Snape's part in death of Sirius

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 108037

Asian_lovr2 wrote:

Saturday
15 June 1996 Universal Time

-SUN-
Begin civil twilight 02:04 (am)
Sunrise 03:17 (am)
Sun transit 12:19
Sunset 21:21 (9:21pm)
End civil twilight 22:34 (10:34pm)
<snip>

Shaun Hately added:
Very close - as expected - the only difference is my calculations
yield Civil Twilight as starting three minutes earlier in the
morning and ending three minutes later at night <snip>


Neri now:

Thanks Steve and Shaun. At times like this I realize why this list is 
the most serious HP forum there is ;-D

Your figures are pretty close to the times for sunrise and sunset 
I've got from the weather website:
http://www.onlineweather.com/v4/uk/sun/Edinburgh.html#June

What looks like a big difference mainly in the sunrise time is, I 
believe, due to summer daylight saving time. The weather website 
notes that all times take account of clock change time in Spring and 
Autumn. I assume your figures do not take account of it, since they 
come from astronomy software. Am I correct?

In order to prevent terrible confusion, we'd better work all of us in 
the same system. I suggest it will be the one who account for summer 
saving time, since we can then compare times to hours that the 
characters might name. That is, when Hermione says in chapter 32 "its 
five o'clock in the afternoon . . . the Ministry of Magic must be 
full of workers" I assume she uses standard summer saving time (gee, 
I really hope she does or we are in for a MIGHTY confusion).

So I'm going to add one hour to your numbers and get:

Sunset 10:21 pm
End civil twilight 11:34 pm

Begin civil twilight 03:04 am
Sunrise 04:17 am

So Harry & Co take off from the forest at 10:21 "into the blood-red 
sunset" (Ch. 34)

First light of dawn at 3:04 is still much earlier than I thought 
before. We know that Harry is back to DD's office at first light. 
This actually fits with a problem I had in my first timeline: the 
battles with the DEs and LV seem to take more time than how they are 
described in the book. Now this is nicely corrected. Based on the new 
first light time, I suggest an updated timeline:


---------------------------------------------
5:00 pm – (canon) Harry tells Ron and Hermione about his vision. 
Hermione says: "its five o'clock in the afternoon . . . the Ministry 
of Magic must be full of workers".
5:30 pm - Planning the break into Umbridge's office
5:45 pm – Harry runs to his room to bring his invisibility cloak.
6:00 pm – The break into Umbridge's office.
6:30 pm – Harry talks with Kreacher in Umbridge's fire.
7:00 pm - Umbridge catches Harry.
7:30 pm - Harry tells Snape "he got Padfoot at the place were it's
hidden".
8:00 pm - Umbridge, Harry and Hermione go to the forest. Harry hears
the sounds of dinner in the great hall (canon). At the same time,
Snape is contacting HQ for the first time.
8:15 pm - before Snape is back from talking with HQ, Ron & Co break
away and run after UHH.
9:30 pm - UHH encounter the centaurs.
9:45 pm - Ron and Co find Harry and Hermione in the forest.
10:21 pm - (canon) Harry & Co take off "into the sunset".
11:30 pm – Harry and Co land near the MoM entrance (travel time 1:10
hrs)
11:45 pm - Harry & Co arrive at the DoM.
12:30 am – Harry & Co had finally finished touring the DoM. Harry
takes the Prophecy.
1:00 am – End of the chat with Lucius and Bella. The chase begin.
1:45 am - The Order members break into the death room and battle
with the DEs.
2:00 am – DD appears in the death room. Sirius dies.
2:30 am - The Voldy vs DD match.
3:00 am – (canon) DD sends Harry to his office by Portkey. Harry sees 
the first light of dawn from the office window.

(All times take account of summer daylight saving time!)
---------------------------------------------------

If we allow for a whole hour for the Order members to get to the DoM 
since Snape contacted them, then he did it in 12:45, still almost 5 
hrs after he first contacted HQ. This is a very rough estimation of 
course. It could be 3.5 hrs to 6 hrs, depending how much time you 
feel each event in the story took. I think that any timeline, 
however, must fit with:


----------------------------------
5:00 pm – (canon) Harry tells Ron and Hermione about his vision. 
Hermione says: "its five o'clock in the afternoon . . . the Ministry 
of Magic must be full of workers".

time unknown - Umbridge, Harry and Hermione go out for the forest. 
Harry hears the sounds of dinner in the great hall (canon) and the 
sun is "falling towards the tops of the trees" (canon). 

10:21 pm - (canon) Harry & Co take off "into the sunset".

3:00 am – (canon) DD sends Harry to his office by Portkey. Harry sees 
the first light of dawn from the office window.
----------------------------------


Neri 
(who did ask for "satisfactory nitpicking" several posts ago, and 
didn't know what he was asking for)