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harry potter - Why did Dumbledore say that the Ring (Hallow/Horcrux) "was sure to carry a curse"?



“When I discovered it, after all those years, buried in the abandoned home of the Gaunts - the Hallow I had craved most of all, though in my youth I had wanted it for very different reasons - I lost my head, Harry. I quite forgot that it was now a Horcrux, that the ring was sure to carry a curse. (Deathly Hallows, Chapter 35 - KING'S CROSS).



Why did Dumbledore say that it was "sure" to carry a curse, being a Horcrux?


As @Sheph noted in a comment, this seems less than "sure" if one were to look at other Horcruxes:




  • The Diary had no malevolent protective spell (and was the only Horcrux Dumbledore knew of before the Ring). It did have Tom's spirit inside but no curse.





  • The locket didn't carry a defensive curse. It was able to long-term corrupt the wearer ala The One Ring, but that was not what Dumbledore meant when referring to carrying a curse.




  • The cup had no curse. The trio handled it barehanded with no issues.




  • The diadem - IIRC was destroyed before anyone actually had a chance to touch it and check.





  • Nagini - had no curse aside from being an evil thinking snake (Harry touched her when fighting on Christmas in Bathilda's house).





Answer




"Why did you put on that ring? it carries a curse, surely you realised that. Why even touch it?" ... "


I... was a fool. Sorely tempted"


-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 The Prince's Tale.



So Dumbledore had probably sensed the curse when he found it.



How? This is just speculation but I believe he was looking out for it, just like in the cave:



"Magic always leaves traces," ... "sometimes very distinctive traces. I taught Tom Riddle. I know his style."


-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 26 The Cave.



He knew it was a Horcrux and so he expected protections.


After all, he knew that:




  1. The Diary was entrusted to Lucius to be kept with the highest security possible and





  2. The Locket was stored in the middle of a lake in a cave and kept in a potion that would possibly cause serious harm to the drinker.




So he could hardly expect that Tom Riddle had just left the Horcrux under a floorboard without any protections.


To make it easy to understand I've made a narrative, as follows:


Albus Dumbledore finds out the location of the Gaunt house and goes there. After reaching the cottage he searches for the Horcrux, at which point he senses the enchantments (curse?) and finds the Horcrux under the floorboards. But then he sees that it's the ring has the Resurrection Stone on it; he gets excited (because he - unlike Voldemort - knows about the Hallows and that he can use it to bring back his lost family) and forgets that it might have a curse on it and puts it on.


So that's what I believe is what he means when he says "was sure to carry a curse".


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