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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?
Yeah, this is what I suspect. Dumbledore wasn't stupid, so I think he'd have thought about something like that. He'd have never used a Horcrux, but perhaps, there's some other spell we don't know about. Or maybe it wasn't even Dumbledore, maybe it was someone else with polyjuice potion, but we were meant to think it was Dumbledore.

I realize that he has to be out of commission for a while so Harry can do what he has to do alone, but there's no reason he can't be brought back at the very end of book 7.

I believe there's a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams. -- Aunt May, Spider-Man 2