THEORY:Re: Snape and Neville

[Cathy Drolet]

No: HPFGUIDX 112071

chinaski
"I have been lurking here for quite some time and I feel compelled to post...
>From the sporadic posts that I read, I've noticed a general consensus that 
Snape was the one who overheard the prophecy in the Hog's Head, but, since first reading of OOTP, I assumed it was Mundungus who was the eavesdropper, and I don't think I've ever seen him mentioned as a candidate."

DuffyPoo:
I don't think it was either one of them, Snape or Mundungus.  GoF indicates Mundungus is a part of "the old crowd," although he is not named by Mad-Eye as being in the picture of the original Order, but neither was Arabella Figg who is also listed as part of "the old crowd."  I think it was a DE or a Dark Wizard, at the least, who was the eavesdropper.  A DE-wanna-be.


chinaski said:
"Sirius told the trio that Dung was banned twenty years before, that's why 
he was disguised when the trio was at the Hog's Head. This is probably not 
the first time in twenty years that Dung has disguised himself and lurked. 
DD says the eavesdropper was "detected and... thrown from the building" (Am. 
version OotP, 843)- I assumed he was thrown out because he wasn't supposed 
to be there, not because he was eavesdropping."

DuffyPoo:  
I assumed that the eavesdropper - not Mundungus, but whoever it was - was thrown out for eavesdropping.  I guess I just take it at face value when DD says, "My -- our -- one stroke of good fortune was that the *eavesdropper* was detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from the building."  DD and Trelawney were, after all, in a "room above the bar at the Hog's Head inn" not in the bar directly.  The person was intentionally listening at the door.  Twenty years is too long for the ban to be connected to the eavesdropping incident, as you said, but why would Mundungus have need to go back there?  Crook business is everywhere, not just in Hogsmeade.  There are lots of other pubs around, wizard and otherwise, I'd imagine, he has no need to be in this one again until they need him to follow/protect HP.  Even if he had been there on crook business, disguised to hide from the barman, why would he be following DD upstairs, when his crook business would most likely be going on downstairs in the pub? 


chinaski said:
"We also know that DD helped Dung out of a tight spot and Dung is loyal to 
him. Dung's questionable activities could have tangled him up with LV and 
the DE's and he could have used the prophecy information to appease them, 
and DD, knowing him to be a prophecy witness could have intervened and protected him. We've seen other instances of DD intervening and protecting people and receiving loyality in return. DD does not say the eavesdropper 
was a DE, nor does he indicate that he expected people to spy on him that night."

DuffyPoo:
If Mundungus is loyal to DD why would he be eavesdropping on a private conversation?  While his 'questionable activities' (what a nice way to put that!) may have indeed tangled him up with LV, I can't see him passing on this kind of info if he had heard it...not if he is loyal to DD.  If the 'tight spot' situation came after the info was passed to LV, would DD be likely to help out the person who eavesdropped and ran to LV?  He does believe in second chances, but would he in this instance, if it was Mundungus?  I've always believed Mundungus was on the side of good, while I believe the eavesdropper was on LV's side, a DE or other Dark Wizard (Regulus Black, for instance?).  While DD never specifically says the eavesdropper was a DE, he does say  "Consequently, he could not warn *his master* that to attack you would be ...."  

I think Mundungus was banned from the Hog's Head after he informed the authorities about Aberforth "performing inappropriate charms on a goat."  The tight spot DD saved him from was Aberforth performing inappropriate charms on Mundungus! ;-)

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