Science Fiction & Fantasy Asked on September 3, 2021
From Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:
Harry got to his feet. As he walked across the room, his eyes fell upon the little table on which Marvolo Gaunt’s ring had rested last time, but the ring was no longer there.
"Yes, Harry?" said Dumbledore, for Harry had come to a halt.
"The ring’s gone," said Harry, looking around. "But I thought I you might have the mouth organ or something."
Dumbledore beamed at him, peering over the top of his half-moon spectacles.
"Very astute, Harry, but the mouth organ was only ever a mouth organ."
And on that enigmatic note he waved to Harry, who understood himself to be dismissed.
I don’t get this scene. What is Harry referring to? Why does he expect there to be a mouth organ? Why does Dumbledore call that "astute", and what does he mean by "the mouth organ was only ever a mouth organ"? Is this referring to the mouth organ Harry saw in the Pensieve earlier on, with the young Riddle?
Riddle took off the lid and tipped the contents onto his bed without looking at them. Harry, who had expected something much more exciting, saw a mess of small, everyday objects: a yo-yo, a silver thimble, and a tarnished mouth organ among them.
Harry has noticed that some items from the memories they visit have been collected by Dumbledore.
After they visited Bob Ogden's memory of the Gaunt shack, Harry noticed the same ring from the past memory was in Dumbledore's office in the present. His "astute" observation is that some of the items from the memories they're visiting are somehow significant, enough that Dumbledore has collected them years later and has them in his office. Even without knowing about Horcruxes, he figures out this much, which impresses Dumbledore.
But, again without knowing about Horcruxes, he doesn't realise that the items collected in the present are going to be highly significant things (something Dumbledore tells him later as they continue to more memories). So he guesses that one item from each memory they visit is going to be found in the present: the ring from the Gaunt shack memory, maybe the mouth-organ from the orphanage memory? It's a random guess, but that's why he says "the mouth-organ or something".
Dumbledore compliments his astuteness, but knows that he doesn't see the full story yet. After knowing that Voldemort is collecting items of significance to make into his Horcruxes, it will seem silly to guess the mouth-organ. Dumbledore says only that "the mouth-organ was only ever a mouth-organ": it has no further significance than that (unlike the Gaunt ring, which is not only an heirloom of Slytherin but also contains one of the Deathly Hallows), and it never contained a piece of Voldemort's soul (again, unlike the Gaunt ring). There was no reason for it to be among the items Dumbledore collected from Voldemort's past.
Correct answer by Rand al'Thor on September 3, 2021
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