Dumbledore and Hermione's owl

[allies426]

No: HPFGUIDX 87623

I *just* read that last week and was wondering the same thing 
myself.  I chalked it up to a FLINT.  Or Dumbeldore didn't realize 
that Hermione never sent the owl, and he figured it out later.

Allie

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Susan Miller" 
<constancevigilance at y...> wrote:
> In the last chapter of SS, Harry wakes and sees Dumbledore 
standing 
> over him. At one point, Harry asks, "You got there? You got 
> Hermione's owl?" Dumbledore says "We must have crossed in midair." 
> (SS, US edition, page 296-7)
> 
> But then a few pages later (page 302), Harry is discussing things 
> with Hermione and Ron. Harry asks "So, what happened to you two?" 
But 
> then Hermione says an odd thing. "Well, I got back all right. I 
> brought Ron round - that took a while - and we were dashing up to 
the 
> owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the entrance hall -
 
> he already knew ...."
> 
> My question - why would Dumbledore say he must have crossed 
> Hermione's owl if he met her while she was still on her way to the 
> owlery and couldn't have sent it yet? I suppose it is possible 
that 
> Dumbledore didn't know that Hermione was on her way to sending it 
and 
> that she might have sent it earlier, but then wouldn't he have 
said 
> something like "I saw her earlier. I understood what it was all 
> about." 
> 
> And it doesn't make sense that he would honestly think that an owl 
> with a message for him would miss him. The owl would have been 
> looking for HIM and he would expect it to pursue him until the 
> message was delivered. The whole thing seems strange to me. Either 
he 
> knew Hermione hadn't yet sent the owl and would have remarked 
about 
> it, or he thought she did send the owl and would have expected it 
to 
> have found him sometime over the last three days that Harry was in 
> the hospital. Then he might have remarked something like "Gee, I 
> wonder where it has got to?"
> 
> CV