J.K. Rowling has recently updated her website (HOORAY! :jumpsmile: :wizard: :celebrate: ) and answered one of the question that she was asked in New York during An Evening with Harry, Carrie, and Garp which she couldn't answer right on the spot.

She was asked if there was one question that she had never been asked, and if so, what it was.
Her Answer:
NAQ

... which means, 'never asked question'.

Why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak at the time of James' death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?

Prior to posting this I had a quick look on-line, and realised that some fans have been speculating about this question. However, nobody has ever asked me about it, and they really should have done. Just to allay the fears of the justifiably suspicious, this isn't what we in the know call 'a Mark Evans situation.'* There IS a significant - even crucial - answer.

* Note to newcomers: my attempt to put to rest certain wild theories about the unimportant character of 'Mark Evans' backfired when I inadvertently built up even more excitement by promising to explain his significance.


So. Why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak? Did James know that he would die and leave it especially for use by Harry later on? Or did he leave it for the Order?
does this particular cloak have unusual powers? Or, is it a Horcrux?

I really don't know what to think. I'd love to know your opinions on this. Figure the answer will be in Book 7.

Im absolutely positive that the answer will be in book 7, and if it's not, well then :P to JK :)
Hmmm... But i dont have a clue on why he had it. I might come up with some theories later on, but yeah, nothing now.

I dont think it was a Horcrux but James knew that one day his son would go to school and he knew something like that should be passed down through generations so he left it to Dumbledore incase he did die to pass it on to his son so Harry could have things to remember his parents by. SO he realized that they were actuaully what is being said about them.

I never thought of this!!! I didnt really take it in! maybe that was a big clue! i hope its in the 7th book! Oh man this book is gunna be bigger than we think...

Well... Dusty. That's what I thought at first... like a family heriloom or something. But, then I thought, why would James think that a baby Harry would survive if both James and Lily were to die?
Could it have something to do with James' job? Since cloaks are so rare... and Moody, being an Auror, had 2 of them for work... maybe James was an auror. Though he wasn't supposed to have an important job. I'm confuzzled now.

Could someone refresh my memory what exactly happened the nite harry's parents died? wasn't Dumbledore one of the first people to arrive- couldn't he have just taken the cloak then?? and saved it to give to Harry when he was old enough??

*lights go off*
Sirius was the first one there, then Hagrid arrived. Sirius told Hagrid to take his bike and take Harry to Dumbledore. It's possible that Sirius found the Cloak, then later went to Dumbledore and gave it to him,requesting that- ...No, wait, wont work...Nevermind.
Maybe James thought that Harry might just make it through if him and Lily were to be killed, so he wanted to give Harry something to remember him by...
I dunno.

Yeah... DD was the prolly the first to know that they'd died, but Sirius was the first one there.
Also... it couldn't've been just given to Dumbledore after the Potters died because, if you remember dumbledore's note to Harry in the first book it says something like "Your father left this in my possession before he died"

So, I just think it's weeird that James would give his invisibility cloak to a really experience old wizard, who can make himself invisible without it. Why would he give it to anyone? Wouldn't it have helped him and Lily hide... somehow? Or even if he was gonna give it away, wouldn't it make more sense to give it to one of his friends instead of this powerful old guy... who you prolly don't know that well, or care about that much?

It just doesn't make sense. WHY?!!!

well maybe he gave it to Dumbledore, cause he thought there was gonna be the slightest chance himself and Lily might die, cause Voldemort was after them, (and i think that Voldemort would have been able to see through the invisibility cloak, like Dumbledore could) and that James knew that Dumbledore would keep it safe, and possibly give it to Harry when he was older, but how would James know for sure that Harry would survive and that they would die? curious

Thats why I scratched my theory Luna :); I remembered the note.
Hmmm... maybe the night Lily and James died, James wrote a note saying that he wishes Dumbledore to have his cloak, and then put the note and cloak somewhere where he knew Dumbledore would find it.
?
Where does it say that Dumbledore can make himself invisible without using an Invisibility Cloak? (havent read the books in a while ;))

Ummm, well he implies itin the Mirror of Erised chapter in SS. But also, JKR said "given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?"

Yeah... it just doesn't make sense. I'm leaning towards the theory that the cloak has some kind of special power.

Oh, yeah, right (been about 1.5yrs since I read PS/SS). I just assumed Dumbledore was sneaky...
But yeah, the cloak is baffling, it is. I cant believe that none of us thought to ask that question or discuss it *slaps forehead*

it was meant to be given to someone.........but who?
1.sirius
2.lupin
3.peter
4.snape
5.some one else

not peter- dumbledore didnt know that he was secretkeeper, also if it was true it didnt reach peter

some one else-.cant have been otherwise they would have had it.

.sirius- he would never take it, knowing its more important for james

.snape-may be because he was a spy, but voldy would have detected it.

now lupin is left but i dont think that even he shall accept it.

i know i made some logical mistake but what is it?

u must agree that it was meant to be given to someone is better theory.

i mean who would need it & not get it bcoz it was left with dumbledore so who ever it was meant to didnt get it (if we could join these two we will learn quite a bit more)

so who ever it was meant to, must have had problems so who?

It was meant to be given to someone... at least that's my conviction.
But I think that it wasn't someone close to James. Then he could just pass it on himself.

Maybe Aberforth? That's really out of the blue, but why not really? She said we;d see more of an oreder member that we don't know much about, and Aberforth seems like a good sneaky guy for the position of oreder spy. Plus he's DD's brother, so maybe somekind of connection there. At least it would make sense for the cloak to go through Dumbledore.

Sorry, I'm a little lost and very tired. Hope it makes sense.

u may be right and i cant deny that possibility but as i said before,every theory we make must make sense with every thing we already have, aberforth is such an unknown quantity that almost every theory we relate to him is in uncharted territory and then we cant test the theory at all?
besides you skipped some details, if james did infact want to give to abby then why did dd say"ur father left it in MY possession before he died"
the only logical thing i can say abt aberforth is that perhaps he was doing charms on goat because bezoar comes from goats stomach
so now we must either try with what we have or wait for book 7. so give another try luna perhaps you can crack it, cause like in minesweeper we cannot solve every situation by logic,we even need luck where ever we have a dead end as far as useful clues are concerned.