The Never Asked Question

This is quite interesting. I was taking a break from Hebrew and decided to hop on Rowling's site and see if there was any news at all of release date predictions etc, and I saw a section apologizing to a girl who asked in the NYC reading Q & A back in August whether there were any questions that nobody has ever asked her but should, and she drew a blank but thought of a biggie right after she walked off stage. So she put it up under the miscellaneous section of the Extra Stuff part of her site (under the heading "NAQ" for "never asked question") ... and she says it is pretty crucial. The Question is: why did Dumbledore have James's invisibility cloak to give to Harry? Dumbledore has stated he does not need a cloak to become invisible, so there must be some special thing to be revealed about why he was the guardian of that particular heirloom and the one to present it to Harry. I am short on any thoughts off the top of my head as to the material plot possibilities but anybody who wants can toss interesting theories in here, or links to interesting theories they have seen (JKR says on the site that she has been online and seen that people have done a good bit of speculating on the matter, just nobody has asked her directly about it) ... I'd be really interested to hear what the sleuths have uncovered. My own thoughts tend to run more along the lines of the centrality of the image - the fact that an image like the invisibility cloak ties so crucially to the central plot line of Dumbledore's central role in the hero's life (that it is the heirloom that he passes on as a protectorate). In this post I talked about how Pauli and JKR2 had been batting around two different analogies for the soul, water and fabric (especially being torn in the making of Horcruxes), and how the invisibility cloak kind of combines both. It is odd that it is such a simple thing ... I mean, Dumbledore can be invisible without one, and he seems to be able to see Harry through the cloak, and Moody can see through it ... it doesn't seem to be particularly powerful magic does it? But then these very instances may be telling. Dumbledore is the one we see being able to penetrate it, and he is the one who passed it on ... seems like there is something about Dumbledore and invisibility thematically. In HBP it is very conspicuous the way he clearly tells Harry to keep the cloak on him. And even though the idea that sending Harry to get the cloak turned out to be a red herring (on the basis of the NYC summer of 06 revelation, the 5 minutes was not used to swap with Slughorn or Snape etc) ... but the inconsistencies remain there and may be very telling ... he had told Harry to keep it with him at all times, and Harry did indeed have it with him when Dumbledore told him to go get it (I looked it up when that theory was going round and Harry does not grab the cloak when he goes to the common room, he only grabs the map and the FF potion, meaning he had the cloak with him) ... so why does Dumbledore not just ask "do you have your cloak with you?" He is obviously giving Harry a chance to take his own precautions - in short, to be a leader ... but why is it the cloak specifically that is used as the "excuse" to give him a chance to do this? I think there is definitely some meaning there, I just haven't put my finger on it. And with how central of a role the theme/image of prophesy plays in the series, sight is definitely a major theme ... so what of that magical eye of Moody's that can penetrate an invisibility cloak? And what of the fact that it is a battle-worn auror that has such an eye? And what of the fact that it is an invisibility cloak that a death eater, Barty Jr (who will impersonate Moody via polyjuice potion, which seems to be connected here with the cloak and the theme of perception and deception), uses to watch the World Cup (of our favorite very symbolic sport), where he sets off the dark mark that, if I remember rightly, we will not see make an actual appearance again until the fateful night of Dumbledore's death? Lots of interesting stuff there ... that usually I would just class under my many meandering questions that longingly await book 7 ... but then she goes and drops something like that on her site - that there is a crucial question ... which just happens to do with said cloak.