Godrics Hollow timeline and how Dumbledore found out

[prefectmarcus at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 21982

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Florence" <fgcjnk at b...> wrote:
> 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