The Romance

[cubfanbudwoman]

Carol responds: 
> "The missing twenty-four hours" is the way those of us on the main 
> list refer to the twenty-four hours that Minerva McGonagall spent 
> sitting around in cat form at 5 Privet Drive waiting for Dumbledore 
> to show up. <snip>
> 
> Hagrid supposedly goes to Godric's Hollow before the Muggle police 
> show up, digs Harry out of the rubble, and comforts Sirius Black, 
> who has shown up on his motorcycle. Sirius then lends or gives him 
> the motorcycle and flies with Harry to the Dursleys, where he 
> arrives nearly twenty-four hours after the Potters were killed at 
> midnight Halloween night.
> 
> So the question is, what were Hagrid and Dumbledore doing all that 
> time? Why didn't Hagrid arrive on the early morning of November 1 
> rather than making McGonagall wait a whole day for him? And how did 
<snip>


md:  
> I just listed to the Audiobook (decided to load them to my mp3 
> while I'm working on our house.) First of all, McGonagall  is there 
> from morning to night, not 24hrs. 
<snip> 
> The 24hrs is the time of the attack, wording of the attack getting 
> out, DD summoning Hagrid, Hagrid going, finding Harry, meeting 
> Sirius, traveling to the Dursely's.
> 
> I see no missing 24hrs.


SSSusan:
Speaking as one who placed great significance on the "missing 24 hours" and had a theory about what was taking place during it, I actually think that the items you've described would not really take up 24 hours, especially if we focus on Harry's retrieval and subsequent delivery.

I do agree, though, that the 24 hours doesn't mark the amount of time McGonagall is waiting at the Dursleys' house; it marks the amount of time from the attack to when Hagrid arrives with Baby Harry.

For me, the significance of the time span is that news -- and wizards -- travel FAST in the wizarding world.  We know the attack broke the Fidelius Charm, so that there wasn't a delay in the murders and people like DD discovering that they had happened.  We know the Order members had quick means of commucation -- such as their talking patronuses [patroni?] -- which meant summoning Hagrid could have taken place in a matter of moments.  And we have no reason to believe that it would take Sirius' magic motorbike 23 or 24 hours to make that flight to Little Whinging from Godric's Hollow (especially since Hagrid seemed to be flying at a clip quite equal to those on brooms or thestrals on the night of the Seven Potters).  

Given the instant breaking of the FC, the quick method of communication among Order members and the fast transport we see in the WW, I think it was quite understandable that fans were VERY curious about what was going on between the discovery of the Potters and Harry's delivery to Privet Drive.  

Let's just say that a lot of us had a lot of fun imagining what kinds of things DD, Hagrid, et al. might have been doing during this time.  My own theory was called DRIBBLE SHADOWS and begins in post #128717 at Main. ;)  

To hear that JKR wasn't aware of any gap was a bit startling!

Siriusly Snapey Susan