Skip to main content

harry potter - Would the Horcrux Cave Potion Have Killed Dumbledore?


Would the Horcrux cave potion have killed Dumbledore if:




Snape hadn't?



Kreacher survived the potion:



‘There was a b – basin full of potion on the island. The D – Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it ...’ [...] ‘Kreacher drank, and as he drank, he saw terrible things ... Kreacher’s insides burned ... Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed ... he made Kreacher drink all the potion ...'

Deathly Hallows - page 160 - Bloomsbury - chapter 10, Kreacher's Tale



Kreacher crawled to the lake for water and was dragged under by the Inferi who lived there, and Disapparated from the cave back to number 12 Grimmauld Place, per Regulus Black's instructions: ‘Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back,’ he said.


What I'm interested in knowing is whether Kreacher survived Voldemort's potion because he was a house-elf and house-elf magic is different than wizarding magic, or if he survived drinking the potion because while it was a devastatingly horrible potion to drink, it was not lethal -- not lethal to either house-elves or wizards.


Therefore, I'm wondering if




Snape had not killed Dumbledore after Dumbledore and Harry arrived back from the Horcrux cave



whether Dumbledore would have ultimately died from the Horcrux potion?


An answer in the spirit of canon would be very welcome.



Answer



At the entrance to the Horcrux cave, Dumbledore says:



"The idea ... is that your enemy must weaken him- or herself to enter."



Then, when they're discussing the potion in the basin:




"But what if -- what if it kills you?"


"Oh, I doubt that it would work like that," said Dumbledore easily. "Lord Voldemort would not want to kill the person who reached this island."



and:



"I'm sorry, Harry; I should have said, he would not want to immediately kill the person who reached this island," ... "He would want to keep them alive long enought to find out how they managed to penetrate so far through his defenses ..."



and:




"Undoubtedly," he (Dumbledore) said finally, "this potion must act in a way that will prevent me from taking the Horcrux."



I can't recall anything offhand that addresses the issue of how Voldemort expected to be notified of someone getting into the cave, but I think the quotes above make it pretty clear that the potion was supposed to seriously incapacitate whoever drank it, but not kill them.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...
Post a Comment
Read more