Just a warning, if you haven't read all of the Harry Potter series, this includes some spoilers. Instead of getting sloppy with large parts in spoiler notation, I'm just warning you here. If you don't want spoilers, stop reading here.
This question about Harry losing the resurrection stone started me thinking about that particular point in the story and it raised a few questions:
- Did Harry intend to lose the stone for good - so nobody could find it, or did he just want to lose it for himself?
- Was the stone really lost to all?
- Was this actually a good way to lose the stone?
- Can any object in the magical world ever be completely lost or hidden?
My answer to the first question is that Harry does seem to think ahead and think in terms of "fixing" things for everyone (Hermione points this out when she comments that he has a habit of rescuing people). I think he was trying to lose the stone forever, but the only thing I have to back it up is what I just wrote.
Was just dropping the stone a good way to lose it forever?
It seems like all it would take would be some kind of basic location spell to find the stone, or try repeating a summoning charm while focusing on different areas of the forest.
If it's protected from those spells in some way, one could us other spells, such as something to levitate stones, then lower all non-magical stones in an area and look for the one stone still levitating.
With this in mind, was just dropping the stone really a good way to lose it, considering anyone determined to find it would find a way to protect themselves (from the dangers in the forest) and search the area, using spells to find the stone?
That leaves me asking:
- Was Harry trying to lose the stone forever, for everyone?
- Would it be able to be located with spells or is it really lost to everyone (barring incredible luck)?
- Is it really possible to completely lose or hide any object in the magical world?