Dumbledore said in book six that when he was wrong he was often very wrong. I think that Dumbledore saying that he could be wrong is too important of a quote to not be used in the plot of the seventh book.

Therefore is there a possibility that there are less then seven (or six if you are not counting LV) horcruxes? Or could Dumbledore be wrong about something else? Another possibility is that Harry might remember Dumbledore saying that and come to doubt him?

i believe that there is no doubt of the 7 parts of LV's soul but DD could possibly be wrong about snape or maybe even somebody else who in in the order

Yes, i agree with CAPS LOCK, i very much doubt that Dumbledore is wrong about he horcruxes, especially with the evidence of Slughorns Memory.... It is right before our eyes, the tempation that is, of a seven part soul.

I swore there was a thread on this that i saw..i could be wrong...but i'll post here anyway!

Dumbledore makes mistakes like the next person. he can't be perfect and he has often said this during the books. although some of his mistakes may be small they could turn out to be larger problems later on in the story. still dumbledore is very wise and intelligent and has been right about a lot of different things but, like i said he is not perfect and i think that there might be a chance that he is wrong about some things.

yes, i do believe that there is a thread on this already, but as you probably have realized Blue Phoenix, I cannot resist when the topic is about Dumbledore.

anyway, yes Dumbledore does make mistakes but I dont think he is wrong about this. I dont think he would have told harry unless he was pretty sure because a flaw like this could be lethal... maybe that is what jk wants

I checked the main list and could not find any topic which fitted the description. I might have missed and if I did then I have no problems with a mod closing this thread.



Yes thats why I thought that this might be a possibility. Dumbledore said that his mistakes tended to have huge consequences (I'm trying to find the exact quote) so this might be one of those huge mistakes. Also this might not be a bad thing. A possible scenario could be that Dumbledore was wrong about there being seven Horcruxes (does anyone know the plural spelling) and there are really less than the said number. V confronts Harry while Harry is attempting to destroy one of the Horcruxes and V gets killed because Harry has actually destroyed all of them. Anyways thats one scenario that came to my mind when I was writing this thread. I'm sure that there are many other alternatives. The only thing is that I cant get that quote out of my mind. I found it when I was reading through the book the second time and it just kinda got stuck.



The quote I was reffering to said that Dumbledore tended to make a few big mistakes instead of a ton of small ones.



I doubt that Dumbledore was wrong about Snape even after reading book six. It just seems unrealistic that Harry's childish obsesion about Snape being bad is proved true over Dumbledore's own theory. It does not really fit in, in my not-so-humble opinion , with Rowling's writing style.

That would be a really easy thing to get wrong. Dumbledore himself said that this was only guesswork. And after all, all the evidence Dumbledore had was a memory, where Riddle hinted slightly on seven horcruxes. There can very well be more or less, but somehow I don't think there are. Just a feeling I have

Well, it is a possibilty, but I do not believe that he could be wrong on something so vital, as the horcruxes. It is possible, however, that what you have found might be linked to Snape. When Dumbledores wrong, he is really wrong, and it cost him his life. (saying if Snape is really on Voldemort's side) Anyway, seven is the magical number, and Voldemort will probably want to have seven horcruxes.

-Horace Slughorn

I know people are going to disagree, but I have a firm theory about the number of Horcruxes. First of all, Voldie's not stupid; he's very cunning. I know that seven is the most powerful magical number, and the number that Voldie likes best, but I think he's too smart to have seven- I mean, it's pretty predictable after seeing the memory with Slughorn.

I think that he made eight (himself counting as one), becuase he knows that Dumbledore would think that he had seven. This way, if Harry had destroyed six horcruxes and was going after Voldemort, he wouldn't be able to destroy him becuase there was still one more horcrux out there. Maybe Voldie even said "seven" in Slughorn's office on purpose, just to test the waters and throw off anyone who saw the memory.

This is most likely not what JK had planned; it's just what I think Voldemort would do, since he would go to any measure to keep himself alive, and ripping his soul one more time is a small price to pay for fooling Harry and Dumbledore.

*~drhpluvr4l~*

I don't think that Voldemort made eight, he was probably not counting on anyone seeing the memory or figuring out that he had horcruxes. I'm sure that at the time it was the farthest thing from his mind, plus, even if he had considered it then he would have known that Slughorn would know that showing someone he had told Voldemort about horcruxes would get him in a serious amount of trouble and wouldn't do it. Slughorn has a tendency to do what is best for himself, not for others.

Back to the topic, I don't think that DD made a mistake about the 7 horcruxes, only because JK has always put emphasis on the fact that 7 is the most magically powerful number. I know that DD probably made some pretty large mistakes, but I think in this case he's right, especially because of the memory when Voldemort himself talked about the possibilty of making 7.

I disagree, I dont think JK would "trick" us into thinking there are more horucrux's as it would really spoil the story for me.

7 is also the repeating number in the HP series so you can mention a lot of things that are in a group of 7, 7 years, 7 books...

So, IMO, LV has his soul split into 7 parts

i think that DD was wrong about snape, and he was very wrong because DD trusted him and then Snape killed him.... so unless they planed it, DD was very wrong about snape

I think DD was wrong about the diary.

I don't see how the diary could be a horcrux for the following reasons:
1. If Harry had not destroyed the diary, Riddle would have become real, and then there would be two of him. Not totally clear about how horcruxes work, but I don't think it would do this - surely the point is that the 'bit of soul' go back into Voldemort's body? Not exist separately
2. Why would the diary have been in Lucius Malfoy's posession? The only way he could have got it was if Voldemort gave it to him, and I don't think he would hand over anything as important as a horcrux, and he certainly would not have wanted it anywhere near Hogwarts.

Anyhow, I think that is what DD was wrong about - he has overestimated the importance of the diary, it was simply a way for Voldy to succeed in his mission of opening up the Chamber.

7 books has nothing to do with whats in the books otherwise you might as well put in harry was trying to work our what jk would write next. also 7 years was probably not meant to be a coicidence but it could be because a normal school year in real life is five years then you have sixth form which is another two years. so that leaves nothing therefore i believe this is plausable dd is smarter but too smart for his own good. ie if you never know defeat you will never know when your about to be defeated so you also cant evade that. so basically if you havent been wrong you dont know when something is going wrong and then you cant evade whatever going wrong so you sink like the titanic except alot faster.


read the books lv did give the diary to lucius but when lv apparently died he gave it to ginny aborting the mission he was set.lv didnt have a mission of opening the chamber it was of killing "mudbloods" and eventually some other people blood traitors i think and that wasnt even the mission the diary was meant for it was a complete mistake made by lucius. riddle was not lv riddle was before lv re-created himself as lv so before he comitted loads of murders although at least 1 and obviously lv didnt know that hp was going to defeat his current form on the night of his down fall otherwise he would have hid the diary. it really seems like you havent read anything carefully or even watched the film closely. some of my info may be wrong as i havent read or watch cos in a long long time but its the basis.

well i think that there is no doubt on the deduction that there are 7 horcruxes..because in slughorn's memory tom was clearly keen on makin SEVEN horcruxes...Also many think that harry is the 7th one however, i think that during the gap when tom found out about the horcruxes and the prophecy he MUST have been able to kill atleast 7 people in order to make himself invincible because in his opinion 7 was the most powerful number so he must have been really eager to get that invincibilty.

I think the Horcrux thing was good. But Dumbledore was wrong about Snape so.....Yes he said he could make mistakes and when he did they were VERY wrong... this could be very bad for Harry.....(just for the record, I think Dumbledore was right in everything he said)

I don't think the number of horcruxes will be DD's error, just the identity.

LV is very much into power, and seven is the most powerful magical number. I doubt he'd want anything different.

I do doubt, that he would place a horcrux in a living thing like Nagini, so DD's assumption that Nagini is a horcrux may be the error that JKR is insinuating by having DD admit his ability to be wrong.

i think there is 7 horcruxes but he may make 8 because of a reason somebody else said but DD was wrong about snape i thought that was obvious i dont think he would be wrong very often but no ones perfect so he does make mistakes

I think Dumbledore is right but I guess that there is a chance he got it wrong as this would really impact the story. Dumbledore has often says that he makes mistakes like any other man but in this instance I believe that he is right as Voldemort having 7 Horcruxs makes sense as this is the most powerful magical number and also through the evidence we saw in the Pensive in Slughorns memory.

I believe Dumbledore is correct about the horcruxes. He has obviously been studying the possibility of them very closely, just look at how often he was missing from the staff table during HBP.

Although I do believe he was VERY wrong about Snape and that mistake cost him his life.

These are all valid points, but didn't Dumbledore already make a mistake going after the 'Horcrux' which wasn't?

That is one thing I do not think he was wrong about. He was pretty resolved in his thinking, and didnt need to explain it to anyone. I believe the choice to put Dumbledore's defense so bluntly into the fourth movie court scene was proof that it is important. Dumbledore was resolved in knowing that Severus Snape was on his side.. so I believe that too.



Well Dumbledore was right about there being a locket in the cave, but its just that someone else got there first... thats hardly being wrong. We also do not know the full story yet, and Dumbledore may have been in on the switch. We cannot pass judgement on Dumbledore's convictions until The Deathly Hallows is released.

Happy New Years.

~Albus

Hmm, I suppose ...

I don't think he was wrong about Snape, because I'm not 100% Snape is evil: just misguided.

He was wrong not to teach Harry Occlumency, and not tell him about the Prophecy any earlier, though: and not teaching Harry Occlumency is a big mistake, bevause in DD's opinion it leads to Sirius's death.

Yes, Dumbledore could very well be wrong. In book six, he stated that when he is wrong, which is often, he is very wrong. That leaves me to conclude that it is a distinct possibillity that there are less than 7 horcuxes. My question is wheather Harry will remember this and think harder on the matter.....

I think that DD will be right about the horcruxes... i think the whole quote in the book about DD making mistakes had to come as a result in Harry being kept from so many secrets that may have helped him not to play into LV hands in OotP. I think it was obvious to readers that someone had to know that LV might lure harry to gain the prophecy (in order to further the plot), and that the someone who knew ultimately had to be DD, and that DD chose not to let harry know, had to lead to DD being wrong about something. And I also just think its good writing, to the effect now that the readers can doubt DD more, doubt he was right about Snape, and so on. But I hope JKR doesn't make DD wrong about too many other things, especially after DD being dead, since it seems a discredit to his memory as a great and wise wizard.

Yes there is a possiblity that Dumbledore may be wrong, and he even stated that this was all a bunch of guess work, but I think he is right. LV thought that the idea of a seven part so intriging. And Dumbledore was technically right about Snape for the most part, he had tried to change till he found out that LV was back. He was also right about where the frist few horcroxus are, and they were horcruxs, I mean look how greatly they were gaurded.

I'd have to agree with shanshan. Dumbledore, I think, wouldn't have made such a mistake as miscounting how many horcruxes there are. I do agree that Dumbledore, having spent so much time with Voldemort, would have known him a lot better than anyone else. I don't think the number of horcruxes are as big a problem as what they might be.

i dont think he is wrong because all harry has to rely on is what dumbeldore told him and i dont think jk would let harry search in vain for a horcrux

I think Dumbledore is wrong, but I know that he's wrong about a lot of things, but not the horcruxes. When it comes to things about Voldemort, he knows them very well!

i agree with samsmom. I think that Dumbledore has the number of horcruxes right, but he may have the identity wrong (talking specifically about Nagini here.) I think when he says the mistakes he made are usually huger--he's not only forshadowing the future, but referring to some events in the past. For example, the fact that he had Snape teach Harry Legilimency (sp?) was a huge error. The fact that he didn't tell Harry everything Harry needed to know until much later--pretty huge mistake considering that Harry could have potentially known that Voldemort was trying to trick him in OOTP. If Dumbledore had come clean, Sirius might have lived b/c Harry would never have gone to the department of mysteries.

These mistakes all let to pretty major consequences, and I imagine there are more to come. For example, if Snape really is on Dumbledore's side, but Dumbledore didn't end up telling anyone about it, then everyone from the Order is going to think that Snape is evil, and he could consequently be killed when he is in fact innocent. That's a fairly major mistake. Similarly, if he leaves no trail whatsoever for Harry to follow re: the horcruxes, assuming he'd be alive and well for a long time yet, then he could doom Harry to failure--another nasty consequence of a huge mistake.

Generally though, Dumbledore seems to think ahead. I do think the remark about his mistakes being consequently huger is significant though---could even be something crucial to Harry's success or failure.

Actually, I am not really sure whether DD is right about the horcruxes' number - not their identity. He was the only person who knew Tom Riddle and LV both very deeply. He would know how LV's mind functioned, so it's possible that he might be mistaken for the numbers and that too - in the sense if the horcruxes have been hunted down by the likes of R.A.B.? Maybe, one or two more were destroyed and DD never got the hint of it?

Since Dumbledore is in fact human, then of course it's possible that Dumbledore could have been wrong. In my opinion though, he is the only all-knowing character so I put my complete faith and trust in him and what he said about the horcruxes - that there are seven and their identities.

There are only 6 Horcruxes, as the 7th bit of Voldemort's soul is still within his adult body.

And it's possible that Dumbledore could've made a mistake, but I doubt it.

As to whether R.A.B destroyed more than just the locket, then I would like to know which wizard/witch named R.A.B. is more powerful and intelligent than Dumbledore. Cause personally, that's the only way that could happen in my opinion.

Hey all,

As I was reading this, I decided to look at the memory from the book. It was asked was it better to split the soul into seven pieces as seven is a magical number. I do believe that Dumbledore is wrong on how many there still are. Seeing as the first part to destroyed was with LV's body. The Diary was number two, the ring is number three. The locket, therefor, would be number four, leaving only three more to find. As soon as HP finds the actual locket. As for Dumbledore being wrong about Snape, I really can't say either way. Did Snape kill Dumbledore because Draco couldn't and he had made the Unbreable Vow with his mother. Or did he do it for LV? As I have said before, Our questions and more will be (hopefully) answered in the final book.

Riddle did say to Slughorn that 7 would be most powerful, but harry would have made number 7 in horcrux count so he would still only have 6.

I believe that Dumbledore's theory of the seven Horcruxes is correct. However, I am not completely sold on his impression of Snape. I think his beliefs in Snape are incorrect or maybe even another member of the order.

Dumbledore could be wrong I guess... He always said that he could be wrong.
I guess the only way Harry would be able to find out would be to kill Voldy until he actually died. I guess they could just look for Horcruxes until they can't look any longer, and then try to kill him and if he lives, look again.

... I would just say that when Dumbledore said that, it was mainly foreshadowing to say that he was wrong about Snape... Still, there could probably be something else which we did not even pay attention to in the previous books and will be really important in the last one, saying that Dumbledore was wrong about that...

I doubt he was wrong about the horcruxes, though. I mean, there's a lot of evidence on that... but he might be wrong about which ones are destroyed... I doubt it too though...

prongs2010

i don't think dumbledore was wrong about the horcruxes but i do think that his big mistake was trusting people as much as he did. hint, hint. (snape)

I think it is quite possible that DD is wrong on the number of horcruxes. First, here is a piece from an interview with JKR:

MA: Here at the end you sort of get the feeling that we know what Harry’s setting out to do, but can this really be the entire throughline of the rest of the story?

JKR: It's not all of it. Obviously it's not all of it, but still, that is the way to kill Voldemort. That's not to say it won't be extremely an torturous and winding journey, but that's what he's got to do. Harry now knows — well he believe he knows – what he’s facing. Dumbledore's guesses are never very far wide of the mark. I don't want to give too much away here, but Dumbledore says, ‘There are four out there, you've got to get rid of four, and then you go for Voldemort.’ So that's where he is, and that's what he's got to do.

I get the impression from this part of the interview that DD may have miscalculated. Where DD could be wrong is that there may be one or two more. First, if Harry's scar is in fact an accidental horcrux. Second, if LV made a new horcrux to replace the diary that was destroyed.

Another way this could be interpreted is just that DD was wrong as to what the horcruxes are or possibly his is wrong about what they are and how many there are.

I think DD did make a small mistake.But then again,we could be wrong.I've read somewhere that JKR quoted that there will be a plot twist that noone saw coming.I can't quote this correctly,as I read it quite a few months ago.Perhaps that this is the plot twist,that DD said that there were horcruxes but there isn't.................No,thats not right.
But i believe that DD did make a mistake somewhere,even though we might not know it yet

Herm... Yeah i suppose it is a small possibility. Lke Dumbledore himself says. His mistakes are corspondile huger. So i quess he could have mde one tiny hiccup. But i quess he has all the theory right i reckon right about being 6 horcruxes then Voldermorts soul so secen. He was a wise man he would ahve got most of it right he has spent most of his life working on it. Well alot of it. Working on the Voldermort and how to beat him theory.

for your first statement, it doesnt actually, full out say that the sixteen year old riddle was going to become real, he just said that "I would become real", meaning lord voldemort.

for the second idea, "in one of the books it mentions that voldemort had given lucius malfoy the diary for safekeeping but had not told him what it was. that is why it was in the possession of lucius malfoy.

i think that you may be right,
maybe he is wrong and maybe Harry is a horcruxe or he may be wrong about Godric's sword maybe it is a horcruxe
x

I don't believe that Dumbledore was wrong about there being 7 Horcruxes. Like someone said before, 7 is the powerful number, and it 7 is very important throughout the series:

1) 7 years at Hogwarts
2) 7 Weasley children
3) 7 players on a quidditch team
4) Harry's bday is in the 7th month of the year

And there are tons more. JK has probably been trying to emphasize the fact that there are 7 horcruxes that need to be destroyed before Voldemort can die by showing 7 of so many things.