Hallucinating and incoherent...

1) Dumbledore had overcome most of the effects of the potion by the time he saved Harry from the inferi.
2) Only a few minutes later, Dumbledore realized the Dark Mark hung over Hogwarts and decided to go to the school with renewed resolve, so he couldn't have been THAT out of it immediately before.
3) The "heretofore unseen and unexplained piece of magic to help Harry do something he'd already learned" you refer to is called Side-Along Apparition...
4) Seventh book:
As he turned into darkness he caught one last view of the drawing room of the pale, frozen figures of
Narcissa and Draco, of the streak of red that was Ron’s hair, and a blue of flying silver, as Bellatrix’s
knife flew across the room at the place where he was vanishing –

Bill and Fleur’s . . . Shell Cottage . . . Bill and Fleur’s . . .

He had disappeared into the unknown; all he could do was repeat the name of the destination and hope
that it would suffice to take him there. The pain in his forehead pierced him, and the weight of the goblin
bore down upon him; he could feel the blade of Gryffindor’s sword bumping against his back: Dobby’s
hand jerked in his; he wondered whether the elf was trying to take charge, to pull them in the right
direction, and tried, by squeezing the fingers, to indicate that that was fine with them . . .

And - point missed. Okay. I'm going to bed now, it's like eight in the morning and I forgot the time waiting for your replies.

Sorry if I annoyed you, mate. I just enjoy a good discussion. ^^'

 

Are you saying that Dumbledore apparated them, then? Either Harry apparated and brought Dumbledore, or a disabled Dumbledore apparated Harry. As per Half Blood Prince:

House Elf magic is explicitly fucky, and doesn't follow the normal rules. They aren't blocked by apparition wards, and can teleport even within Hogwarts. Dobby is not a good example of what wizards and witches can do, and there is no evidence that Dumbledore did so in HBP. Even if he had, the bit you quoted in DH shows that Harry was able to detect what was happening, and did not mention as much when he was apparating with Dumbledore.

 

I am saying there is a big chance of Harry apparating them, and Dumbledore having helped him out. If Dumbledore could fend off an army of inferi, apparating, even such a distance, shouldn't be too difficult. So - yes, even if Harry initiated the travel, Dumbledore could very well have been participating to make sure the pair arrived safely without splinching. Dumbledore was just as intent on returning to Hogsmeade as Harry, so how are we to know that Dumbledore weren't concentrating on picturing the village in his mind and doing his part mid-apparation?

Irrelevant. Apparition is apparition, even though house-elves does it slightly differently. Please produce a canon piece of information suggesting only house-elves can "take charge to pull [them] in the right direction".

It isn't an example of what a wizard can do contra what a house-elf can do, it is an example of what magic can do. Sure, house-elf magic differs from that of wizards, but not excessively so. After all, the Ministry could detect Dobby's magic around Harry and labeled the hovering cake as a result of a Levitation Charm, if I'm not very much mistaken.

Also - yeah, you're right. It isn't as if Harry had spent the better part of a year on the run and apparated frequently and gained experience and understanding of what apparition can and cannot do, meaning Harry wouldn't necessarily been aware of Dumbledore taking charge in HBP.

Though I admit Dumbledore appeared worse for wear than I remember him being...

 

Ninclow, your approach to burden of proof is all off. You are responding to explicit canon evidence with speculation that it could be something other than what it is presented as. Speculation and "could have" is not a counter-argument. If speculation was a counter-argument, that would make everything that is not-directly contradicted part of canon.

Did the ghost of Dumbledore help Harry kill Voldemort by possessing Voldemort and stopping his heart? Well, there's nothing to say that he didn't, so let's say that's canon!

Harry is presented as apparating Dumbledore. If you want to say Dumbledore helped, you have to show that he actually did so. It's not enough to argue "there's nothing saying he couldn't".

 

I believe this is where my afterthought of "Though I admit Dumbledore appeared worse for wear than I remember him being..." comes in, making my supposed mistake in regard to the burden of proof more of a misunderstanding because I misremembered, really.

 

That is one of the lamest attempts to backpedal I have ever seen.

 

Thanks, I practise regularly.

Would you be more happy with a; "Okay, I guess you've got the right of it" instead?

 

I believe Rowling said at some point that the thought behind apparition licences were so that wizards couldn't for example apparate into Muggle banks to steal money and disapparate away with the goods - how would the Ministry know? As per the books, you can't trace apparition unless it is used nearby or alongside of someone underage with the Trace still on them, and even then they could only detect someone apparating, not whereto. A little off topic, I know... ^^'