Godrics Hollow timeline and how Dumbledore found out

[Florence]

No: HPFGUIDX 21974

This is what I think happened:

(you guys can now proceed to tear it apart)

Late on Halloween (31st Oct), lets say 11.30pm,  the Potters are 
murdered and Harry survives.  Dumbledore (at Hogwarts following 
Halloween feast) is immediately alerted because someone else at 
Hogwarts (maybe Snape) gets him in private and says something along 
the lines of "Look my dark mark has disappeared" (ref: Karkaroff says 
"it's back"), and/or someone else at Hogwarts turns around and says 
"I've been being controlled by imperious for months now and all of a 
sudden the spell's worn off." (Lots of people were being controlled by 
imperious then remember).  

Dumbledore immediately suspects the Potters, either because he'd been 
tipped off that Voldemort was after them, or because of Trelawneys 
first true prediction or both.  (At this stage he may have been able 
to confirm it was the Potters by sending his head to the Potters 
fireplace for a look around.  Maybe the fact his head could get to the 
fireplace at all shows him the fidelus charm has indeed been broken, 
maybe he could actually see the devastation from there, but I don't 
think the chimney was in a fit state to travel down entirely or he 
would have rescued Harry immediately by Floo.)  

Now he does some quick thinking.  He'll be needed at the ministry that 
day to sort out everyone coming round from imperious and he needs to 
sort out Harrys future.  So he sets up a portkey for Hagrid to Godrics 
Hollow (Hagrid could maybe have gone by Floo powder, but I prefer the 
portkey idea for the above reason), sends a message to his hut telling 
him to collect Harry immediately and meet him at Privet Drive at a 
specified time next evening (delayed so that he has time to sort out 
the beurocrats at the ministry, and also so that they don't arrive at 
Privit drive in daylight) and sets off for London.  Hagrid gets the 
message and on his way into the castle meets McGonnegal and tells her 
he's going to take Harry to Privet Drive (it's now morning - either 
literally as in 12.30am or say 5-6am if Dumbledores 
informants/assesment took a bit longer or if Hagrid was delayed in 
getting the message).  Hagrid portkeys to Godrics Hollow and rescues 
Harry. This is before the Police arrive because either the time delay 
is very short, or no-one reported the explosion because the Potters 
house is relatively secluded and neighbours were asleep and didn't 
hear anything or ignored it - quite arguably in many areas no-one will 
be likely to notice anything until around 6-7am. McGonnegal goes 
straight to Privet Drive because Hagrid didn't mention to her about 
the pre-arranged meeting time and she wants to see Dumbledore. 
Hagrid meets Sirius who offers him the bike.  Hagrid probably didn't 
know about the fidelus charm (not many did), had no hurry to get to 
Privet Drive and the Bike sounded more fun than a portkey.  I expect 
Sirius's bike had an invisibility booster or it was a cloudy day or 
they did most of their travelling in the dark.  There would have been 
time for several lengthy stops en-route (S. Wales - Surrey very 
approximate journey time 6hours at usual motorway speeds, they had 
approx 18 hours) or they could have hung out somewhere safe in 
daylight hours.  Dumbledore spends the day at the ministry helping 
sort out the chaos of everyone waking up from imperious (or claiming 
to) and making the necesary arrangements for Privet Dirive and Harry. 
Then he goes to meet Hagrid, finds McGonnegal and Hagrid shows up 
(slightly late).

This doesn't explain why Dumbledore isn't shocked that Hagrid borrowed 
the bike from Sirius, although knowing Dumbledore he might want to 
remain tight lipped about that (given Hagrid/McGonnegal may not have 
known about the fidelus) until he'd seen spoken to Sirius himself.


Florence