The Romance

[julie]

md wrote:
> 
> When what makes sense is, the attack happened. Someone heard the
> disturbance, reported it. People went to investigate. After all, only Peter
> Pedegrew knew where the Potter's lived! Found Harry, contacted Dumbledore,
> dispatched Hagrid, tried to figure out what happened, decided that there may
> be old-magic protecting the boy, located the Dursely's. Sent owl to Hagrid
> "bring Harry at midnight so no one sees us."  Hagrid does not say he came
> directly from Godric's Hollow, it's quite likely he was keeping Harry
> somewhere else (Hogwarts? His cabin?)
> 
>  
> 
> After all, no one knew the Potter's lived there but wormtail. It would take
> a while to sort out what happened, find the baby, determine who he was and
> what to do with him. Why is that so hard to believe?
> 

Julie:
I don't think it is hard to believe; in fact I think those
of us who wondered about the "missing 24 hours" assume this
is pretty much what went on. Of course it may have taken 
some time to figure out what to do with Harry. And logically
Hagrid probably did take him somewhere, as you posit above. 
And, logically, McGonagall arrived at the Dursleys in the
early morning assuming that Hagrid could show up with Harry
at any time, not because she wanted to hang out as a cat 
all day and well into the night in a Muggle neighborhood.

Which is exactly why quite a few fans thought that maybe
the stretch of time was deliberate on JKR's part, and that
she was going to reference the time period in a later book
and reveal something crucial to the story (rather as she
did with Petunia's "That horrid boy!"). The "missing" time
didn't have to be significant of course, and it ultimately
wasn't. What surprised some is that JKR didn't recall the
length of time, and hadn't conceived in her own mind what
went on during that long day and evening while baby Harry
was "enroute" to the Dursleys.

And I don't see pondering the "missing time" as strange.
JKR said before that she wrote out detailed biographies
about minor characters, like Dean Thomas. So it would be
easy for one to assume she might have penned out a more 
detailed timeline of those first hours after Voldemort's
demise, which were also the first hours after baby Harry
was physically marked and nearly killed (was he trapped
in his crib; did someone/s have to dig him out; was he 
treated, or at least checked over at St Mungo's; and so
on). 

Really, I don't think anyone is on a different page here.
Clearly some time elapsed from Harry being orphaned before
midnight on Oct 31st and being left at the Durlsey's 
doorstep before midnight on Nov 1st. The difference is 
whether we pondered some possible significance of that
elapsed time, or didn't give it a second thought. 

Julie