Ele queria que Harry descobrisse devagar - e não pudesse sair de Hogwarts.
Phineas Nigellus Black explicou a Harry que as pessoas em retratos só podem visitar outros retratos no mesmo prédio em que seus retratos estão, ou outros retratos deles (e os retratos naquele prédio).
“Professor Dumbledore’s portrait – couldn’t you bring him along, here, into yours?’
Phineas Nigellus turned his face in the direction of Harry’s voice.
‘Evidently it is not only Muggle-borns who are ignorant, Potter. The portraits of Hogwarts may commune with each other, but they cannot travel outside the castle except to visit a painting of themselves hanging elsewhere. Dumbledore cannot come here with me, and after the treatment I have received at your hands, I can assure you that I shall not be making a return visit!”
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 15 (The Goblin’s Revenge)
Dumbledore, portanto, só seria capaz de visitar lugares com um retrato dele. Aquele em Hogwarts era provavelmente o único que existia na época, então Harry só poderia visitá-lo em Hogwarts. (Ir a Hogwarts enquanto era controlado por Comensais da Morte, é claro, seria arriscado - Harry só foi quando ele absolutamente teve que procurar as Horcruxes.)
Dumbledore também ativamente não quis dizer a Harry tudo o que ele precisava saber de uma vez. Ele queria que Harry descobrisse sobre as Relíquias lentamente, para que ele tivesse mais tempo para desenvolver sabedoria e esperançosamente não ser tentado pela perspectiva das Relíquias, como o próprio Dumbledore já havia sido.
“Why did you have to make it so difficult?’
Dumbledore’s smile was tremulous.
‘I am afraid I counted on Miss Granger to slow you up, Harry. I was afraid that your hot head might dominate your good heart. I was scared that, if presented outright with the facts about those tempting objects, you might seize the Hallows as I did, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. If you laid hands on them, I wanted you to possess them safely.”
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 35 (King’s Cross)
É por isso que ele deu a Harry as informações sobre eles de maneira indireta, deixando uma cópia de Os Contos de Beedle, o Bardo para Hermione, em vez de uma maneira mais direta de deixar Harry saber sobre eles . Mesmo se Harry tivesse falado com o seu retrato, Dumbledore poderia não ter dito a ele, porque era parte do seu plano que Harry não iria descobrir tudo de uma vez.
Além disso, J.K. Rowling aborda isso em uma entrevista de perspectivas tanto no universo quanto fora do universo. No universo, a explicação é exatamente a descrita nas informações nos livros. Dumbledore queria que Harry descobrisse sobre as Relíquias lentamente para que ele tivesse mais tempo para ganhar a sabedoria de não ser tentado, e também não poderia deixar seu retrato em Hogwarts - magos em pinturas só podem ir a outros lugares onde havia um pintura deles ou pinturas no mesmo edifício.
Fora do universo, ela diz que teria sido muito fácil para Harry e não haveria enredo. No entanto, neste caso, os eventos fazem sentido no universo, e é consistente com o que sabemos do mundo e seus personagens. Também é apoiado por evidências nos livros, não apenas uma declaração após o fato.Q: Why couldn’t Harry speak to a portrait of Dumbledore throughout the last book?
Well there are two reasons, three reasons actually… The last bit, why did he have to decode? As Dumbledore says to Harry…to tell Harry about the Hallows was to tempt him. And Harry, throughout all seven books has been incredibly impetuous and reckless. That’s one of Harry’s biggest flaws. He does tend to act without thinking, and Dumbledore knows this about Harry. He wants him to work it out slowly enough to gain wisdom along the way. That’s why he passed the information through Hermione, who is the most cautious person in the books, as you know. And Dumbledore says explicitly, so your good heart isn’t overcome by your hot head. Or I may have paraphrased myself slight there so forgive me. “She doesn’t even know her own book!” [laughter] Yes so that’s one reason. Harry needs to decode. He said, he does say in this book, he’s frightened by his decision not to race for the wand, because he had never chosen not to act. So that’s Harry’s real big coming of age moment, that he’s decided to hold back for the first time very in his life.
So the other two reasons that I have for him not to speak to Dumbledore’s portrait, first of all, I crated a lot of rules for this world and then later had to navigate my way around them. But this rule was always good, and the rule was that portraits could only move between portraits in the same building. so if I’m in a picture and you’re in a picture and we’re both in Carnegie Hall, then we can move into each other’s pictures. Otherwise we can only move only to other places where we have a portrait. You can’t just move willy nilly through all the – the Louvre, the Met – you can’t do a world tour, as a picture person. You are limited by geography. So there was that reason. And then lastly of course, the third reason, is it really would be too easy and I wouldn’t have had a plot.
- Carnegie Hall interview (October 20, 2007)