Harry Potter: How JKR Shows Us The Truth About Dumbledore

I've had two posts about this already, but I just ran across more proof that ... SPOILER SPACE:































Dumbledore does not appear in the book, and is really Wormtail using Polyjuice. In post one, I gave a detailed proof of this, citing passages from the book explicitly. (I also try to show that Harry does not in fact inherit from Sirius Black and that Tonks is also an imposted.) In post two, I give a handy summary of the first post, without all the book citations, so as to make it more accessible, and then show what interesting conclusions one can draw about certain items smuggled into Hogwarts by an unwitting Harry Potter (and show this with quotations from the text). At the least, read the second post, but the first as well if you want to see all the textual evidence.

Here is an additional proof. I claimed that Dumbledore suddenly straightening up and excusing himself to go to the bathroom when in Slughorn's house is the result of the the Polyjuice he is using wearing off.

(Yes, one could say that this is to give Harry opportunity to persuade Slughorn, but every example I give here has an acceptable alternative explanations, for JK tied up all the loose ends. It is the confluence of evidence all pointing to a fake Dumbledore that makes me think this is so.)

Looking back at the book, it is almost exactly ONE HOUR from the time Harry first sees Dumbledore to the time Dumbledore uses the bathroom at Slughorn's. In fact, this seems to be the longest Dumbledore is with Harry, and so that is why Dumbledore is forced to take another Polyjuice potion, for such potions wear off after about an hour.

JKR deliberately puts in time references so that the astute reader can calculate that about one hour elapses from Harry's meeting Dumbledore to Dumbledore's using the bathroom.

These all occur in chapter 3.

Harry receives a letter from Dumbledore, and starts waiting for him at 7 PM. We read:

Though he already knew it by heart, Harry had been stealing glances at this missive every few minutes since seven o'clock that evening, when he had first taken up his position beside his bedroom window, which had a reasonable view of both ends of Privet Drive. He knew it was pointless to keep rereading Dumbledore's words; Harry had sent back his "yes" with the delivering owl, as requested, and all he could do now was wait: Either Dumbledore was going to come, or he was not.

Harry has been waiting at the window for Dumbledore for 4 hours when he starts to snore:

Harry Potter was snoring loudly. He had been sitting in a chair beside his bedroom window for the best part of four hours, staring out at the darkening street, and had finally fallen asleep with one side of his face pressed against the cold win-dowpane, his glasses askew and his mouth wide open. The misty fug his breath had left on the window sparkled in the orange glare of the streetlamp outside, and the artificial light drained his face of all color, so that he looked ghostly beneath his shock of untidy black hair.

The best part of four hours means that it is not yet 11 PM. Then, when it actually hits exactly 11 PM, we see that Dumbledore has arrived:

The minute hand on the alarm clock reached the number twelve and, at that precise moment, the street-lamp outside the window went out.

Thus, it is 11:00 PM. At that precise moment, she takes pains to tell us.

Dumbledore talks with the Dursleys and takes Harry with him. They set out for Slughorn's place. At that point, it is almost 12.

He set off at a brisk pace, past an empty inn and a few houses. According to a clock on a nearby church, it was almost midnight.

Then, it is 12, just as they are almost at Slughorn's house:

The church clock chimed midnight behind them.

Note the Cinderella reference. Polyjuice wears off after about one hour (not exactly), but the clock chiming midnight signifies that the spell/potion may soon wear off.

Then, Dumbledore says that he might be an imposter:

"No, I thought not. You have not asked me, for instance, what is my favorite flavor of jam, to check that I am indeed Professor Dumbledore and not an impostor."

Then, they reach Slughorn's house, figure out that Slughorn is actually in his house and have a short conversation with him. In the middle of this, Dumbledore suddenly stands up and leaves to go to the bathroom:

Dumbledore stood up rather suddenly.

"Are you leaving?" asked Slughorn at once, looking hopeful.

"No, I was wondering whether I might use your bathroom," said Dumbledore.

"Oh," said Slughorn, clearly disappointed. "Second on the left down the hall."

Let us do a simple calculation. It is 11 PM when Dumbledore arrives at the Dursleys and 12 midnight when they arrive at Slughorn's house. That is exactly one hour. Polyjuice wears off in about an hour, and so we expect the Polyjuice to wear off any moment. When they Slughorn and begin a conversation, JKR makes absolutely no reference to time, so as to highlight the one hour differential. It is quite likely that Dumbledore began to feel the effects of the Polyjuice wear off, and so excuses himself.

If you wish to say that JKR intends nothing by this, then why is she putting in all these references to the time, and does so such that it works out to amount of time Polyjuice would take to wear off?

This in addition to the many other proofs mentioned in the previous two posts.