Another Eavesdropper?

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 121849


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "inkling108" <inkling108 at y...>
wrote:
> 
> The thread about the eavesdropper who was ejected during the first 
> prophecy reminds me of another OotP passage where there seems to be 
> an eavesdropper.  In Chapter 27, The Centaur and the Sneak, when 
> Dumbledore makes his getaway by stunning all the ministry flunkies, 
> Harry hears:
> 
> "There was a shriek and a thud and someone cried "NO!"  Then the 
> sound of breaking glass, frantically scuffling footsteps, a groan 
> and -- silence."
> 
> later on,
> 
> "The notices (posted by Umbridge)...did not explain how every single 
> person within the castle seemed to know that Dumbledore had overcome 
> two Aurors, the High Inquisitor, the Minister of Magic and his 
> Junior Assistant to escape...It was surprising how accurate...their 
> information was.  Everyone seemed aware, for instance, that Harry 
> and Marietta were the only students to have witnessed the scene in 
> Dumbledore's office, and as Marietta was now in the hospital wing, 
> Harry found himself beseiged with requests..."
> 
> Marietta doesn't seem in a postion to inform anyone, and Harry 
> didn't do so, so unless McGonagall ran around spreading the word
> (which seems out of character) someone other than the people we know 
> were in the room heard everything and lost no time telling the whole 
> castle.  Who might that have been?
> 
> Inkling

The idea is not original to me, but it seems very likely that some of
the old Headmasters' portraits spread the word amongst the other
portraits in the castle, which in turn passed it on to the students.

That the portraits will gossip is illustrated in ch. 16, during the
meeting Hermione called in the Hog's Head to discuss forming the DA:

"And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?"
demanded Terry Boot.  "That's what one of the portraits on the wall
told me when I was in there last year..."

Just musing on the possibilities, I'm thinking that the Headmasters'
portraits can move freely about the castle, although I don't recall
that we have seen any do so.  On the other hand, security might demand
that the other portraits are prevented from entering the Headmaster's
office, unless perhaps the Headmaster himself has one of the resident
portraits summon them in.

Since the Headmasters' portraits are "honor-bound to give service to
the present Headmaster of Hogwarts" (ch. 22), one hopes they will curb
any tendency to gossip when necessary to keep the Headmaster's secrets.

Annemehr