James and Lily Potter

Update: Move along to another essay. JKR destroyed this theory a couple days ago. So much for my attempts at predicting things!Â Rowling’s statement doesn’t entirely annihilate the theory, since my particular version of the theory doesn’t have Snape hiding under the cloak at the house while the Potters were killed, but I’m moving on to other things for now, rather than scrambling to edit.

You’ll need to read my first shot at this to understand this second post, so make sure you read here first. This is probably really wrong. I’m just having a bit of fun, ’cause my HP work today has all been literary criticism (mythlogical archetypes), and that has been broken up by articles on the history of education.

I’m going to make an attempt at constructing an order of events for the handing off of James’ invisibility cloak that is (a) faithful to the canon (i.e., that James actually left the cloak in Dumbledore’s possession, and not a third person who picked it up on the night of the Potters’ deaths), and (b) ties significant plot points together, so as to be a “crucial” part of the plot.

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Rowling has given a belated answer to a query about which question she’s never been asked but wished she was asked:

Why did Dumbledore have James’ invisibility cloak at the time of James’ death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?

Prior to posting this I had a quick look on-line, and realised that some fans have been speculating about this question. However, nobody has ever asked me about it, and they really should have done. Just to allay the fears of the justifiably suspicious, this isn’t what we in the know call ‘a Mark Evans situation.’ There IS a significant – even crucial – answer.

This is probably quite the shocker to a lot of people, especially since she says it is “significant – even crucial”! I’m going to give it some thought on the drive home, because it had never hit me as significant before. I don’t know how I missed that, as there has been some discussion on the ‘net about it. I just have never come across any of it.

There has been speculation that it got to Dumbledore because someone (Snape?) was under the cloak in Godric’s Hollow when the murder happened. Snape might fit. He had “turned spy” by then, and having found out that Voldemort had discovered the Potters’ location and was heading there, rushed to warn them. Voldemort showed up before Snape or the Potters could leave, and, in order to save Snape’s life and cover (being more important to the cause against Voldemort than pretty much anybody else), covered him with the cloak.

Update: LaShawn Barber is working with this issue as well. I started constructing a theory there and then refuted myself. I’m going to put the content of that below (click “Read More”). The caveat here is that this is the first time I’ve come across this issue, and I’m trying to work it out a bit myself before looking up other theories.

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