Snape's warning

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 78272

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "flavia_pozzatti"
<flavia_pozzatti at y...> wrote:
> 

> 
> ... After checking whether Sirius was OK, how long did it take 
> Snape to realise that Harry and the others had gone to the MoM?
> 
> ... if Snape had warned the members of the Order sooner, the outcome 
> of the battle could have been different.
> 
> Flavia

bboy_mn:

It's a tribute to the Yahoo Search feature that I couldn't even my my
own pervious post where I addressed this subject, so, I'll try again.

Snape did inform the Order right away, and he didn't just check to see
if Sirius was at headquarters, but told them what Harry said(ie: he
has Padfoot at the place where it's hidden). So the Order knew what
Harry thought was happening.

In the mean time, Harry and Hermione had lured Umbridge out into the
forest. Snape would have no reason to suspect that they would or could
leave the forest for any destination other than back to Hogwarts.
Also, Snape was probably not priviledge to the excuse Hermione used to
get Umbridge out of the castle, so he knew nothing about the group
entering the forest for some secret weapon. 

So he waited assuming that once Harry and Hermione were done screwing
around with Umbridge's head, they would return to the castle. After
some length of time, he began to worry. Knowing the dangers of
Umbridge, the dangers to Umbidge by Harry and Hermione, and the
general dangers of the forest, he eventually decided to search for
them. When the search turned up nothing, he started to wonder, and
eventually came to the conclusion that somehow they must have tried to
get to the Ministry of Magic. He then alerted the Order, and
logically, it took them 'some' amount of time to react and get organized. 

I really don't see any unaccounted for time. I don't see any time
wasted while Snape carelessly ignored the situation. If you think of
the time waiting for their return from the forest, the time to search
the forest, and the time to inform the Order a second time plus their
time to react, all the time seems very reasonably accounted for.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn