Dumbledore and MoM

[rja.carnegie at excite.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19531

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "M. Barnett" <fyregirl at c...> wrote:
> This may have already been said, but I had 40 posts to read through 
> to see if it had, so instead of being up all night, I'll just post it!
> 
> When I read that Dumbledore had received an urgent owl from MoM, I 
> immediately thought, "What a slimy git that Quirrel is...he sent 
> Dumbledore the owl to go to London.  But when he gets to London he'll 
> know it wasn't real, but will it be too late? <gasp>"
> 
> That's what I thought of right away.  Maybe it was just me.  Maybe 
> I'm way off, but hey, my friends tell me that all the time, and they 
> still like me :)

According to Hagrid, early in PS, Dumbledore gets owls from Fudge
at MoM "every morning" - but not necessarily calling for personal
visits.  Btw, if he's flying from Scotland(?) to London - and
one hundred miles an hour is fast for Quidditch racing brooms
(top speed of Nimbus 1000) - it really does knock a hole in your day.
Perhaps he goes by broom to Aberdeen and then catches a plane -
or perhaps he isn't flying by broom, but by Fawkes?  (or has a
Learjet, or a Dyson ;-)

The odd thing is, several days have passed at that point - all the
school exams - since Harry guessed (wrongly?) that Snape had just
got Quirrell to give up the secret of Quirrell's puzzle guarding the
Philosopher's Stone.  Until Harry and his friends learned that
Dumbledore was away, there was no particular reason to believe
that the Stone was more at risk than it had been the day before.

Unless you were reading the books out of order, becoming acquainted
with JKR's taste for misdirection and the surprise at the end,
or unless you got a hint elsewhere, I don't see why you'd suspect
Quirrell instead of Snape at that moment - Harry doesn't!

Robert Carnegie
Glasgow, Scotland

"I read them all when I was seven and I hated them" - unnamed American
office worker on the Harry Potter books (www.dilbert.com, List of
Stupid Things Overheard)