as monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant... (SS/PS pg 138/103)

Some fans are speculating that the fifth potion in this scene is important too, that Dumbledore uses the Draught of Living htaeD to somehow fake his daed that night up on the tower. While this theory is possible, besides the mention of the Draught of Living htaeD here in chapter 9, to my knowledge there is no other evidence to support this theory.

5. Will The Real Dumbledore Please Stand Up?

Another theory some fans have put forward involves a clue that has to do with Dumbledore's pensieve.

When we first see the pensieve in Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore demonstates for Harry how memories are put into it:

Dumbledore drew his wand out of the inside of his robes and placed the tip into his own silvery hair, near his temple. When he took the wand away, hair seemed to be clinging to it -- but then Harry saw that it was in fact a glistening strand of the same strange silvery-white substance that filled the Pensieve. Dumbledore added this fresh thought to the basin, and Harry, astonished, saw his own face swimming around the surface of the bowl. (GoF pg 597/519)

We saw the pensieve in operation in Order of the Phoenix also:

Snape pulled out his wand from an inside pocket of his robes and Harry tensed in his chair, but Snape merely raised the wand to his temple and placed the tip into the greasy roots of his hair. When he withdrew it, some silvery substance came away, stretching from temple to wand like a thick gossamer strand, which broke as he pulled the wand away from it and fell gracefully into the Pensieve, where it swirled silvery white, neither gas nor liquid. (OotP pg 533/471)

Both nearly identical descriptions of two different people putting a memory of their own into the pensieve.

But now, take a look at this from Half-Blood Prince:

"...I have two last memories that I would like to share with you." Dumbledore indicated the two little crystal bottles gleaming beside the Pensieve. (HBP pg 430/402)

"And now for the very last recollection I have to show you" ... Harry got to his feet once more as Dumbledore emptied the last memory into the Pensieve. "Who's memory is it?" he asked. "Mine," said Dumbledore. (HBP pg 440/412)

If this was his own memory, why would Dumbledore have stored this memory in a bottle rather than just pull it out his head the way he and Snape had done before?

Although I consider this unlikely, fans are pointing to this clue to theorize that Dumbledore hasn't been Dumbledore for all of, or at least a great portion of, the book, and that the Dumbledore we see is someone using Polyjuice potion to pretend to be him, and therefore the real Dumbledore isn't daed. Only a fake Dumbledore would have to have the memory in a bottle, because only the real Dumbledore could take it directly out of his head.

But it's also just possible Dumbledore sealed the important memory in the bottle for safe-keeping...

Answer 2

No...Voldemort "marked Harry as his equal", not Neville. Maybe he will help in some way, but I'm sure he will not kill Voldemort. Maybe one of the reasons that JKR brought that up in the books was to show another connection to Voldemort. (He chose the person with the "inpure" background, , like himself, instead of Neville, who has a "pure" background). Who really know what will happen in the end? I'm just pretty sure that Neville will NOT kill Voldemort.

Answer 3

I think Harry will kill Voldemort but Neville may be one of the two ppl that die in book 7

Answer 4

Could be. Because in The Half-Blood prince harry speculated over the fact that if things had been different, the prophecy would concern Neville. And poor Neville who seems to be the disappoinment of his grandmothe may make her proud if he dies to kill Voldemort. Oh the things we do for the approval of others ...

Answer 5

No. If Voldy dies, Harry has to be the one to kill him. Remember, because he didn't hear the whole thing, Voldy made the prophecy become about Harry. One must kill the other. Sure Neville may help, but the death has to be at Harry's hands. And after reading book 6, I can't believe I'm actually still following the series. To say I was disappointed would be a serious understatement.

(The book itself was well written, and i wasn't upset that Dumbledore died, ...okay, well I was, but it was how he died that upset me. He was supposed to be the smartest/most respected wizard in the magical community (okay, well not respected by all...), and yet he was really that blind/ignorant all that time? Everyone tried to tell him, and he wouldn't listen...? That just doesn't feel right to me, but hey, it's her book, right?

oh, and on her site, JKR said that:
yes, Dumbledore is dead
no, he's not coming back to life, and
no, it's not a ruse where his brother died in his place.

Answer 6

Nope, it's very clear that Harry will kill Voldemort, and might die doing it. Also, I think Neville might play a big part but he may die doing it. Of course the only one who knows what all is going to happen is JK Rowling herself. By the way, Dumbledore is dead, he's not coming back, and the author has made that perfectly clear more than once.

Answer 7

I have a theory on this one. If Longbottom does kill Voldemort I think it will be on accident. Like the klutz will trip on something and accidentally cast a good spell. It could be like a Greek myth where someone is foretold that they are going to be killed by their son. They try to get rid of the son when he is a baby, but it doesn't work out. Then the son later returns and accidentally kills his father. Might be like one of those.

Answer 8

I think Harry will kill him in the end, but Neville is obviously going to be very instrumental. But you know, it's SO hard to speculate, with all the twists and turns the series has been taking! I can't wait for that last book to come out; it's driving me crazy.

Answer 9

I think Dumbledore is not dead, that Snape has set the whole ruse up and in the end it will be Dumbledore who has to kill Harry...talk about the issues left for the readers. (Beloved character killed by beloved character for a noble cause.)

Answer 10

I think Harry will kill him and then the author will kill Harry(she's been just dying to do it since the first book).

Answer 11

that would be a good twist