I Spy....

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 74557

Just responding to a couple of things in Kneasy's excellent post:

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, B Arrowsmith 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
 
> At the convenience end of the range, we have, of course, the basic 
> invisibility cloak.<snip>Sadly, 
> it is not always problem free. Unreliable in the slipstream of a 
> broomstick, penetrated by the magic eye of Moody and Dumbledore 
also 
> seems to have a means of detection and disclosure. How many others 
have 
> magical vision? But for whatever reason, it rates low in the spy 
kit 
> catalogue.

Annemehr:
Did anyone else think that Snake!Voldemort could see through one 
when he attacked Arthur Weasley?  Or did Arthur let it slip off him 
while he was asleep?  Here are the relative snippets from OoP ch. 21:

...He was turning his head....At first glance, the corridor was  
empty...but no...a man was sitting on the floor ahead, his chin 
drooping onto his chest, his outline gleaming in the dark....
[...]
But the man was stirring...a silvery cloak fell from his legs as he 
jumped to his feet; and Harry saw his vibrant, blurred outline 
towering above him, saw a wand withdrawn from a belt....

Up until I looked it up for this post, I always assumed he was 
seeing through the cloak, but now I wonder, did the cloak fall from 
Arthur's *legs* because that was all it was covering at the time?  
Still,  Harry doesn't mention only seeing the top half of Arthur at 
first, either.  Perhaps the cloak *was* covering him, and only 
parted in front and fell away from his legs as he moved them to 
stand, which would mean Snake!Voldemort can indeed see through it -- 
which would be a very important thing for Harry to remember!

And didn't the Ministry wizards who came in response to Phineas 
Nigellus' calls wonder what Arthur was doing there with an 
invisibility cloak?

Kneasy: 
> No, if you're keen on spying, you'll have to do it the old-
fashioned 
> way. Just like Pettigrew did. He was in the Order and spied for 
Voldy 
> for a year, according to Sirius. (How did he know that? Azkaban, 
> probably.) If so, then he also must be favourite for the eaves-
dropper 
> on the prophecy. Gets the gist before being ejected, toddles off 
to 
> Voldy, "Hey, boss guess what  I've heard! And guess who knows 
where 
> they're hiding!"
> 
> I never have figured out his motivation for switching sides. He 
claimed 
> it was fear, death threats, etc. Why not tell DD, go into hiding? 

Pettigrew may never have had time to go to Dumbledore.  If he had 
really been spying for "a year" before James and Lily were killed, 
then he would have begun when Harry was three months old.

Here's a scenario I think is very possible.  Voldemort has heard the 
beginning of the prophecy and knows he's looking for babies born at 
the end of July whose parents have defied him three times.  Perhaps 
he knows who's expecting a baby, but even more likely he waits to 
see what babies are born at the right time to the right parents (any 
sort of wizard-world birth notices?).  Once he's identified Harry 
Potter as one of those, he begins looking for a way to get 
information on the Potter family, and he confers with some of his 
Death Eaters.  There are certain DEs who could point him straight to 
Pettigrew as a hanger-on in James' circle, one who was weaker and 
admired James for his power and abilities, perhaps, and could 
possibly be "persuaded" to switch his loyalty to a much more 
powerful wizard -- Voldemort himself.  Remember that Sirius once 
told Harry that Snape, while a student, ran around with a gang of 
Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters.  Any one of 
these, including Snape himself, may have known Pettigrew well enough 
to suggest that he could be cowed and turned to Voldemort.  Then all 
they had to do was ambush him and terrify him (Voldemort surely did 
that part personally), and they had a spy who was right in the 
Potters' circle and was too afraid for his life to think of going to 
Dumbledore.  It would also explain Pettigrew's excuse in the 
Shrieking Shack, "What was there to be gained by refusing him?"  It 
seems Voldemort had made him an offer he *couldn't* refuse.

The only question remaining is that of the timing of the attack on 
the Potters.  Why did Voldemort delay so long?  Was he trying 
to "research" Neville and Harry rather than just trying to kill them 
both immediately?  Exactly when was the Fidelius Charm done?  Sirius 
said they switched the Secret Keeper to Pettigrew at the "last 
minute", and before I read the prophecy, I always thought that meant 
they did it right before the attack -- but this would mean that 
Voldemort waited a very long time to try for some reason.  On the 
other hand, if the Potters went under the Fidelius Charm much 
earlier, either Pettigrew waited to divulge the secret, or Voldemort 
waited to attack.

I don't, however, see any reason to think that Pettigrew was the one 
who heard the beginning of the prophecy and told Voldemort.  He 
certainly couldn't have told him as soon as it happened, in any 
case, as that would have made him a spy for much longer than a 
year.  Unless, of course, he was spying for much longer and nobody 
knew it -- a possilility I suppose we'll have to allow for.

Annemehr
now wondering if the events between the prophecy and Harry's arrival 
on the Dursleys' doorstep will ever completely be accounted for...