The theory I’ve been going with for a long time is that Dumbledore killed Narcissa accidentally while disposing of Tom Riddle’s diary—he thought the house was empty and used Fiendfyre—and then later rationalized her death for the reasons you gave above.
Interesting theory. Though one wonders why Dumbledore didn’t just grab the diary and bring it to a safe location before destroying it.
Maybe there was some kind of alarm that would have instantly summoned Lucius if it was taken out of the house? Then again, if you had an alarm system, you’d think someone casting the most destructive spell known to the modern world inside your house would also trip it...
The theory I’ve been going with for a long time is that Dumbledore killed Narcissa accidentally while disposing of Tom Riddle’s diary—he thought the house was empty and used Fiendfyre—and then later rationalized her death for the reasons you gave above.
There’s been previous discussion about that here: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2nm/harry_potter_and_the_methods_of_rationality/2pc3
It’s an obvious flaw in Harry’s promise, not to check that the killing was deliberate.
Aha—and here I’d misremembered that I came up with that on my own.
Oh yeah, that was you! Well, I’ve done that.
Interesting theory. Though one wonders why Dumbledore didn’t just grab the diary and bring it to a safe location before destroying it.
Maybe there was some kind of alarm that would have instantly summoned Lucius if it was taken out of the house? Then again, if you had an alarm system, you’d think someone casting the most destructive spell known to the modern world inside your house would also trip it...