I'm not sure if there is another thread posing this question, but after JK Rowling posted on her website that the question that she has never been asked was

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

Does anyone have any ideas?

From an AOL chat on October 19, 2000 JK said:

"Where did James get his Invisibility Cloak?

That was inherited from his own father-- a family heirloom!"

So James' family has had the cloak for years.

Invisibility cloaks are very rare and expensive. They are made from the pelts of Demiguises, magical herbivores that are found in the Far East. They are rated XXXX - Dangerous / requires specialist knowledge / skilled wizard may handle in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Demiguies are able to make itself invisable when threatened and can only be seen by wizard's skilled in it's capture. Therefore, only a very skilled wizard would be able to make a cloak.

The known owners of cloaks (that we know of) are:

1) Mad-Eye Moody (who is known to possess two; one of these is borrowed by Sturgis Podmore in the course of work for the Order); he can see through them with his magical blue eye.

2) Harry Potter; the original owner of this cloak was his father.

3) Bartemius Crouch, who uses it to hide his son.

This is definitely not a "normal" item any wizard can purchase at the robe shop. So I would also assume that there isn't a large number of cloaks around. There may be only a few more than the ones we know of at this time.

Now I believe there were more people at Godric's Hollow the night Voldemort tried to kill baby Harry, (not just Lily & Harry and later James). I have always believed that James was not in the house when Voldemort first arrived the night Harry got his scar.

I think James was bringing the cloak to Dumbledore (for whatever reason that is significant to the story but we don't know about yet). Maybe he was asking Dumbledore to keep it safe for Harry in case anything happened to him.
James returned to the house just after Voldemort arrived. And the rest we know.

Now James' family are ordinary wizards. Jame's family is not related to Gryffindor. This is what JK had to say about Harry being Gryffindor's Heir...

From JK Rowling's World Book Day Chat, March 4, 2004:

Jami: Is Harry related to Godric Gryffindor?
JK Rowling replies -> People are always wondering who Harry might be related to. Maybe he is

(the complete interview is at http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/art...4/0304-wbd.htm )

In an interview by Leaky Cauldron on July 16, 2005 JK said:
[I]
MA: What about Harry's family — his grandparents — were they killed?

JKR: No. This takes us into more mundane territory. As a writer, it was more interesting, plot-wise, if Harry was completely alone. So I rather ruthlessly disposed of his entire family apart from Aunt Petunia. I mean, James and Lily are massively important to the plot, of course, but the grandparents? No. And, because I do like my backstory: Petunia and Lily's parents, normal Muggle death. James's parents were elderly, were getting on a little when he was born, which explains the only child, very pampered, had-him-late-in-life-so-he's-an-extra-treasure, as often happens, I think. They were old in wizarding terms, and they died. They succumbed to a wizarding illness. That's as far as it goes. There's nothing serious or sinister about those deaths. I just needed them out of the way so I killed them.

MA: That sort of shuts down Heir of Gryffindor [theories], as well.

JKR: [Pause.] Yeah. Well - yeah.

MA: Another one bites the dust.

(complete interview is at http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/art...t-anelli-3.htm )

So James may not be related to Gryffindor but couldn't Dumbledore be? Was Dumbledore the heir of Gryffindor? That would explain why he had all of the Gryffindor heirlooms in his office. He could have even invented the cloaks or knows who does. Fawkes is thought to have belonged to Godric Gryffindor. Prehaps Fawkes was passed down by Godric to Dumbledore.

That would also explain a lot about what happened whne Harry faced Tom Riddle (from the diary) at the end of CoS. All of the known Gryffindor heirlooms came to Harry's aide in the cave - Fawkes bought the Sorting Hat w/ Godric's sword hiddened in it.

That would also explain why Dumbledore told Harry in CoS that "Only a true Gryffindor could pull that out of the hat." Dumbledore would know if he was a true Gryffindor himself!

This is just soo interesting!!!! I can't wait to know the answer. What do you think?

I think you're right. If the cloak had been at Godric Hollow that night, I'm sure Harry would have bee hidden in it. Who gave the cloak to Harry? If it's dangerous, why give it to some who just found out he was a wizard? If it were a family heirloom why didn't Harry receive all of his heirlooms, like the communication mirror, which was less dangerous? Too many questions, we just have to wait.

Maby James got it conviscated by dumbledore or that wen they went into hiding James gave it to dumbledore for keeping

I think you're right.

James gave the cloak to Dumbledore so it could be kept safe. I think James gave it to Dumbledore the night Lily & Harry were attacked by Voldemort.

If the cloak was created by someone related to Godric Gryffindor then the cloak could have vaule to Voldemort as something he could use as a horcurx.

This seems like a good answer. We know LV went there to kill Harry and make a horcrux. If the cloak is an heirloom from the Griffindor side of the family (assuming harry is realated of course) then that would be what LV would use. Or James gave it to Dumbledor for safe keeping.

It's a good answer, but hasn't the whole 'Harry-related-to-Dumbledore' thing been denied, so how could they both be desendants of Gryfindorr?

I don't think Harry is the Gryffindor heir....

"MA: What about Harry's family — his grandparents — were they killed?

JKR: No. This takes us into more mundane territory. As a writer, it was more interesting, plot-wise, if Harry was completely alone. So I rather ruthlessly disposed of his entire family apart from Aunt Petunia. I mean, James and Lily are massively important to the plot, of course, but the grandparents? No. And, because I do like my backstory: Petunia and Lily's parents, normal Muggle death. James's parents were elderly, were getting on a little when he was born, which explains the only child, very pampered, had-him-late- in-life-so- he's-an-extra- treasure, as often happens, I think. They were old in wizarding terms, and they died. They succumbed to a wizarding illness. That's as far as it goes. There's nothing serious or sinister about those deaths. I just needed them out of the way so I killed them.

MA: That sort of shuts down Heir of Gryffindor [theories], as well.

JKR: [Pause.] Yeah. Well - yeah.

MA: Another one bites the dust."

(complete interview is at http://www.quick- quote-quill. org/ar... et-anelli- 3.htm )

Therefore, Harry is not the Gryffindor Heir.

I think their is a lot of evidence that suggests that he could be the heir but also think that is expected. I don't believe Harry is but I could be wrong.

I'm not really sure what I think on this matter. I mean there are so many factors...! But at the same time I'm kinda getting the idea that Harry isn't the heir to gryffindor though...

In the very first movie the sorting hat said Harry would do great things in Slytheran. If Harry was the heir then the hat would have said Gryffindor first and for most, there would not have been any delay. Atleast that is my opinion.

Harry fits the role as the heir, but I think it's too easy.

I also believe that by now Harry would know. DD would have wanted Harry to know, wouldn't he? I think by the 6th book DD would have told him he was the heir.

There's a lot of good points why Harry could be the heir, but I think there are more simple ones stating why he is not. Everyone is trying to read between the lines on this matter and maybe there's not need. I mean yeah of course this book requires reading between the lines for a lot of it, but maybe not this matter...

However, the invisibilty cloak does confuse me...I have always wondered why DD had it. I mean if James has kept it wouldn't it have been helpful to hide from LV? idk...Wow there is so much I wanna write, but I will stop here and if someone else has better ideas, or think I am way off basis please tell me!

I always wondered why Dumbledore had James' cloak as Dumbledore never needed it as he could make himself invisible without it.

One theory is that it was a similar situation in OOTP, where Mad Eye Moody lent his spare cloak to the order to stand duty. Who knows what the order was doing the first time round and why they would need it.

Another would be that there is more to it that meets the eye. I'm not suggesting it's a horcrux or anything, but it is a powerful magical object, there maybe extra powers that we don't know about that Dumbledore needed it for.

I must admit, this one has got me stumped. All the other threads, I have a basic idea of where things are going (even if they prove completely off the page when book 7 is release), I've got my direction with them. But this is something I have no clue as to why he had it.

I do hope we find out how DD got the cloak, even though its highly unlikely we will considering his passing *bless him we miss you* it would be nice of someone else was in on how he got it, ahh maybe hagrid will know more than hes told, we know hagrid cant really keep his mouth shut but im sure he can in circumstances like that.. we will find out

This all goes back to my theorys. So lets see what i can say. okay i cant say anything it will revile to much of my thorys so jsut PM if you wnat to know

i bet james gave it to dd to keep it safe

maybe james wanted harry to use it, knowing that voldemort was after james and lily.

I think that Dumbledore was the Gryffindor Heir and that he made the cloaks.

I believe that James gave the cloak to Dumbledore to keep safe from Voldemort.

I think James took the cloak to Dumbledore the night the Potters were attacked and James wasn't at the house when Voldie first arrived...

I think DD gave the cloak to Harry at such an early stage of his development because it had something to do with the protection Lilly put on Harry. He has had it every summer at the Dursleys, but to my knowledge, he has never used it there although there were many times he could have. Instead of lying in the bushes, he could have just sat in the house.

I think that Dumbledore had made the cloak a long time before he knew of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named really did anything, I think that Dumbledore had made it, used it for a while, and then never needed it because he knew how to make himself invisible. He probably loaned it out to other people that were in need of it at times, but then gave it to Lily and James because they knew they were in grave danger. James gave the cloak back because he wouldn't want to hand it over to the enemy, especially you know who. Then Dumbledore gave it to Harry because he needed it to protect himself from you know who.

I thought it was because Dumbledore had asked James if he could borrow it to inspect it because of the whole "Deathly Hallows" thing? Because Dumbledore had at one point been after the three parts of the Deathly Hallows and the cloak was one of them.

OMG read the books carefully will you. dumble dore and grindlewald were friends and they believed in the deatly hallows. because the cloak had been passed down to james after surviving generations of use dumbledore believed that this was the invisibility cloak that had been given to the third brother by death. the potter were decendentds of the third brother! Dumbledore asked to borrow the cloak because even after all these years had passed since his frendship with grindlewald had ended he was still curious about the hallows understand now people!?!?!?

The majority of the posts here were speculation before Deathly Hallows came out, so they wouldn't have known about Grindelwald or the Peverell brothers.

And yes, Dumbledore was curious about the cloak and about finding out if it was really one of the Deathly Hallows.

Dumbledore asked James for it so he could inspect it. He believed that it was one of the Deathly Hallows and borrowed it to see if it really was.

If I have it right, in Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore states that he borrowed the cloak because he knew it was one of the Hallows, and he wanted to see if he could find all three hallows...

i guess Dumbledore just wanted to possess the three hallows for a while, that's all. but i guess that he intended to give it back to James, but it was too late.

But of course, Harry was the only one to possess all three Hallows at the same time.

Looking back at the discussion in this thread (wow, I wish I had been here already back in 2006), it's an interesting read. Nattie came the closest though, suggesting there could be more to the cloak than what met the eye.

The cloak was a hallow and it explains in the book what Dumbledore thought about the clock, him suspictions. He said that he thought it could be hallow, because normally the magic wears off, in that case it hadn't. He at the time, was very interested in them and what they could do, so he investicated it.

Nat x