Two questions..

[aiz24 at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 9060

> Why, do you suppose, was Voldemorte nervous and afraid of the smokey 
> echoes walking around him during the priori incantatem incident? 
> Although he might have forgotten what to expect (or infact never 
knew 
> Harry had the same wand core), he surely would have been able to 
> recognize what was happening just as Sirius guessed it and 
Dumbledore 
> confirmed it in Moody's office.

Hmmm...I have a few thoughts on this.

One is that even the way Sirius refers to Priori Incantatem suggests 
that it's something an advanced wizard might have heard of but never 
seen or perhaps really believed in--almost legendary in quality.  
After all, how often has it happened that two wizards with "brother" 
wands duelled?

Another is that I do think only Harry, Dumbledore, Ollivander 
and possibly Hagrid know about the relationship between the wands.  
Harry hasn't told anyone, Dumbledore certainly wouldn't, and 
Ollivander wouldn't exactly advertise it in the Daily Prophet.  
(Hagrid, on the other hand, would've told the whole world if he'd had 
enough to drink, but anyway...)  Why would it ever occur to Voldemort 
that Harry's wand was related to his?

Mostly, though, I think he is nervous because he has worked incredibly 
hard to bring this moment about--all that trouble and risk to get 
Harry Potter to this graveyard, when he could've used any witch or 
wizard to resurrect himself--and against all odds the kid is actually 
doing something powerful and unexpected against him.  V has staked 
everything on the belief that "Harry Potter escaped me by a lucky 
chance."  And 20 seconds earlier, he'd had Harry cowering behind a 
tombstone--all he had to do was hit him with Avada Kedavra and his 
whole 13-year nightmare would be over.  But with a simple disarming 
charm Harry has unwittingly created this very weird situation in which 
V can't even use his wand.  And on top of it, he's proved powerful 
enough to force the beads back to Voldemort's wand.  All bets are 
suddenly off.

One more thing--even someone as conscienceless and evil as Voldemort 
has to be just a bit freaked out by seeing his victims reappear before 
his eyes.  That has to be the mass murderer's worst nightmare.  
(Hello, Macbeth.)

> Why was Snape so startled when Harry told Cornelius Fudge that 
Lucius 
> Malfoy was a death eater? I know the death eaters didn't always know 
> one another as such, but clearly Snape would have known of Malfoy, 
> wouldn't he?

Interesting question.  I interpreted his "sudden movement" as being 
not surprise about the particular name, but an uncontrollable jump at 
actually having Death Eaters named at all.  A lot of the secrecy seems 
to have been broken (I'm thinking of all those DEs who came to the 
Ministry and said they'd been Imperius'd, including Malfoy--it was 
obviously known that they were in V's pocket or why would they say 
this?) but there is still that sense that this is a secret society of 
the most dangerous kind and the chief rule is never, never tell 
another member's name.  Snape is no longer loyal to V (we think . . .) 
but when Harry begins to name the entire circle, it must awaken the 
remnants of that fear of exposure.

Even, perhaps, fear that Harry will expose *him* as a former DE?  Even 
though Fudge presumably knows that SS was a DE and then spy?  When he 
showed his mark to Fudge a bit later, I interpreted it as a very brave 
moment of admitting his past publicly.  His past may be an open 
secret but it still takes guts to say, "look, I know what I'm talking 
about, I was one of Them and still have the mark."  He showed it as a 
last ditch attempt to get Fudge to believe what Harry and Dumbledore 
were saying.  I found it very moving--Snape baring his soul to 
support Harry, of all people.

Sorry, it's 6 a.m. and I'm a bit fuzzy...hope that was clear.

Amy Z