by Froggs » Wednesday 27 July 2005 3:25:58pm
All we (the readers) know is that HP sees DD with the ring on when they visit Slughorn. DD's arm is messed up at that point. When HP has his first lesson with DD in his office, the ring has been removed and is on a table by the door, and DD's arm is still messed up. On Hp's second lesson, the ring is gone. Somewhere in the book DD gives some sort of credit to Snape having to do with the ring, but I don't remember specifics. It has been assumed that the only way to remove the horcrux was to wear the ring, and that it eventually kills the wearer (so it appears with the "dead" arm) and Snape found a way to remove the ring and stop the curse and essentially, the horcrux was broken. But none of that was actually written, so it is a theory.