Some Sybil questions (or questions on the Sybil...)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 124911


 
> Hickengruendler:
> 
> I agree with Ffred on that point. The eavesdropper was caught, 
after 
> all. If it were Peter, then Dumbledore and the Potters would have 
> known it and never made him secret-keeper.  
> 
>

Potioncat:
Well, he was caught, but then again, he wasn't..

chp 37 OoP, DD speaking
"...I had not dreamed...I would hear anything worth overhearing. 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."

I don't think I did a very good job of making my point in my earlier 
post, so I'll try again.  Notice, JKR does not tell us who the 
eavesdropper is, although I assume DD knows. Nor does she tell us if 
the person was thrown out for eavesdropping or for some other reason.

It sounds at first read, as if someone saw a person easvesdropping 
and threw him out for eavesdropping. But, if the offense was 
eavesdropping, wouldn't he have been held until DD could talk to him? 
We've been told, DD didn't expect to hear anything important, so it 
doesn't seem he told anyone to watch out for eavesdroppers.

It was a stroke of good fortune, it was luck, it was a coincidence. 
No, I think a person (either as a person or as an animal) was 
listening, but appeared to be doing something else. I think he was 
seen, and tossed out. He was tossed out because the owner didn't want 
him around. Maybe he was a known werewolf or a part vampire, or 
smelled of tobacco, or appeared as a rodent or a stray dog. Who knows?

It also isn't clear when DD learned about an eavesdropper. He may not 
have known until later, when word got back to him that LV knew about 
a prophecy. And he may not have known until after GH who the 
eavesdropper was. 

So, to review, I don't think Eavesdropper was seen, tossed out, and 
the incident immediately reported to DD. "Well, sir, I tossed him 
out just when the lady got to the part about marking the child..." 
And if it was one of the Marauders, I don't think DD knew it until it 
was too late.
Potioncat