Bertha - aside to Rita

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 28017

Cindy wrote:

> I am still not all the way there, Catlady.  I almost buy the idea 
> that Dumbledore's sadness is over recent events, not old events.  
(At 
> this point, Dumbledore doesn't KNOW Bertha is dead, although he 
> suspects it, but OK, maybe he still feels sad about her 
> disappearance).  

She's been missing without a word for 11 months!  If that happened to 
someone you knew, you'd be beyond worried--you'd be virtually certain 
she was dead.  Dumbledore, unlike Fudge, is not an idiot.  She goes on 
vacation to Albania . . . she is never heard from again . . . now who 
do we know who's in Albania? . . . have we ever seen people 
disappear like this before, hmmm, yes that seems familiar . . . and 
what's that you say, Harry's scar started hurting him shortly after 
her disappearance? . . . it doesn't take a genius.

> But Dumbledore has no idea how Wormtail and 
> Voldemort captured Bertha or know that she followed anyone 
anywhere-- 
> we learn about it when Voldemort explains it to the Death Eaters.  
So 
> Dumbledore doesn't yet know enough to link the "Bertha following 
> Snape/Sirius/whoever incident" long ago with the more recent "Bertha 
> following Wormtail incident".

No, he doesn't know how it happened, but he knows Bertha and the kind 
of thing that is likely to get her into trouble.  My sense is that the 
Pensieve puts together one's vague impressions, memories, and 
intuitions and makes them more visible to the conscious mind.  Thus 
Dumbledore's comment to it that he could have connected the 
reappearance of Snape's Dark Mark to Harry's headache without 
assistance--he's saying sarcastically, "thanks, I figured out that 
much all on my own."  So the Pensieve is putting together one of his 
old, seemingly innocuous memories of Bertha with the other events of 
the year and nudging him to notice that there's a connection between 
girl-Bertha's nosiness (and subsequent trouble) and woman-Bertha's 
disappearance.

BTW, Sirius made the same observation during his fireside 
(fire-middle?) chat:  Bertha was an idiot (by which he means bad 
judgment, not all-around stupid; he later comments on her too-good 
memory) and very nosy.

I wrote:

 > LOL!  That is a great comfort to this sloppy knitter.

Catlady wrote:

> But your earlier post said you LIKE cooking and potions, partly 
> because of the care required.

I do like cooking, but less because of the care required than in spite 
of it.  In knitting, if you let up on the Constant Vigilance for even 
a few stitches, you can get a disaster.  I don't exercise that kind of 
concentration; my mind wanders, and then I have trouble.  This is why 
I would enjoy Potions *with another professor,* one who isn't going to 
try to poison my cat because I melt a couple of cauldrons.

Amy Z

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    "We didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle!"
 said Fred indignantly.
    "No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying
 git," said George.  "Isn't he, Harry?"
    "Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," said Harry earnestly.
                 --Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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