[FONT=Courier][SIZE=7][COLOR=purple]Maybe I missed it somewhere...but, has anyone had any thoughts about the injury to Dumbeldore's hand? He repeatedly told Harry that he WOULD tell how it happened, but only when he could do justice to the telling....then he died before we got the story. Any ideas?

he did discribe it, it happend when he put on the ring with slytherins crest on it. He said that it could have killed him had it not been for his own skill, and proff. Snape.

Thanks Mav! I guess I read over that part too fast! I bought the book at 7 am and, even with fixing breakfast and lunch for my two boys and my niece and nephew, I finished it around 8 pm. I am now re-reading it hoping to catch more of the intricacies...

It is great to have these message boards to point out things I may have missed or a new perspective on certain threads!

wait. im confused.

how did dumbledore hurt his arm??

There was a curse on it. Dumbledore said 1/7th of LV's soul was worth his hand.

NOPE! Actually Dd was wearing the ring when he and Harry met with Slughorn, so that could NOT have been how his hand was withered!!!!!

I just read back and researched....Harry sees the ring on the table in Dd's office after his first "lesson" on Voldemort's life, and remembers that he saw Dd wearing it earlier.....

So...how DID Dumbeldore get the injury?!?!?!? Anyone?.....Anyone?.....Bueller???

HELP!

Maybe it killed his hand when he put it on but you couldn't remove it or something? And Snape removed it for him? I'm not sure

I think we got the basic jist of what happened to his hand after learning the ring was a Horcrux. He never got to tell his, "thrilling tale" to Harry, but we know that the curse put on him was from the ring. The important thing to rememeber is that the ring is no longer a horcrux anymore. Harry needs to be willing to do whatever it takes to get the remaining horcruxes.

Actually, this touches on something that's really concerning me now:

The Prophecy says that only Harry can "vanquish" (I think that's the word) Valdemort.

But Dumbledore managed to destroy a Horcrux himself?!?!?!?! R.A.B. managed to at least take one from its hiding place, and perhaps even destroy it?

What does this mean?

Perhaps Harry is the only one who can destroy Valdemort himself, but others can destroy Horcruxes -- that is to say, six sevenths of the job can be done by anyone with the willpower and the skill, and the only thing that only Harry alone can do is destroy the last seventh, the one currently inhabiting Valdemort's body? Which should be difficult, because Valdemort is an accomplished Wizard, but actually no more difficult than dueling any other mortal wizard of unusual skill.

And yet, at the end of book 6, Harry has adopted this 'I have to do it alone' mentality -- even to the point of breaking up (trying to break up -- she won't let it happen) with his only source of comfort.

Which is missing the crucial point -- Dumbledore has told him over and over again that his ability to LOVE -- the power Valdemort knows nothing of himself and always underestimates from the end of book 5 -- will be the key.

Harry needs to accept help, and love, in order to get this thing done. Because 6/7 of the job can be done by anyone with sufficient willpower and skill -- and his friends, his comrades from the Order, have sufficient power and skill.

A significant part of the key to the end of the sequence HAS to be that Harry fights this Valdemort-like tendency to want to work alone and realizes that the love he holds for those around him, and the love they hold for him, will get him 6/7 of the way there....

Oooh, that's good. I never thought of other people being able to destroy the horcruxes and Harry only having to actually defeat Voldemort as a person. I like that idea, although I am not sure if Harry will allow anyone to put themselves in the danger to help him.

Every contemporary reference to the ring describes it as 'cracked' leading me to think that Snape or Dumbledore smashed it to nullify the curse of the Horcrux.

You think he would've taken it off his finger before asking Snape to whack it with a brick though!

Maybe he burnt himself on his toaster?

Or it happend when he was collecting memories? Or fighting death eaters? Or locating the Cave? Ive been thinking alot of it. And as you see i havent found anything..

The ring was cursed so when Dumbledore wore it, it made his hand look dead. Dumbledore said "However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for a seventh of Voldemort's soul" so he got his injury from the ring. However it is no longer a Horcrux.

Since it was Dumbledore's wand hand that was injured, I assumed it was caused by a spell he used to retrieve the ring.

I'm positive that the injury has something to do with DD's death. The injury was never explained in a clear way and within the whole snape betrayal theory it makes some sense for me to believe that DD was weakened because of this injury and about to die anyway, I just don't know exactly why the injury was uncurable.

Any ideas?

Dumbledore did describe the injury to Harry. Rather, Harry figured it out himself. It was caused by Slytherin's ring. I agree with headmaster_dippet24. I think that when Dumbledore wore the ring, which he probably had to do to retrieve it, his hand was cursed. It was probably some kind of surse like what happened in the Cave wher Dumbledore had to drink the liquid to retrieve the locket; to get the ring, Dumbledore had to wear it or something, to get it.

Well, here's what I think. DD was wearing the ring the night he went to take Harry away from the Dursleys', but if I'm not mistaken, the ring was already broken in the middle. So DD probably injured his hand by destroying the part of LV's soul that was kept in the ring. Then when he got to Hogwarts he left the ring in the table Harry saw it(was it a table??).

About who's able to destroy Voldemort, Dumbledore did say that when the AK backfired, Voldemort transfered some of his powers to Harry, therefore giving him powers and making him the only person with enough power to destroy him.

I think, when we are first introduced to the ring, Dumbledore's hand is severely wounded, however, the ring is still intact as he flaunts it to Slughorn. It's not till Harry is leaving one of his private lessons that he's sees the ring sitting on a table or someting, and it's cracked. DD then reveals that he's destroyed th horcrux. That means whatever happened to DD's hand must have happened upon retrieving the ring, not destroying it.

@Hallia, I remember DD telling Harry that Voldemort gave him some of his powers the night the AK curse backfired, but I don't remember him ever saying that he gave him enough powers so that he'd be the only one to defeat him. Can you tell me where you found this?

Animagus Tonks, great thought! Maybe Harry has enough powers to kill him, but with help ot others it can be easier... Maybe others can help him to find Horcruxes and then he has to kill the seventh part of Voldemort.

After reading this and other threads, it seems that DD's injured burned hand and the ring and Snape all point to DD being an animagi phoenix. The curse on the ring caused DD’s hand to burn. He needed to stop the burning otherwise he would transform into his animagi, a phoenix. DD went to Snape who was able to stop the transformation. But, the spell to stop the transformation would last so long it which time the transformation would continue. When DD returned to Hogwarts he needed Snape. DD knew about the unbreakable vow. DD knew he needed to persuade LV that Snape was bad. DD needed Snape to complete his transformation. When Snape performed the curse, wasn’t DD’s body thrown off the castle and out of sight? Hagrid later picked up the body which nobody ever inspected. Reads to be to be like a muggle magic trick to switch a body.

Did anyone else notice that in Chamber of Secrets DD was the transformation professor?

I think that Dumbledores injury came from retrieving the ring and/or destroying it. The R.A.B. letter said he would destroy the horcrux when he could. The ring was cracked when Harry first saw it when they were persuading Slughorn to return to Hogwarts.

"Harry noticed a ring on his uninjured hand that he had never seen Dumbledore wear before: It was large, rather clumsily made of what looked like gold, and was set with a heavy black stone that had cracked down the middle." pg. 67-68 American edition.

Dumbledore told Harry later how he recieved the injury, but not in a obvious way. He said that a withered hand was worth 1/7 of Voldemort's soul. He knew Harry would figure it out. Dumbledore did not go into the "thrilling" details I would have liked though

Dumbledores injury did come from destroying the ring. Because he had the injury it is possible that it was killing him slowly so he knew he was going to die.

I didn't catch that bit where DD says why his hand is ...sick. But i also read that book in about a dsay so i probably missed a few lines or something. unless she ahsn't said why? nah i believe you if you say he hurt it by the ring. It sounds plausibal.

TheManekin- yes, we first see Dumbledore's injured arm in the chapter where he picks harry up from the Dursley's... he keeps telling Harry that the time isnt appropriate for him to tell him the "thrilling tale"... but we never get to hear it properly... we know that it happened when the ring was destroyed... we know that if it wasnt for his own skills... and the skills of Severus Snape.. he would surely be dead... we hear this is passing.. and it was niether a tale nor thrilling... against most everyone elses beliefs... I still hold hope to hear the "most thrilling tale" right from Dumbledore's lips in the next book!

~Albus

it had to do with slytherin's ring, only a descendant of salazar slytherin can wear the ring otherwise it can lead to youre downfall, dumbledore is not a descendant of salazar and didnt no that the ring was cursed until his hand turned black.

dumbledore is a wise man and knew the only way to destroy the ring was with some sacrafice...like the locket u would have to almost die to get it...maybe the same thing happened with the ring and will happen with the other horcuxes..you will have to go through alot of pain to get to them.

Yes yes we know.

You see though, we're all wondering if there's a bit more to what happened to Albus' arm than what was written.

Perhaps it was a side effect, maybe he had to give blood and gave a little too much I think it just goes along with the saying "You win some, you lose some"

This has been a really good topic for me to read about. It has given me great pleasure to read all of the funny comments etc about your views and I really enjoyed it.

I also am reading the book at the moment, just before the Deathly Hallows comes onto the shelves and so am up to date with the story. I think that when Dumbledore put the ring onto his finger, it would have reacted with the curse and killed his hand off. I think that it killed his right hand though, as most people in the world are right-handed and so Dumbledore may be too, therefore, placing the ring onto his right hand (Though this theory may not be correct, it is just my view).

I stand firm in my belief that none of the Horcruxes would pre-emptively attack anyone who would stray across it... It would be completely against its use as a Horcrux to reveal itself to the first person who put it on. As we saw, Dumbledore was injured... and survived.. the Ring would not want to make a spectacle out of itself if discovered.. unless it was attacked. I am almost positive that when Dumbledore destroyed the ring (hence the crack in the stone) the ring was cursed to attack the one harming it.. thereby destroying Dumbledore's wand arm.. the arm he attacked the ring with.. and the arm that he semi-salvaged through his own skill as well as the skill of Severus Snape.

~Albus

by destroying gaunts ring, it was cursed

This thread was a good read

Well, like everyone said, it affected dumbledore because it was cursed

you see, people said there were 6 horcruxes and voldemort "wasted" one. That is wrong. Voldemort is the last horcrux. you must destroy all the 6 horcruxes first, and then harry needs to kill voldemort.

I agree that the horcruxes would not preemptively destroy anyone that strayed across their path. However, I think that it killed his right hand because it is his wand hand and he was using it to attempt to destroy the part of soul that was incased within the ring. if it was as some suggested because he put it on his right hand and it reacted with his finger, it would have killed his left hand because it picked up the ring to put on his right hand, so.....
good question, though...

I agree that the ring was cursed and that he wore it because he wanted to use it to do something, but i do not think that he was thinking of destroing it when he took it on.

Dumbledore's hand was injured by that ring. It was a horcrux like the diary was. In fact it tells you that straightforward in Deathly Hallows. And the reason for that is some spell or something like the when the diary released the Voldemort that was still Tom Riddle. And Dumbledore only put it on because there was something that drew him to it and tempted him to put it on like in Order of the Pheonix when harry was drawn to the veil. (Also in Deathly Hallows.)

Yeah(:
If you all read DH (Im sure most of oyu did) It says that dumbledore was attracted to the ring *SPOILERS* because in grindelwald-dumbledore times, they were obsessed with deathly hallows, so when he saw the ring, he new it was one of the hallows too. And since Ariana¿s death caused him so much pain cause he didnt know who killed her, he wanted to see her again, so he, desesperated, puted on the ring(DH: resurrection stone)to see ariana again, but he got cursed (:

I am confussed. In the latest movie, the story line is that Dumbledore wants Harry to get close to Slughorn to learn what type of magic Slughorn and Riddle talked about. Dumbledore said in the movie that this was the key to winning that otherwise they were fighting blind. That is almost verbatim. So at this point, Dumbledore should not know anything about that magic which was the result of Riddle's horcruxes or the making thereof. If this is accurate, what was he searching for when he was leaving Hogwart's in the latest movie. He had Riddle's book (1 horcrux) which I understand from the chamber of secrets but Gaunt's ring? Where did he get it, why did he get, how did he know about it since, by the sequence of events, he was not aware of the horcruxes? Someone enlighten me please.

Dumbledore has an idea of what he's looking for and starts his journey to find the horcruxes before being positive. He wants to make sure what he suspects is true which is why he needed the memory. Its foolish to think that Dumbledore wouldn't know just about every bit of good anddark magic there is considering he is one of the greatest wizards of his time. He asks Harry to get the memory to cement his theory and to show it to Harry and explain to him what must be done to kill Voldemort.

My thinking is that he damaged his hand by wearing the ring before he destroyed it with the sword. He put it on not knowing it wuld react, sorta like harry did with the locket. The only counter arguement to this is why wuld dumbledore b foolish enough to put on a ring that clearly was filled with dark magic? after damaging his hand, he destroyed the ring