Snape and Neri's old theory. WAS: Re: Missing Horcrux = Ravenclaw's

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 137326


> Alla:
> 
> No, it is far from clear, IMO, in fact what is interesting as Neri 
> showed that Snape waited several hours for some reason before 
> notifying the Order.

Pippin:
Neri and I had some lovely discussions about that theory, and
I couldn't shake his belief that the Order's method of 
communication must be instantaneous.

But I can now.

It's now canon that the Patronus is the Order's method
of communication. Snape had to send a patronus all the way
to London, and wait for the answer, before he could determine
that Sirius had never left GP. 

They don't travel at the speed of light.

We know this because Tonks and Harry have a very long
walk from Hogsmeade to the gates of the castle, and when
they get there, they see Snape just leaving the doors. 

In OOP, Snape had to wait for the answer from HQ, and 
meanwhile as far as he knew, Harry was out in the forest 
somewhere, not trying to get to Sirius.  Then, when Harry 
didn't come back, he guessed where Harry must have
gone, and sent  another message, which had to travel
just as far. 

Maybe Snape should have realized sooner that Harry
would try to get to Sirius, but apparently none of the other
Order members did either. Hindsight is always 20/20.

But come to think of it, you know, we've never seen a wizard
cast more than one patronus at a time. Is it even possible?
It may be that  Snape *couldn't* cast another one until he 
was sure his message had been received and the first
one was no longer needed.

Pippin