Did J.K. really try to convince us that James “Take Harry and run while I fend off the baddest Dark wizard ever without even my wand” Potter and Lily “I will literally sacrifice my life for my son” Evans and Sirius “I broke out of prison to hunt the douchebag who betrayed your parents because I was scared he would try to hurt you and btw let me come out of hiding to fight in the fucking MINISTRY which is actively trying to find me because my God damned godson is in danger don’t tell me what to do” Black and Remus “I’m actively tryna keep your ass alive so Imma stop you from yeeting yourself through a veil of death and also I named you godfather of my newborn son” Lupin were just, like, OKAY with Harry basically committing suicide by Voldemort???
Okay, I love this kind of question because I’ve thought about it a lot.
And I always come back to what we know about the deathly hallows. Like they are each kind of a hyperbolic exaggeration of what they represent and how they present in a person.
Wand: power hungry, greed, ambition to the detriment of the person. And I do personally believe that it brought out that part of Dumbledore as it did with the OG Peverelle Brother.
Invisibility Cloak: I don’t think does this as much, or maybe we don’t see it so much because Harry is already a child less likely to trust adults and therefore is “mischievously inclined” to sneak around to find out information instead of asking the adults in his life, particularly because he’s never really convinced that someone is telling them the truth, but he is the king or jumping to conclusions until like 6th year. And in the Peverelle Brother we know he was able to LITERALLY hide from death with it on.
Now, the Resurrection Stone. I think this hallow is the most intriguing, and the most difficult to understand. It’s a very convoluted magical artifact, and the idea of death being a physical presence that can “retract the death of a person” didn’t make sense initially when you listen to the original story.
The Peverelle brother used it to call his lover back from the grave. But she soon decayed and was not the same because she was not of this world. The first two hallows, the wand and the stone, were meant to draw the user to their own grave. They were traps.
Dumbledore was cursed by it the second it came into his possession and destroyed it and I believe he couldn’t stop seeing his sister’s death the whole time he had it, as well as that being what he relived when he drank the potion from the cave when they were trying to get the locket.
It was very important for Dumbledore to ensure Harry wouldn’t open the snitch too early. I don’t know what kind of magic it was that it was able to “open at the close” and if I had to guess, JKR doesn’t know that answer to that, cause it feels like it would be answered by Dumbledore being the plot filler with his “amazing and powerful magical ability.” Which isn’t an answer. It’s just not.
BUT it was important regardless that Harry open the snitch at the proper moment. After the realization of what he had to do and before he was ready to walk into a literal snake nest.
The ghosts of the people who loved Harry the most. Telling him exactly what he needed to hear to push him towards death. Comforting him with words of praise and finality and “you have done enough, Harry.”
The ghosts are not of this world. They seem different and they are not themselves. Because they are not themselves.
We are lead to believe as the reader that these are real ghosts of people, that this is a sweet moment and we are still reeling from Harry’s realization of what is to come to remember that we have already been told that they are not who they are portraying.
It’s not sinister.
It’s not evil and malicious.
It is Death calling to Harry.
Comforting him like no adult in his life was ever capable of doing. Treating him like the scared little boy in the closet.
No Harry, it won’t hurt. It’s quicker than falling asleep.
Yes Harry, you are good. You are enough, you are loved. We are so proud of you.
No Harry, Teddy will be okay, he will know one day that his parents and his godfather died for him to live. All is forgiven, All is okay.
It’s not them. It is Death, begging, pleading, lovingly holding and guiding Harry to what he knows he must do to end a war that he didn’t not start and never should have had to finish.
And then Harry dies, and whom does he meet?
An Old Friend. Someone Harry trusted in life, and KNEW(or assumed) had answered to every question Harry had about his life.
Dumbledore is waiting at King’s Cross, a place that meant travel or stay. Say goodbye, or go back.
I believe Death came to Harry in the form of Dumbledore, and it’s why he leaves so quickly after Harry makes up his mind to stay.
Death greeted Harry like an old friend, and gave him a choice, granted him a chance to live life how he would like to, and blanket his friends with the same love protection his mother gave him.
So to answer you plainly, I do not for one second think any of those people would have willingly pushed Harry to his death, I believe the stone is a trick to lure people to their death by showing them the person they love most, and drawing them gently into Death’s hands. And in Harry’s situation, Death knew he would get way more flies with honey than vinegar.
