Summary
- Albus Dumbledore's fatal injury was caused by a curse on the Peverell ring, which may have contained more secrets as a Horcrux.
- The curse on the ring may have transferred Voldemort's soul to Dumbledore's body, making him a vessel for the Dark Lord.
- Voldemort had specific plans for some of his Horcruxes, as seen with Tom Riddle's diary, which he intended to possess its finder.
Albus Dumbledore was fatally wounded by a curse that had been placed on the Peverell ring in Harry Potter, and it's possible that this particular Horcrux was carrying more secrets. The standard purpose of Voldemort's Horcruxes was to tether his soul to the world of the living in case his body was destroyed. Still, the Harry Potter series revealed that the Dark Lord had other plans for some of his soul fragments, reflected by how he protected them. Ultimately, Dumbledore may have fallen prey to one of these alternate purposes.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry saw that Dumbledore's hand had been terribly wounded. Eventually, the heaster revealed that this resulted from a curse placed on the Peverell ring, a family heirloom Voldemort had turned into a Horcrux. It wasn't until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that it was explained that this curse did more than harm Dumbledore's hand—it had sentenced him to death. Still, there is a lot about this that was never explained. Precisely how would it have killed Dumbledore? Why was someone only cursed from wearing the ring and not touching it? One theory provides an answer.
The Peverell Ring Horcrux's Curse May Have Transferred Voldemort's Soul To Dumbledore
The nature of the Peverell ring's curse was never explained, but the fact that it only affected Dumbledore when he put it on was strange. No other Horcrux had such an effect. Harry, Ron, and Hermione consistently wore Slytherin's locket, but they were never cursed. If the curse was meant to protect the Horcrux, it was very ineffective. Even after being cursed, Dumbledore hadn't been so debilitated that he couldn't use the sword of Gryffindor the destroy the ring. Someone as powerful as Voldemort surely wouldn't have risked this.
Voldemort was highly methodical in Harry Potter with his Horcruxes, their hiding places, and protections. Since the curse he placed on the Peverell ring would do nothing to keep the Horcrux from being destroyed, it must have had a different purpose. Given what we know about Horcruxes, like Tom Riddle's diary, which Voldemort had explicitly intended to possess the person that found it, it could be that the curse of the Peverell ring was a more aggressive version of the same goal.
If Voldemort's soul was transferred to Dumbledore's body through the Peverell ring, it would have first corrupted his hand before moving through the rest of his body. Snape, who knew nothing about the Horcruxes and wouldn't have realized the full nature of this curse, was able to contain it to Dumbledore's hand temporarily. When he told the heaster this, Dumbledore would have recognized that he could not allow the corruption to take his body. He would have become a sort of avatar to Voldemort's soul fragment—a massive victory for the Dark Lord. So, he ordered Snape to kill him before the year expired.
Tom Riddle’s Diary Proves Voldemort Had Specific Plans For Some Horcruxes
If the theory regarding the Peverell ring's curse were true, it wouldn't be the first time that Voldemort had specifically intended one of his Horcruxes to be disposable. Though Tom Riddle's diary was first introduced in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, it wasn't until Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Harry learned that it had been a Horcrux. In fact, it was the diary that tipped Dumbledore off to the fact that Riddle split his soul more than once. It was clear to him that the Dark Lord had intended someone to find the diary, write in it, and become possessed by the soul fragment hidden within. This way, the Chamber of Secrets would be opened again:
"'But don’t you see, Harry, that if he intended the diary to be ed to, or planted on, some future Hogwarts student, he was being remarkably blase about that precious fragment of his soul concealed within it. The point of a Horcrux is, as Professor Slughorn explained, to keep part of the self hidden and safe, not to fling it into somebody else’s path and run the risk that they might destroy it — as indeed happened: That particular fragment of soul is no more; you saw to that.
'The careless way in which Voldemort regarded this Horcrux seemed most ominous to me. It suggested that he must have made — or been planning to make — more Horcruxes, so that the loss of his first would not be so detrimental. I did not wish to believe it, but nothing else seemed to make sense.'"
- Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Since Voldemort intended one of his Horcruxes to possess its finder, it's not too big a stretch to assume he would do so with another. Voldemort saw no value in the lives of others and seemed to think that creating more Horcruxes would be no big deal. He enjoyed experimentation, especially in realms of magic that other wizards were too scared (or morally secure) enough to explore. So, it's possible that he was curious about what would happen if he allowed some of his soul fragments to enter into other wizards—especially powerful ones. If anyone could get past his Horcrux defenses, there's no doubt that Voldemort would want access to them, and Dumbledore knew this.
Voldemort's Horcrux Protections Were Also Tests In Harry Potter
There is a problem with the Peverell curse theory: if Voldemort had wanted one of his Horcruxes to possess its finder, why would he have created such thorough protections? Dumbledore told Harry in Half-Blood Prince that he had found the ring Horcrux in the abandoned Gaunt house surrounded by powerful magical protections (implying that there was much more than the curse doing this job). However, a powerful wizard like Dumbledore was able to get through them, and a later moment in Half-Blood Prince explains that Voldemort had expected this.
When Harry and Dumbledore found the Emerald Potion that protected Slytherin's locket (or, really, the one Regulus replaced it with), Harry questioned whether it would kill Dumbledore once he began to drink it. However, the heaster explained that Voldemort wouldn't have wanted to kill whoever had found his Horcrux. "He would want to keep them alive long enough to find out how they managed to penetrate so far through his defenses," Dumbledore explained. Voldemort could have easily set protections that instantly killed tresers, but his curiosity and interest in experimentation led him to create tests of power instead.
Why Voldemort Would Want To Possess The Ring's Finder
Another problem with this theory is that there is no apparent reason why Voldemort would want to possess the Peverell ring's finder. The diary was meant to ensure that the Chamber of Secrets would one day be opened, therefore finishing Slytherin and Voldemort's mission to rid Hogwarts of Muggle-borns. However, the ring came with no clear-cut benefit. Still, the answer might be connected to the Dark Lord's long years without a body after his spell backfired when Harry was a baby.
Voldemort would have known that if his body was destroyed, he would be stuck without a physical form until he managed to secure a new one. It's possible that he placed the curse on the Peverell ring, hoping that a powerful wizard would find it, put it on their finger, and become his to manipulate. He would have access to their power and body and be able to work toward finding his central soul that was stuck living a spectral existence. If this happened while Voldemort still had a body, he would have gained a powerful puppet to manipulate (like Nagini) or he could have chosen to kill the body and return his soul to another vessel—no harm done.
The idea of Dumbledore becoming such an avatar for Voldemort is absolutely terrifying. As a genius and powerful wizard, the heaster would have been more than the Dark Lord could have ever hoped for. The young Harry Potter couldn't have survived, regardless of the magical protections surrounding him. Dumbledore would have known this, and it could be why (in addition to desiring mercy for Draco) he was so eager for Snape to kill him before the Dark Lord's soul could fully take hold—it would have meant a much darker end for the Harry Potter series.
