Summary

• Invisibility Cloak is crucial in Harry Potter series, given to Harry by Dumbledore, making it a key magical item.
• Dumbledore's deep obsession with Deathly Hallows led him to examine the Invisibility Cloak closely.
• James Potter inherited the Invisibility Cloak from Ignotus Peverell, making Harry its final owner in the series.

If someone had only watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and not read the book, they could be forgiven for wondering, "Who gave Harry Potter the Invisibility Cloak?" Powerful magical items in Harry Potter are often significant plot points throughout J.K. Rowling's wizarding series. These creations dot the world of Harry Potter. From the chocolate frogs and the magical cards they contain to time turners, the Harry Potter franchise is filled with incredible inventions.

One of these powerful items is the Invisibility Cloak. The Cloak first appears in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and is a critical part of every book and movie. It's a finely woven piece of material that almost looks like a silk rug and, as the name implies, hides whatever or whoever is under it. Some of the most important moments in Harry Potter films happen with the camera peering from behind the cloudy fibers of the cloak, and the magical item is as much a signature of Harry Potter as his glasses.

Dumbledore Gave Harry Potter The Invisibility Cloak Because It Once Belonged To James

Dumbledore Was Examining The Unique Relic When James And Lily Were Killed

In the first Harry Potter novel and movie, Harry receives the Cloak of Invisibility from a mysterious gift giver on Christmas morning. The end of the book reveals that it was Dumbledore who gave Harry the cloak. Harry's father, James Potter, lent it to the headmaster shortly before he was killed by Voldemort, and Dumbledore passed it down as a family heirloom when Harry was of age. The film never actually reveals that Dumbledore gave Harry the Cloak and this seemingly small change significantly alters Dumbledore's story.

Dumbledore did not ask for the cloak because he wanted to use it to sneak around; he wanted to examine it because of the deep obsession he harbored for most of his life. Since he was young, Dumbledore, along with Gellert Grindelwald, wanted to master the "Deathly Hallows", three legendary magical relics that some believed could allow the user to master death. The Invisibility Cloak is one of these and when Dumbledore discovered his pupil James somehow had it, he couldn't help but ask for it to examine if the lost treasure from his childhood could be this cloak.

However, it was only later in his life that Dumbledore understood the true power of the cloak. As a brash young man, he only cared about the seemingly more powerful Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone. As Dumbledore says at the end of The Deathly Hallows,

"....our [Dumbledore's and Grindelwald's] interest in the Cloak was mainly that it completed the trio, for the legend said that the man who united all three objects would then be truly master of death, which we took to mean, invincible...."

It was a piece of a puzzle for him. Finding it later in his life awoke an old and misguided dream of his, so he asked James for it. When James and Lily were murdered, the Invisibility Cloak remained in Dumbledore's possession until he passed it along to Harry, a sign that the headmaster had moved past his obsession with the Hallows (Though not entirely, considering his decision to wear the Resurrection Stone later in the series). It's only the Elder Wand Dumbledore is permitted to wield, as he says in The Deathly Hallows,

"Maybe a man in a million could unite the Hallows, Harry. I was fit only to possess the meanest of them, the least extraordinary. I was fit to own the Elder Wand, and not to boast of it, and not to kill with it. I was permitted to tame and to use it, because I took it, not for gain, but to save others from it."

Who Made The Invisibility Cloak & How James Potter Got It

Ignotus Peverell Is Harry's Distant Ancestor

The reason James had the Invisibility Cloak in the first place has to do with Harry Potter's family tree. While stories may say Death itself created the Hallows, according to Dumbledore, it's more likely they were created by powerful wizards, in this case, the Peverell brothers: Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus. Dumbledore tells Harry Ignotus crafted the Invisibility Cloak and passed it down from one generation to the next, with all scions living in Godric's Hollow. It eventually went to James, and finally ended with Harry Potter, the frightful owner of the Cloak of Invisibility.