[HPforGrownups] Re: The Mysterious Eagle Owl (was Beastly Li'l Snape)

[Sandi Steinberg]

No: HPFGUIDX 37833

Re: the eagle owl discussion

Note: Throughout the series so far, only one person has been mentioned more 
than once as possessing an eagle owl:  Draco Malfoy.

I'm very fond of owls, but I had never heard of an eagle owl.  I researched 
them online and found that they are a European bird not found in North 
America.  Just as Sirius warned harry not to use Hedwig to messenger their 
correspondence because she would attract too much attention, not being of a 
species native  to Britain, so the eagle owl is really unknown here.

It does, however, resemble our very commmon  great horned owl, which is 
slightly smaller, but belongs to the same genus, Bubo, as the eagle (aka the 
Eurasian owl. This includes the largest owls in the world.

Of course Malfoy would have to have the biggest of anything, wouldn't he, 
and the eagle owl, by size alone, would be easily noticed and recognized.

Sandi Steinberg


>>Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 18:12:09 -0000
>
>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)
>
>
>
>


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