It’s not possible to tell for sure, but I have reason to believe that Dumbledore may be alive. I’m not saying he is, but there’s a good chance he is. You may also want to check-out www.DumbledoreIsNotDead.com. I got some of my data from there.

Here’s a list of theories and reasons why I don’t think he’s dead:

• Snape emphasized the importance of non-verbal incantations. He said that the main advantage is the fact that “The enemy does not know what spell you’re doing until it’s too late”. Could Snape have casted a different spell while saying Avada Kedavra?
• Avada Kedavra doesn’t make you fly up in the air. It kills you instantly and then you fall to the ground. Here are a couple of examples:
  

  “There was a flash of green light, a rushing sound, and Frank Bryce crumpled. He was dead before he hit the floor”.
  (Book 4, page 15 (standard U.S. version).)

  “A blast of green light blazed through Harry’s eyelids, and he heard something heavy fall to the ground beside him”.
  (Book 4, page 638 (std. U.S. version).)

  Could Snape have used a Non-Verbal Incantation (See previous item)?

• The portrait of Dumbledore: Could Snape’ve transfigured Dumbledore into a portrait, sent it into the office (with a Banishing Charm? (opposite of Summoning Charm).), and created a fake dead Dumbledore?
• “Severus…Please…”, does that sound like Dumbledore to you?
  

  “After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure”.
  (Book 1, page 297, std. U.S. version)

  He could have been saying “Hey Snape! Remember the plan? Pretend to kil me!”. Maybe he wanted everyone to think he was dead so Harry’d go after Voldy himself (and still help behind the scenes).

• Remember the Draught of the Living Death? Could that’ve been used? There was a cauldron of it in the first potions class of Harry’s sixth year, was that a clue?
• Could Snape have nonverbally transfigured Dumbeldore into a “Dumbledore-dummy”?
• Remeber Dumbledore’s memory (the one where he turned down Voldemort’s application to the post for Defense Against the Dark Arts)? Why was it in a bottle if it was his memory?
• Has JKR ever introduced a spell or potion without it being important later on? No. This ties in with the nonverbal spell theories.
• Now for the grand finale, here’s a quote from JKR: “Wizards can be difficult to kill. You could, for example, drop one off the astronomy tower and they’d be okay.” Astronomy tower? This is definitely a clue!

Still not convinced? Do you want to see a whole lot more of this stuff? Visit www.DumbledoreIsNotDead.com.

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