The Spying Game

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 39754

Back again! Porphyria is right, I did retire exhausted [grin].

Debbie writes:
Pip wrote:
> >It's Hermione who takes action here: she suggests that Snape 
> >listens to their side of the story. And Snape tells her to shut  
> >up in no uncertain terms. I'll discuss his very interesting       
> > terminology later on.

Debbie writes:
> My take: Hermione distracts him from his mission, so he shuts her  
> up in his usual fashion. 

Pip replies:
Uh - I'm not actually willing to go through all four books right now 
[grin] but can anyone remember any other scene APART from the Shack 
and the Hospital where Snape *screams* at Hermoine in quite this way? 
He does NOT shut her up in his usual fashion. Also it's some of the 
words he uses to shut her up which are fascinating.

Amy Z writes:
> Even if Dumbledore did know Pettigrew was an Animagus, how would he 
> recognize a particular rat as Pettigrew?

> Sirius recognizes him because he's seen him a hundred times. The 
> implication of that explanation is that he couldn't pick out any  
> old Animagus rat in a crowd of real rats. Furthermore, most wizards 
> cannot distinguish Animagi from animals: Snape doesn't know the dog 
> is a man in GF, Molly and Arthur don't know the rat is a man in 12
> having him in their home,

Pip replies:
!!!!What the heck kind of spell is Pettigrew using that they never 
noticed a rat had lived that long!!!! [Presumably with a latin word 
meaning 'Don't think too much about me' :-)]
Or did he simply 'die' several times at the Weasley's, and another 
cute rat (with a missing toe) coincidentally appeared?

> none of the judges spot a woman crawling in Hermione's hair 
> at the Second Task, etc. It's a very effective disguise. Now,  
> Dumbledore can do all sorts of things most wizards can't, but there 
> is no canon to suggest that he sees through Animagical             
> transformations (I do realize you said it was pure speculation).
> said it was pure speculation). Nor can Sirius; he recognizes Peter 
> because he *knows* him, the way you know your dog from other       
> similar dogs.

I assumed Dumbledore wondered about the missing toe, actually. If he 
knew Peter could transform into a rat, and saw that this rat had a 
toe missing (and all that could be found of Peter was, famously, his 
finger) it might be prudent to check that the rat was what it seemed. 
The bit in the Shack where Lupin looks at the picture in the Daily 
Prophet seems to imply the missing toe is visible.

But he could simply have become curious that Scabbers was being 
passed from Weasley, to Weasley, to Weasley...

Marina writes:
> Actually, I'd find it a bit more believable if you *didn't* couple 
> it with Pip's theory. I can see Dumbledore working to eliminate 
> ways in which Voldemort might come back. I can even see him looking 
> at the potion possibility and saying, "Well, this one's not as bad 
> as the others, I'll worry about the others first." It's the idea 
> that Dumbledore deliberately engineered the events in PoA to happen 
> as they did in order to *ensure* Voldemort's return at a time when 
> he was harmlessly wafting around the Albanian wilderness that I get 
> stuck on.

Well, you see, I would argue that he wasn't 'harmlessly wafting'. :-)

It depends on whether you think Lucius Malfoy's handing the diary to 
Ginny in CoS was Lucius acting under orders from Voldemort or Lucius 
acting on his own. Since there must have been at least some risk that 
Draco would accidentally turn the corner when the Balilisk was on the 
prowl for mudbloods, and Malfoy seems to have *some* feelings for his 
son, I would argue he was acting under orders.

And, as I said, it was a very effective attack, nearly destroying 
Harry, the Weasley's, Hogwarts and discrediting Dumbledore.

I'm sure Dumbledore would *love* to wait until Harry's grown up and 
fully trained, but I doubt Voldemort will let him.

Grey Wolf writes:

> Also he who has supposed Pip is a girl name, based on 
> the apparent female number supperiority in the list, and who is    
> deeply sorry is this is not the case.


Pip can be a boy name or a girl name, since it is a nickname for 
either Philip or Philippa. In my case, it's a nickname for 
Philippa. :-)

Pip (who is a girl. And would like to thank Porphyria and Grey Wolf 
for defending her theories better than she could have done. )