Flitwick/Missing 24 hours

[joy_the_lemur <joy_the_lemur@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50109

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Grace" <SaalsG at c...> wrote:
> 
> christi0469 wrote:
> 
> Inspired by the release date for OOtP, last night I began to reread
> the series from the beginning (for the ?th time) and noticed
> something that eluded me before. In the first chapter of PS/SS
> Vernon bumps into and just about knocks over a tiny wizard with a
> squeaky voice. Could this be Prof. Flitwick? (I did try to search
> the archive to see if this had been brought up previously but gave
> up after awhile.) If this was Flitwick, why were he and McGonagall
> away from Hogwarts while school was in session? Sure, classes would
> have probably been cancelled in celebration, but it would seem to me
> that the teachers would have been required to make sure the students
> didn't get too out of hand.
> 
> I know that this is most likely inconsequential, but I have to
> wonder how many of the people mentioned early in PS/SS are going to
> turn out to be important later. It would be amusing if Doris
> Crockford and Daedalus Diggle turn out to be as important as Sirius
> Black already has and Mrs./Arabella Figg promises to be. Could there
> be any importance behind Flitwick loitering and gossiping on a
> sidewalk in Surrey (or does Vernon work in London)?
> 
> 
> now me:
> 
> I've decided to do the samething too: read all four books again
when I get
> my haads on OotP (pre- ordered it!), taking my time because I
expect the 6th
> book will be a long time in coming again.   I too, thought Vernon
had bumped
> into Prof. Flitwick.  I just assumed since JRK said Harry was a
year old,
> Vernon bumped into Flitwick on Harry's birthday - which is during
the summer
> break and so Flitwick wouldn't have been teaching at that time.
> 
> Grace

Actually, it would've been around Halloween.  As Hagrid says, "All
anyone knows is, [Voldemort] turned up in the village where you was
all living, on Hallowe'en ten years ago" (PS/SS).

Indeed, Hogwarts might've been celebrating as well.  Or Hogwarts was
closed during the war, perhaps?  Certainly we've had at least three
people from Hogwarts in Privet Drive, with the implication that
Professor McGonagall had been there for at least a day, observing the
Dursleys.

Joy