The Mysterious Eagle Owl (was Beastly Li'l Snape)

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 37827

Porphyria wrote:

>The eagle owl could have been Crouch Jr.'s and I 
> do like the idea that 'aristocratic' pureblood DE's might make a 
>habit 
> of using eagle owls. 

<snip>
 
> And we see the eagle owl fly away sometime before Crouch Sr. shows 
up 
> raving. So it's possible it's in the process of carrying Crouch 
Jr.'s 
> communication with LV.
> 

Oh my.  It sounds like we're finally ready to crack the mystery of 
what that eagle owl was doing in GoF.  To get started, we can have a 
look at Amy's especially impressive LOON analysis from a prior 
message:

************

Amy wrote (about whether the eagle owl was carrying a letter about 
Crouch Sr.):


In GF 35, Crouch Jr. says "My master sent me word of my father's 
escape . . . . For a week I waited for my father to arrive at 
Hogwarts. At last, one evening, the map showed my father entering the 
grounds," and it was that evening that he killed him. So, about a 
week between the letter (or however he received word) and the murder.

But here's the chronology in GF 27 and 28, with copious evidence that 
there is well over a month between the eagle owl Harry sees from the 
Owlery and the death of Crouch Sr:

(27) Sirius's owl arrives in March (not absolutely conclusive but 
almost so), asking Harry to meet him at the stile "Saturday."

(28) "Harry, Ron and Hermione went up to the Owlery after breakfast 
on 
Sunday," surely the next day or else it would have been described as 
"one Sunday" or "the next week." They go down to the kitchens, Ron 
and Hermione bicker for the rest of the day, and Harry goes up to the 
Owlery on his own to get a break from them.

Harry sees the eagle owl while watching Hagrid from the Owlery.

"Next day" Hermione receives her lovely missive filled with bubotuber 
pus.

"Over the following week" she continues to receive hate mail. This 
would seem to bring us up to just about the date Crouch Sr. arrives. 
But read on:

After their "next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson" Hermione 
talks 
about trying to find out how Rita's getting her information. 
"Hermione, however, did not ask Harry and Ron to help her pursue 
vengeance against Rita Skeeter, for which they were both grateful, 
because their workload was mounting ever higher in the run-up to the 
Easter holidays."

"Hedwig didn't return until the end of the Easter holidays." I don't 
know exactly when the Easter holidays are nor how long they are, and 
the time that elapses is uncertain from this point, but

"in the last week of May, Professor McGonagall held [Harry] back in 
Transfiguration" and told him to meet Bagman and the other champions 
on the Quidditch field that night.

So Crouch Sr. doesn't show up until after the Easter holidays, and we 
have further confirmation that he arrives in the last week of May.

Whatever the eagle owl was up to the evening Harry stood alone in the 
Owlery (and I'm sure it was nothing good <g>), it wasn't delivering 
the news that Crouch Sr. had escaped. It was just way too early.

************

Then, I posted a question about why we often assume that the owl was 
carrying a letter to Hogwarts instead of the other way around:

***********

Cindy wrote:

I'm not following you guys. Why are we sure that the eagle owl is 
arriving with a message instead of being sent to deliver a message? 
The text is:

"An eagle owl flew through the coil of smoke rising from Hagrid's 
chimney; it soared toward the castle, around the Owlery, and out of 
sight."

Yes, the owl could have gone into the Owlery or castle after it flew 
out of sight. But if it were delivering a message to someone in the 
castle, wouldn't it deliver the message right away and go straight 
into the castle without the detour around the Owlery? If it were 
going to rest in the Owlery first and then deliver the message in the 
morning, why doesn't it go straight into the Owlery?

If the owl is in fact being sent from the grounds to deliver a 
message, who sent it and what's the message? Hard to say. The 
events right before the appearance of the eagle owl are (working 
backward):

Conversation with Dobby and Winky in the kitchens
Visit with Sirius in the cave
Karkaroff showing Snape his Dark Mark in Potions class
Harry's performance in the Second Task

Is Karkaroff sending an owl to someone about the appearance of the 
dark mark on his arm? Doesn't seem likely. Is Moody sending an owl 
to Voldemort informing him that Harry survived the Second Task? 
That makes some sense, although I am unsure how many days pass 
between the completion of the Second Task and the eagle owl's 
appearance. Can we find a way to implicate Bagman? <vbg>

************

So.  What was that darn eagle owl doing that night?

Cindy (wondering if it is Hagrid's eagle owl, which would make Hagrid 
Ever So Evil)