Hey, brother!
Man, I have been on a bit of a Harry Potter high recently.
Like last weekend
we got to go to Hogsmeade at Universal
- where I got this awesome notebook
and this wand
which that says won't actually do real magic
*huh* we'll see.
I'm currently re-listening to the Goblet of Fire
and I've just been reading a ton about Harry Potter online
and came across one particular article that really peeked my interest
and asked the question:
Did Dumbledore create a Horcrux?
*opening music*
The article in question - which I will link to down in the description -
did a really good job of convincing me
that Dumbledore could have made a Horcrux.
But I had a big disagreement
about what the Horcrux actually was.
And as a quick reminder,
in case you haven't reread all the Harry Potter books yet this year,
a Horcrux is a dangerous and powerful magical object
used to preserve your immortality
by inserting a piece of your soul Into that object.
Now, maybe that doesn't actually sound that bad
except the way you go about splitting your soul is by committing murder.
Which immediately brings up one glaring issue with this theory *uh*
Dumbledore didn't like Dark Magic, and he didn't kill anyone ... right?
Well, yes, and no. But honestly, ultimately,
it doesn't really matter.
Allow me to explain.
In the Deathly Hallows, we learn a lot about Dumbledore's past
and one event in particular stands out
that seems to have changed everything for him.
And that event being a scuffle between
Dumbledore, his brother Abelforth and his then friend
Gellert Grindelwald.
The three of them got into a fight, some spells were cast
and the end result was the death of Dumbledore sister,
Ariana.
But the tricky part is they don't know which of the three of them cast the spell that killed her.
Dumbledore even admits to Harry in Deathly Hallows:
"You see Harry
I never knew which one of us, in that horrific fight,
had actually cast the curse that killed my sister.
I dreaded beyond all things the knowledge that it had been I who brought about her death,
not merely through my arrogance and stupidity
but that I actually struck the blow that snuffed out her life."
So yes, Dumbledore may actually have killed somebody.
He could be responsible for her murder.
But I hear you saying
Dumbledore didn't know which of them cast the spell.
If he was going to create a Horcrux
he would have to know that it was him who killed her, right?
Because that's how he would split his soul.
Just the very fact that he doesn't know means he couldn't have created a Horcrux, right?
Well, I actually don't think that's the case.
I don't think knowing who cast the spell really matters.
Because the fact is, regardless of who cast the spell,
Dumbledore blamed himself.
For him it wasn't the spell that killed her at all.
It was his own neglect for his care, his resentment that he had to care for her at all.
The idea that she was slowing down his very own very ambitious plans.
Dumbledore believed
his own self-importance and arrogance is what killed his sister.
An act I am sure he would have considered it evil enough to split his soul.
And really he never gets over it.
We learned that in the Half-Blood Prince,
when Dumbledore is drinking the potion protecting the Locket and just keeps screaming
how everything is all his fault.
Anyway, following Ariana's death,
we now have a young, super magically brilliant Dumbledore
who is now at his most depressed state,
possibly the darkest place he's ever been.
And if ever there was a time he was going to use Dark Magic
I think that would be it.
And we actually do know he has some experience with Dark Magic.
Because he believes he could have cast the curse that killed Ariana.
So whether or not he actually did
doesn't matter because we know he was at least using Dark Magic in that duel.
And doesn't it just sound like young brilliant Dumbledore
to try and solve his emotional problems not by confronting them
but with Magic.
Possibly by literally trying to separate those feelings from his body.
And what is responsible for your feelings in Harry Potter?
Your soul.
Yes, I think whatever his intentions were it is very possible that Dumbledore created a Horcrux.
Which starts to explain
Dumbledore's extreme hatred of
- and weird - understanding of Horcruxes.
Because once he came to his senses
I think he would have really regretted this decision and not wanted anyone he cared for
to ever make the same mistake he had.
To split his soul and become less than a man.
In The Half-Blood Prince, Slughorn tells Harry:
"Horcruxes are a banned subject at Hogwarts you know. Dumbledore's particularly fierce about it..."
In The Order of the Phoenix,
after Sirius dies and Harry is just freaking out, Dumbledore tells him:
"Harry, suffering like this proves that you are still a man".
Well, that's weird phrasing.
I mean, why would harry not be a man?
And why would Dumbledore know that being able to feel pain is what makes you "still a man"?
Because his soul was split
and he, indeed, does know what it feels like to be less than a man.
So what is it then? What is Dumbledore's horcrux?
Well, the article I read suggests that the Elder Wand is Dumbledore's Horcrux.
And if you want to read that theory, link in the description.
But I reject this theory.
I think there can be no doubt that Dumbledore's Horcrux is none other than
Fawks the Phoenix.
Fawks has never made sense to me.
He has always just felt like
complete plot convenience.
End of Chamber of Secrets, he just shows up, out of nowhere
and blinds the Basilisk.
Dumbledore, cornered in his office by Ministry's wizards
and unable to Apparate outside Hogwarts?
No problem, Fawks can still teleport!
Injured by basically incurable giant spider and/or Basilisk venom?
No worry, Fawks is the one-in-A-Million cure.
He's just a giant bird of answers that Dumbledore happens to have.
It's even revealed in The Goblet of Fire that Fawks' tail feathers are the Phoenix feathers
inside Harry's and Voldemort's wands.
Which is really cool but ...
so what, this is completely irrelevant?
Well let me rephrase that.
The twin cores are extremely relevant.
They are the climax of book 4
and Voldemort spends most of book 7 trying to resolve the issue of the twin cores.
That is an extremely relevant detail,
but what's not very significant is that the feathers are from Fawks specifically.
I mean, why give us that piece of information if it's not going to be explained.
Otherwise, it's just a random bit of trivia.
It feels like an afterthought like:
"Oh yeah, those feathers are from Fawks
we don't need to explain that!"
And it's just one more thing about Fawks that just doesn't make sense.
Unless
Fawks is Dumbledore's Horcrux.
Then, everything, I mean, everything about that bird starts to make sense
and a bunch of other story elements really start to fall into place.
Allow me to explain.
We don't know exactly when Dumbledore got Fawks but it had to be before 1938,
the year young Tom Riddle would have received his wand. Because otherwise
how would Dumbledore know that Fawks' feathers were the ones inside Harry and Voldemort's wands?
But I think Dumbledore would have owned him much earlier than that,
like he would have sought him out in his youth
when he was obsessed with finding the Deathly Hallows
and becoming Master of Death.
What better pet for someone with that motive than something that has
basically already conquered death.
I have to imagine during that time, when Dumbledore was at his lowest,
that Fawks would have been of great comfort to Dumbledore because of his song,
the Phoenix lament which lifts the spirits of those feeling grief.
"Ah music, a magic beyond what we do here."
If Fawks is Dumbledore's Horcrux,
all of a sudden, the end of the Chamber of Secrets
really starts to make more sense.
When Dumbledore is taken from the grounds in book 2, he says:
"I shall never be truly gone unless none here are loyal to me.
Help shall always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."
Those words eventually manifest themselves in The Chamber of Secrets
when Harry shows Dumbledore extreme loyalty and summons ...
Fawks?
Wait, what sorry, why, why does Harry showing loyalty to Dumbledore
summon Fawks?
Because he's his pet?
No, because a piece of Dumbledore's soul is inside Fawks.
In a sense, Fawks *is* Dumbledore.
Also, how much better is the battle in the Chamber of Secrets if Fawks is a Horcrux?
It's no longer just Phoenix of plot convenience versus basilisk.
It's Horcrux
versus
Horcrux.
Phoenix versus Diary.
Literally Dumbledore helping via his connection with Fawks.
Plus, Dumbledore having a creature as a Horcrux makes it even better and perfect foil
to Voldemort, who also has a creature for a Horcrux in the form of his snake
Nagini.
A relationship that Dumbledore
recognizes almost too easily.
Remember, in The Half-Blood Prince,
Dumbledore spends chapters in the Pensieve, going through Voldemort's past,
slowly revealing his reasoning and rational for why?
Voldemort might choose certain specific magical objects to turn into Horcruxes.
This is how he uncovers the Ring, the Locket, the Cup and guesses something of Ravenclaw.
Nagini on the other hand,
he rationalizes her in about two sentences:
"I think he is perhaps as fond of her as he can be of anything;
he certainly likes to keep her close
and he seems to have an unusual amount of control over her, even for a parselmouth."
Notice the similarities to Dumbledore and Fawks?
Dumbledore is extremely fond of Fawks,
he keeps him close all the time, like basically sitting right next to his desk,
and also has an unusual amount of control over him,
like being able to send him into the Chamber of Secrets
or summon him in a battle, at a moment's notice.
And when Harry is surprised to learn that you can make animals
horcruxes
Dumbledore responds saying:
"Well it is inadvisable to do so because to confide a part of your soul
to something that can think and move for itself
is obviously a very risky business."
"Inadvisable" is a really interesting word choice
because you think it would just be inadvisable to create a Horcrux at all.
Which, given the context, Harry would be pretty aware of by now.
So it doesn't really make sense that he says that ...
Unless he's speaking from experience.
Either way, the point is Dumbledore accurately guesses this crucial piece of information
very easily.
And I think he's able to do so because he recognizes the relationship between
Voldemort and Nagini being very similar to the relationship between
him and Fawks.
I know so far this might be sounding somewhat speculative, but stick with me.
I'm about to answer a big question,
why it's important that Fawks' tail feathers were the feathers
inside Harry and Voldemort's wands.
Think about it.
If Fawks is a Horcrux
and he became a Horcrux before Tom Riddle or Harry got their wands,
then it's possible that when he gave those two tail feathers to Ollivander
he also gave them a small piece of Dumbledore's soul.
it makes Dumbledore, Voldemort and Harry
all connected via the wands.
And you know how Jk Rowling loves Trinities.
Three heroes, Harry, Ron and Hermione,
with three different wand cores, Dragon Heartstring, Phoenix' tail feather and unicorn hair,
three Unforgivable Curses, three Deathly Hallows
and now
three pieces of Dumbledore's soul.
This also explains one really important scene.
But before we get to that, let's address the other elephant in the room.
Which is: if Dumbledore created a Horcrux out of Fawks
and there's some of it in each of Harry and Voldemort's wands
and Fawks is still alive ...
does that mean Dumbledore could come back to life?
No.
Almost, as if on purpose,
JK Rowling makes very sure to destroy each part of Dumbledore's soul.
First, in The Order of the Phoenix, when Dumbledore's dueling Voldemort,
he summons Fawks to swallow a Killing Curse sent by Voldemort.
Fawks comes back to life anyway, because he's a Phoenix.
But I believe that, in that moment,
the piece of Dumbledore's soul inside Fawks was destroyed.
We know the Killing Curse is strong enough to destroy a Horcrux
because it's what Voldemort uses to accidentally destroy a piece of his own soul inside of Harry
at the Battle of Hogwarts, okay?
So what about the soul inside of Harry's wand?
Well that one's pretty easy.
Harry breaks his wand when he's fighting Nagini in Godric's Hollow.
And the fact that they're unable to repair it after the battle
I think is symbolic of that piece of soul dying as well.
And yes, I know they eventually repaired, but I think at that point
it's too late.
So then, what about Voldemort's yew wand?
Because we don't really know what happens to it,
he just discards it after he recovers the Elder wand from Dumbledore's tomb.
Is a bit of Dumbledore's soul just inside of a wand laying somewhere on the grounds of Hogwarts?
Also no.
I believe that piece of soul actually left Voldemort's wand
long ago,
when Voldemort tried to murder Harry as a baby.
On that night, Voldemort's spell
rebounded and reduced him to
basically nothing, a side effect of which was accidentally turning Harry into a Horcrux.
My theory is that when the wand backfired,
it also expelled the piece of Dumbledore's soul inside of it, which also latched on to Harry.
I know you're thinking "yeah, Jay, no, you've gone crazy" ...
But have I?
Think about it.
We do eventually get to see that piece of Voldemort's soul inside of Harry,
after Voldemort tries to kill Harry at the Battle of Hogwarts
and Harry wakes up in Limbo at Kings Cross.
Voldemort's soul is represented by a tiny, crying, decrepit baby off in the corner.
But it's not just Harry and Voldemort in there, is it.
Someone else is there.
Dumbledore.
*mind blowing sound*
If the explanation in that scene is that little baby is Voldemort's soul,
then I don't see how the appearance of Dumbledore can mean
anything else.
And it even adds up.
The baby is disgusting and nasty
because harry has never paid any attention to that part of his soul.
But Dumbledore, that piece of soul he has embraced his entire life,
and it is fully grown.
Sadly though, when Harry returns to the real world after that scene,
I think he kills off both other pieces of soul inside of them.
But seriously, once you accept this, so many quotes in Harry Potter
take on new meaning, like for example, that final quote at King's Cross:
"Of course it's happening inside your head Harry,
but why on Earth should that mean it isn't real?"
It's real because you literally have three pieces of soul Inside your head!
Or this exchange between Scrimgeour and Harry:
"I see you are Dumbledore's man through and through."
"That's right."
Yeah, literally,
that's right, Harry,
through and through.
The wand chooses the wizard.
The holly wand chooses Harry not because of his connection with Voldemort
but because he already has a piece of Dumbledore inside him,
the piece inside the wand recognizes its brother in Harry.
Okay, two more quick things to address.
First, if Harry and Dumbledore share this connection,
why doesn't it operate the same way that the connection between Harry and Voldemort operates.
Why doesn't Harry have dreams about Dumbledore?
Why doesn't Dumbledore communicate with Harry like this?
Well, first, I don't think Dumbledore is even aware of the connection.
Two, Dumbledore is a Master of Occlumency,
so he may have just inadvertently been shutting the connection off.
Three, even if he was aware of it
I don't think Dumbledore would ever use this connection out of
sheer principle and respect for Harry's privacy.
And four, the connection between Harry and Voldemort is just so strong that it's possible.
It's just overpowering the tiny shard from Dumbledore.
And the final thing to address is
why didn't Dumbledore ever repair his soul?
We learned in the Deathly Hallows that it is possible to repair your soul
by feeling remorse, although it would be extremely painful.
And I think it's safe to say that Dumbledore did feel remorse over the death of his sister.
So why didn't he repair his soul?
My guess is that Dumbledore felt he deserved to feel that way because,
like I said earlier, he never really got over it.
*raahh*
Guys, I really think we are on to something with this one.
And I need an answer, so the next time you are reading a Harry Potter book,
just keep this thought in mind and just, just, watch how things fall into place.
Just last night I was reading the end of The Goblet of Fire,
when Harry and Voldemort are dueling,
with the golden thread between their wands,
an unknown voice speaks to Harry and says:
"Don't break the connection."
It's never explained who that was but based on what's happening with the wands at that time
and everything we just talked about I think we know who it was.
A request for everyone watching this is to tweet this video
to JK Rowling
and just ask her "Did Dumbledore make Fawks a Horcrux?"
I swear I think we've only scratched the surface of this one,
so get reading and if you find any new evidence,
please let me know down in the entire section below.
Then that's it for me
but I will see you in another life, brother.
*weird voice* These socks are amazing!
Guys, thanks for watching as always.
Please leave a like on this video if you haven't already
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If you want to watch some other Harry Potter stuff,
you can check out this theory about
whether or not Draco Malfoy is a werewolf
which JK Rowling actually did respond to us eventually and said:
No, he wasn't.
But it's still pretty interesting.
Or check out this video. My defense of Slytherin.
*sigh*
Thanks you guys for watching one more time
and until next time!
*nox*