Several replies and answers

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 138172

Fabian:
The secret is probably not a secret anymore. The thing is, if
Dumbledore can be the secret keeper of 12 GP, why couldn't James or
Lily, or even Harry for that matter be the secret keeper of Godric's
Hollow? It's not really consistent.

Valky:
I think it is. Dumbledore is not hiding himself in Grimmauld place, he
hides the Headquarters of the OOtP. He is the leader of the OOtP, a
separate entity from the Headquarters. James Lily and Harry were the
entities being hidden by the SK charm. If it was written down in a
note the note would say "James, Lily and Harry Potter are at - ##
abcdefg street Godrics Hollow" and I think that while you are the
secret you cannot be the secret keeper. Making it reasonably
consistent in its inner workings. 

Valky asked:
>Could a curious Reg skip the ring and go straight to the cave? How?

Eileen:
I have a suggestion. Unless the cave is a popular holiday spot, Voldie
couldn't rely on thirsty passing tourists to provide his
Horcrux-protecting Inferi supply. If its an of-the-way place, its
probably doubling as a parking lot for Inferi in between assignments -
where better as cold storage to conceal a whole army of them? But for
that kind of operation he would need a reliable parking attendant -
who better than that new kid, Reg, fresh out of school?


Valky now:
I didn't think of that, what an excellent suggestion. It doesn't even
matter to me if this answers the question of how Reggie might have
known of the cave, it could, it's wildy speculative without canon, but
it opens an avenue in this mystery that I hadn't explored and thats
always good in my book ;D 
I *would* like to know where the Inferi came from. I thought Voldie
might have pilfered the bodies from an old shipwreck in the rocks at
that bay, or as Eileen suggests he might have been gathering the horde
over time during his VWI. One answer to that might be speculating on
*what* exactly it was down in that cave that young Tom used to scare
Amy Benson and the other orphans. Was it Inferi? 

Oh and another thought, Inferi were used in VWI, could they have been
summoned from the cave itself, is that a way that a DE could know that
they were otherwise guarding something in the cave? That could be
useful in my DE!R.A.B. argument.
hmmm


Carol:
I just realized that Crouch!Moody is not the teacher Dumbledore hired,
which may be the way around that apparent exception to the rule.
Clearly the real Moody's fall (being placed in his own trunk as the
result of his paranoia backfiring) is to Voldemort's advantage, as is
having Crouch!Moody in his place. I suppose Voldemort didn't care that
Crouch!Moody would be revealed and destroyed by the DADA curse. He
intended simply to use him and discard him. His advantage occurred
through the curse falling on the real Alastor Moody. (Obviously the
explanation isn't perfect and some examples work better than others,
but I think the general pattern of the DADA curse working the will of
Voldemort is clear, and he cares no more about his supporters than his
enemies once they've worked his will.)

Valky now:
Oh yeah Carol, I think you're right. And this could definitely fit in
the framework of the DADA curse targets DD hypothesis. If, as I
assumed DD was applying his massive brainpower each year to hiring
someone that he deduced would minimise the effect of the curse on his
students while he dealt with the brunt of it, then hiring Moody fits
fairly well into that mould. Moody is strange enough and he could
almost certainly, just by being himself, make DD look bad, but maybe
the curse didn't agree with that and thought Moody would actually made
an excellent DADA professor, hence it takes Moody out of the equation
before he even gets there and replaces him with the agent itself.  Wow
that works for me. The Dark Mark stays central as the agent, and it
fits as a dark side of Moody, who's dark side is is absolute loathing
of the Death Eaters and Voldemort and anything associated with them -
the curse just doesn't think this dark side is to any advantage at all
in Moody, but it can bring this Dark Side to Hogwarts if DD gives it
the nod.  Yeah I like it Carol. Awesome job!

Valky earlier:
> So what then when it comes time for Harry's sixth year DADA teacher?
> Why would he [Dumbledore?] choose Snape <snip> ? If Dumbledore has
trusted Severus all these years, then why? Snape has always been
> available for the DADA job, which would imply, if we assume the
above, that Snape was always capable of removing DD from the
Headmasters role, someway. I have really talked my way into a corner
here, <snip>

Carol responds:
I'm not quite sure what you're saying here, but I think you're asking
why DD would offer Snape the position when he knew full well who had
placed the curse and the dangers it would pose to his most trusted and
most able helper, Severus Snape. (If that's not what you mean, please
repose the question and I'll try again.)

Valky now:
Ok I'll repose, 'cause that's not it. 

What I am saying is, why did Dumbledore trust Snape if Snape was
*always available* for the DADA job? 

Once I call the Hypothesis that the DADA curse is *on Dumbledore*
/True/, then anyone available to the job, is also a curse on
Dumbledore. Sevvie is always available hence he is, every year as far
as Voldies curse is concerned, bad news for Dumbledore. 

Thats where my theory lead me, and all it does is lead to yet another
dead end in the maze of Snape and DD. :(

Carol:
But maybe, just maybe, Voldemort has made a grave error in judgment and
the curse he placed on the DADA position so many years before will
rebound on him like the AK he cast on Harry at Godric's Hollow. "Oft
evil will evil mars." (Oops. Wrong book.)

Valky now:
Ooh I like where this is going Carol. I will definitely be thinking
about this one. :D


Gopal:
I know there is a lot of fan-fiction out there, but
some basic contradictions with the canon that I
perceived regarding 'refilling pensieve theory'.

1) At no point in canon has anyone had to *drink* a
memory. They just touch it to enter the memory.

Valky now:
Yes, that's true. So I don't think that anyone seriously postulating
memories inside the basin could make a good argument to DD simply
seeing someones memories based on pensieve canon. OTOH I believe that
there is a good argument for the notion that DD is *reliving* someones
memories while drinking the potion. The fact that we haven't seen
memories drunk by anyone, does not preclude that they *could be* drunk
by someone. Sluggy and DD keep memories inside bottles, so there is a
possibility that perhaps drinking them is the way to put them back
into your head. Sliding them into your ear canal, I think, might
actually be too fiddly to work. 


Gopal:
2) The liquid was not refilling itself, because after
13 goblets Harry/DD were able to retrieve the locket.
Only magically generated water was getting drained
out.

Valky now:
Agreed, but that again doesn't establish that the basin won't reset
itself if it is tricked up like the Triwizard cup was. 
I also put to you the argument that the protection is designed in such
a way that the drinker dies there on the island. If DD is right the LV
would keep the drinker alive long enough to extract information from
him then the information is extracted while the potion is being drunk,
not after. This information is stored somewhere. A Logical answer is
that the basin stores it like a pensieve.  



Gopal:
3) Voldemort acts alone, he is unlikely to have let
any DE to place the horcrux in the cave. Come to think
of it, he may be thinking that only 3 people (himself,
Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop) know about the cave at
all.

Valky now:
Look at the posts above, Eileen and I speculate on the cave a bit
there. the real answer is we have no clues about this, at least not
ones that we have found AFAIK.



Gopal:
4) DD recognizes LV's style of magic.

Valky now:
Yes, which is why I think he probably figured out what was in the
potion and how he could defend himself to his purposes while drinking it. 
In which case, it's not ridiculous to imagine that DD's reaction to
the potion was not something he couldn't protect himself against but
something he needed to *show* Harry. 


Gopal:
Some q's about the canon. Please let me know if you
have answers for the same.

a) In the cave, DD/ Harry could not get their hands
close to the liquid due to an invisible barrier. Why
did the goblet not face such resistance?

Valky now:
This is good canon to support that the potion did legilimency on the
drinker. If they got that far then they *must* drink, if Voldie
*wants* them to drink, it means he's getting something out of them
drinking. I reiterate DD tells Harry that Voldie would want
information at this point, so put two and two together and its easy.
Voldemort invites drinking because it gets him the information he needs. 
This trails us back to the basin being a pensieve, Voldie himself
probably wouldn't have to drink, if this was his pensieve then he
could just swirl his finger about and see what was in there like DD
does with his pensieve.

Sorry I can't really give substantial answers to your other questions
Gopal.

Phew.. This post took a while..


Valky
Remembering, Cedric Diggory.