And what about the pheonix thing in the end?
I feel really weird commenting on this as I have only read the first book, but I'm an avid watcher of the movies and my oldest daughter tells me the material in these books in pretty good detail and so I gotta think Emily, you have a strong case here.
There was this old movie called Dragonquest. Had the short blonde lawyer from Ali McBeal in it. He was a wizard's apprentice and when the wizard was killed, he had to carry the wizard's ashes to the cave where the dragon lived and dump the ashes in the water. The wizard came back strong enough to kill the dragon on its home turf.
Dumbledore had a pet Phoenix (I only know that from watching Chamber of Secrets so forgive my stating the obvious)so couldn't Dumbledore have some sort of contingency magic from the Phoenix to bring him back?
Sound plausible?
Just an idea from Aunty TEEEEJ.
TEEEEEJ
