How did Umbridge know?

[ankashai]

No: HPFGUIDX 112935

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, theotokos ..> wrote:

> In Ch. 22 "St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries" 
<snip>      "It is Fawkes's warning," said Dumbledore, catching the 
feather as it fell.  "She must know you're out of your 
beds....Minerva, go and head her off--tell her any story--"
>  
> I think it is agreed who the "she" is but how did she know?  It is 
the middle of the night for goodness sakes!  Does she somehow have 
the portraits watched or watching?


    Well now that you mention it, that first 'she' could be any 
number of people-- Mrs. Norris springs to mind, or even the Fat Lady 
( is there an evil Fat Lady ship yet? I'm sure I can find a way to 
prove it...! ), but both seem highly unlikely, and don't really go 
with the next line of the quote. I don't think McGonagall is going to 
spin tales for a cat.

  Assuming that the 'she' Dumbledore is referring to is Umbridge, I 
can easily see her setting up some sort of magical alarm system to 
alert her when students exit their dorms. Her monitoring of the 
Hogwarts fires seem proof to this ( chapter 17, the grasping hand 
that appears in the fireplace during a chat between Sirius and 
Harry ), and unless I'm mistaken Harry and Sirius were talking some 
time late at night. Hardly the hour you'd expect Umbridge to be 
darting around.

   Likewise, the notorious Mrs. Norris or Filch could be the 
informant (though one would think they'd get some sleep once in a 
while! The teachers at Hogwarts seem to have nothing better to do in 
the middle of the night but roam the castle, keeping on the 
lookout.  ); one of the paintings could have been asked to keep an 
eye on things, and wake Umbridge in the event of a disturbance; even 
one of the ghosts could have chosen to tell her, though that seems 
rather unlikely. 

  Or maybe it wasn't Harry that Umbridge was watching, but rather 
McGonagall. After all, if I was her I'd certainly be interested in 
the activities of the deputy headmistress, even if she wasn't one of 
Dumbledore's strongest supporters.

          -Hawke

P.S.  Oh yes, this was supposed to be an introduction post as well! 
Hi, I'm Hawke, the slightly psychotically rambunctious rambler who 
just recently discovered the joys of overanalyzing Harry Potter 
during Hurricane Frances. Mind you, my copy of book five is packed 
*somewhere* ( we just moved ), and my copies of books 1-3 are in 
French ( even though my French is rather rusty. I got bored at a 
Paris train station ), so most of my references are some weird mix of 
memory, the HP Lexicon, and chapter summaries online. And no, I'm not 
drunk just high on sugar and chinese food. It's been a long day. =D