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After reading DVK's answer here I though of reasons to bring Hagrid to the cave. I know that Voldemort's protections did not have a wide scope - Kreacher could apparate in and out with ease, as well I believe drink the water.

We know that Hagrid is tougher than most. He takes multiple stunning spells and keeps on going, due to his part giant lineage.

Would the water have effected him in the same way a pure human would have been affected? Would this have been a good time for Dumbledore to have trusted in Hagrid?

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AncientSwordRage
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    Would Hagrid have fit in the boat? – Xantec Aug 31 '12 at 18:12
  • He fits in the boat that takes him to the house on the rock in the first book.... – AncientSwordRage Aug 31 '12 at 18:31
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    The boat in the first book had to have been larger, if it fit all the Dursleys (plus Harry) in it at one time. Especially considering that the boat in HBP wasn't large enough even for Harry to sit in it: They were crammed in together; Harry could not comfortably sit, but crouched, his knees jutting over the edge of the boat, which began to move at once. – Xantec Aug 31 '12 at 19:04
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    The enchantment on the boat was designed to take one wizard and one victim (someone who wasn't a fully-powered adult wizard) to the island. Hagrid only made it to his third year of schooling and had his wand snapped in two. So I think the enchantment on the boat might well have allowed him along. Physically it would've been a heck of a tight fit -- he might've had to stand -- but I think the enchantment would have at least kept the boat from sinking. – Joe White Sep 01 '12 at 00:38
  • I don't think it matters, because Dumbledore would not ask Hagrid to drink the potion. Maybe he could have brought Professor Snape for that instead? – b_jonas Jan 24 '14 at 09:48

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Well, the issue with the Horcrux cave is not drinking the water -- it's touching the water. So it's not that the water was poisonous. Voldemort's protections had fairly debilitating effects, and he cast the magic around the locket Horcrux so that the Horcrux potion would make the drinker insatiably thirsty, but unable to cast Augamenti to summon water to drink. The only option for getting water would be the lake, and once the surface of the lake was touched, the Inferi in it were able to reanimate and attack the person or persons in the cave.

There's not really a lot of information about Inferi to say whether Hagrid could withstand them. But the sheer number of Inferi coming out of the lake would have been incredibly daunting, even to someone as strong and impervious as Hagrid. It's described in Half-Blood Prince as "an army of the dead rising from the black water."

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  • Perhaps I'm not remembering facts correctly, I though something in the cave terminally cursed dumbledore so that his hand went black. – AncientSwordRage Aug 31 '12 at 18:33
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    @Pureferret - nope, that was putting on the Hallow/Horcrux Ring well before the cave, before the school year – DVK-on-Ahch-To Aug 31 '12 at 18:42
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    @Pureferret "However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for a seventh of Voldemort’s soul. The ring is no longer a Horcrux." – Xantec Aug 31 '12 at 18:51
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    @Pureferret - The water in the Horcrux holding basin is what screwed Dumbledore up; it caused some kind of horrific visions or some such (never fully explained) as well as severe thirst... And the only water available to drink contained the Inferni that were set to attack when anyone touched the water other than via the boat. To force things still further, the cup rejected any fluid other than the Potion from the basin or water from the trapped lake. – K-H-W Aug 31 '12 at 20:11
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    @KeithHWeston, it wasn't something special about the cup -- the cup was Dumbledore's: Almost absentmindedly, Dumbledore raised his wand again, twirled it once in midair, and then caught the crystal goblet that he had conjured out of nowhere. It was the whole island, or maybe even the whole cave, that blocked any other source of water. – Joe White Sep 01 '12 at 00:43
  • @JoeWhite - Good point; I would guess that there was a charm upon the cave that eliminated any other water almost as soon as it was produced; hence harry's poor luck summoning water. – K-H-W Sep 01 '12 at 04:24
  • Perhaps it would have been easier for Hagrid to be the one to drink the potion in which the horcrux was placed - maybe not making him as thirsty or affecting him with visions etc. though? – balanced mama Dec 07 '13 at 01:45
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I don't think that the water hiding the Horcrux locket is lethal in itself. It is designed to incapacitate and torture the person who drinks it but it does not kill them. I think the method of killing was designed to be death by Inferi, the drinker having become intolerably thirsty after imbibing the potion and needing to drink from the lake by necessity. When taken by the Inferi, I think they would have been turned into Inferi themselves, therefore increasing the defences around the precious Horcrux.

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