I think Harry transformed her body into the gold ring. Then if Dumbledore were to search Harry for transmuted things (as he did), he would find the stone. Harry carefully set the ring and gem far apart, so when Dumbledore undid the transmutation on the stone it did not affect the ring. The brown color was to make the stone more attention seeking. The rest of Harry was carefully checked for magical things, but the ring itself was never checked for magic other than in combination with the stone.
Standard stage magician trick—make people look at something else.
Dumbledore’s gaze was also keen, though not unfriendly. “Is Hermione Granger’s body in your possession?”
“No.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“No.”
“Do you know who took it?”
“No,” Harry said, then hesitated. “Besides the obvious probabilistic speculations which are not based upon any specific knowledge of mine.”
Harry has shown a remarkable aversion to actually lying in past, so doing so here seems unlikely, and I don’t see any loopholes in those answers. An interesting theory, but if it’s true it implies some things about Harry’s character growth.
Harry has just promised to tear apart the very stars to bring back Hermione. I seriously doubt he would give up an important, possibly necessary resource just because the alternative was lying.
Also, Harry’s dark side is “very good at lying.” Remember Azkaban? Pretty much every proposition he uttered aloud there was a lie, straight up, and told to pursue a greater goal. If Harry can convincingly pretend, for Bellatrix, to be someone other than who he believes himself to be, convincingly feign innocence and fear when discovered by the auror, and convincingly lie to Minerva about his location, then I think he’d have no problem with this particular deception.
On the other hand, choosing the ring in particular as his hiding target strikes me as somewhat foolish and would require highly conjunctive scenario to be successful. If he has to remain in regular contact with the transfiguration target, though, this may be his best option.
Granted. He usually tries to mince words first, though, and so I was expecting to see clever phrasing at some point when I went back and re-read. Seeing none led me to that train of thought. Again, I don’t think outright lying is unlikely, I just think it’s revealing.
I actually assumed he hadn’t taken the body based on this, but … the more I think about it, the better it fits, and he did decide to actually try. And Harry is a very good liar when he actually, y’know, tries it.
He has lied directly before, about his role in the Azkaban escape.
A loophole would be noticed by Dumbledore. My money’s on him simply lying directly now. (I mean that literally, I have made a bet that depends on it. :-)
I think Harry transformed her body into the gold ring. Then if Dumbledore were to search Harry for transmuted things (as he did), he would find the stone. Harry carefully set the ring and gem far apart, so when Dumbledore undid the transmutation on the stone it did not affect the ring. The brown color was to make the stone more attention seeking. The rest of Harry was carefully checked for magical things, but the ring itself was never checked for magic other than in combination with the stone.
Standard stage magician trick—make people look at something else.
Harry has shown a remarkable aversion to actually lying in past, so doing so here seems unlikely, and I don’t see any loopholes in those answers. An interesting theory, but if it’s true it implies some things about Harry’s character growth.
Harry has just promised to tear apart the very stars to bring back Hermione. I seriously doubt he would give up an important, possibly necessary resource just because the alternative was lying.
Also, Harry’s dark side is “very good at lying.” Remember Azkaban? Pretty much every proposition he uttered aloud there was a lie, straight up, and told to pursue a greater goal. If Harry can convincingly pretend, for Bellatrix, to be someone other than who he believes himself to be, convincingly feign innocence and fear when discovered by the auror, and convincingly lie to Minerva about his location, then I think he’d have no problem with this particular deception.
On the other hand, choosing the ring in particular as his hiding target strikes me as somewhat foolish and would require highly conjunctive scenario to be successful. If he has to remain in regular contact with the transfiguration target, though, this may be his best option.
Granted. He usually tries to mince words first, though, and so I was expecting to see clever phrasing at some point when I went back and re-read. Seeing none led me to that train of thought. Again, I don’t think outright lying is unlikely, I just think it’s revealing.
I actually assumed he hadn’t taken the body based on this, but … the more I think about it, the better it fits, and he did decide to actually try. And Harry is a very good liar when he actually, y’know, tries it.
He has lied directly before, about his role in the Azkaban escape.
A loophole would be noticed by Dumbledore. My money’s on him simply lying directly now. (I mean that literally, I have made a bet that depends on it. :-)
Granted, and it’s certainly conceivable. I just think it says interesting things if it’s true.