OOP: Spy?/LV trying to kill Harry/Aha!

[cantoramy]

No: HPFGUIDX 65888

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jklb66" <jklb66 at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cantoramy" <cantor at v...> 
wrote:
>  And why did 
> > LV wait 15 months after Harry was born to try to kill him?  
> 
> 
> I don't think LV did wait 15 months to try to kill Harry.  In PoA, 
We 
> are told that Dumbledore suspected one of James's friends of being 
a 
> spy because, "He was sure that someone close to the Potters had 
been 
> keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements."  (This from 
> McGonagall in Ch. 10) And in Ch. 19, Sirius says to Peter, "You'd 
> been passing information to him for a year before Lily and James 
> died!  You were his spy!"
> You put the two together, and it sounds like the Potters were 
trying 
> to hide from LV ever since Harry's birth.  Everytime they hid 
> somewhere new, Peter ratted them out, but they escaped.  After a 
year 
> of perhaps ever closer calls, and only as a desperate, last 
measure 
> did they agree to the Fidelius Charm.  I can't see James agreeing 
to 
> put Sirius's (or Peter's) life in danger by making him Secret-
Keeper 
> except as a last resort.
> 
> Cantoramy also proposes that Mundungus Fletcher may be LV's spy 
> within the Order, and I have to say her agrument is excellent!  
Put 
> it together with his behavior at the beginning of OotP--deserting 
his 
> post of guarding Harry just before the Dementors show up.  Very 
fishy 
> behavior.  But oh--wait--LV didn't send the Dementors; Umbridge 
did.  
> Hmm?  Have to think about this.  But I still love Cantoramy's 
Hog's 
> Head clue.
> --Jennifer

Aha!  I found a third clue, and you lead me to it by mentioning the 
beginning of the book!  

After Harry is first taken to Sirius' house, and they all go to 
dinner, Mundungus is at the table telling a story to Ron and the 
twins about how he received some stolen toads and then sold them 
back to their original owner.  Molly disapproves of him, and pretty 
much lets him know it.  Harry asks Sirius why Mundungus is in the 
Order.

"He's useful," Sirius muttered.  "Knows all the crooks--well he 
would, seeing as he's one himself.  But he's also very loyal to 
Dumbledore, who helped him out of a tight spot once..." (US, pp.86-
87)

If Mundungus was banned from the Hog's Head 20 years ago, and 
overheard the prophecy there 16 years ago, and DD knew he was the 
one who had overheard it, and then if Mundungus opened his mouth and 
blabbed to Wormtail, DD would have defended Mundungus.  Since 
Wormtail was in the Order, and nobody knew he was a traitor, telling 
him the prophecy would not have been forbidden.  But if Wormtail was 
the one who told LV (or LV heard it from Mundungus via another 
person or the Imperius curse), it wouldn't have been Mundungus' 
fault revealing the prophecy in what he thought was good faith.  So 
if the other members of the Order wanted Mundungus punished, DD 
would have had to have been the one to have defended him.  

If this isn't 100% correct, it's pretty close, even if I do say so 
myself!

Thank you Jennifer!

cantoramy