Kreacher's bandages

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 117669


Carol earlier:
> > "Has anyone noticed that Kreacher's hands are bandaged as if he
has just ironed them when Harry tries to contact Sirius Black using
Umbridge's fireplace (OoP Am. ed. 740)? Has he ironed them in advance
because he's in the process of betraying his master or because he has
just injured Buckbeak or . . . ?
<snip>

kmc responded: 
> Yes, his hands are bandaged and I think it's because he has just 
> committed an act of betrayal by taking an order from a DE and 
> injuring Buckbeak.  
> 
> BTW I started wondering about this entire series of events the last 
> time I read the book.  How does Kreacher know when to injure BB?  
> There must have been some system in place to let him know.  
> 
> Obviously, Voldemort knows when Harry has had the dream.  He can 
> alert the DEs and someone can let Kreacher know it's time to hurt 
> BB.  How do they let Kreacher know though?  Does he pop out of the 
> house every hour or two?  Seems unlikely.  There must be a more 
> efficient system.  Do you think they gave him a dark mark?  
> 
> Also, do you think Kreacher knew about the two way mirror and
perhaps took it so Harry couldn't contact Sirius that way?  Perhaps
the DEs 're-wired' it so they could use it with Kreacher.
> 
> If Kreacher took it early enough, that may explain why Sirius didn't 
> ask Harry why he didn't use the mirror when he wanted to talk about 
> James.  Perhaps the mirror had disappeared and Sirius thought he'd 
> misplaced it or that Kreacher destroyed it.  If he knew it was gone, 
> he may think Harry'd already tried that method and resorted to the 
> floo network when the mirror didn't work.  
> 
> JKR did say the mirror wouldn't have been as useful as we'd have 
> thought.  Maybe that's why.  Maybe not.  Thoughts?

Carol responds:

I don't think he's using a mirror. I think there are only two,
Sirius's and James's, which Harry now has, and that Sirius has his
(but is keeping the fact that he gave James's to Harry a scret from
Lupin--sorry--wrong thread.)

I also doubt very much that Kreacher has a Dark Mark. He's a House
Elf, a slave, a lesser being in the eyes of Voldemort. I a Muggleborn
can become a DE only in rare circumstances, as JKR said on her site
(paving the way, perhaps, for a certain toadlike woman to join the
forces of evil), certainly a nonhuman couldn't. Even the elder Blacks,
whom Kreacher worships, weren't DEs, so it's unlikely that their
servant would become one, even if he could. He's communicating somehow
with Narcissa (and directly or indirectly with Lucius), but how he's
doing it (after the escape and return at Christmastime) is completely
unclear.

So, as you say, how did he know when to injure Kreacher? And how did
Voldemort know that the vision he was planting in Harry's brain would
succeed that time? Was it because he knew that Harry had finally
gotten through the door--not in his dream but in the occlumency
session where he allowed the memory to continue despite Snape's
attempts to stop him?

Help. It isn't just Snape's part of the story that has holes in it.
There are more holes in the OoP plot than in Mrs. Black's genealogical
tapestry. How did anybody know when to do anything? (Okay, that last
question is rhetorical.)

Carol, who's leaving for California at 8 in the morning