Another Eavesdropper?

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 121852



Inkling, on what happened during Dumbledore's escape in "The Centaur
and the Sneak":
> But I still wonder about the breaking glass and frantically 
> scurrying feet.  When people are stunned, don't they just keel over -
> - CLUNK, end of story?
> 
> Inkling

Annemehr:
I never really tried to analyse exactly what happened here.  Let's
have the whole paragraph and take a look:

"A streak of silver light flashed around the room; there was a bang
like a gunshot and the floor trembled; a hand grabbed the scruff of
Harry's neck and forced him down on the floor as a second silver flash
went off; several of the portraits yelled, Fawkes screeched and a
cloud of dust filled the air.  Coughing in the dust, Harry saw a dark
figure fall to the ground with a crash in front of him; there was a
shriek and a thud and somebody cried, 'No!'; then there was the sound
of breaking glass, frantically scuffling footsteps, a groan...and
silence."

In the aftermath, we see that Fudge, Umbridge, Dawlish and Shacklebolt
are unconcious, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Harry are certainly
concious, and McGonagall had forced both Harry and Marietta "out of
harms way."  Dumbledore's desk has been overturned, there's dust
everywhere, and the office is a wreck.

But what exactly had Dumbledore done?  His spells were two silver
streaks of light, so they were not stunners; anyway, as far as we know
a stunned person *stays* stunned until someone uses Ennervate on him,
but these people woke up on their own. Further, we only see two
flashes of this silver light, yet four people went down and the office
is in shambles. How did that happen?  How did McGonagall keep Harry,
Marietta, and herself out of the way of two spells that took care of
everything and everyone else in the room?  The frantic footsteps also
make it sound as though someone had been chased down by a spell before
it caught them.

Here's another question: McGonagall had kept Marietta out of harm's
way, and then afterward McGonagall is described as "getting up and
dragging Harry and Marietta with her."  So, is Marietta still
conscious or not? I can't see McGonagall lifting an unconscious girl
one-handed.  Yet, just after this, Dumbledore talks freely about
having to hex Kingsley, Kingsley's Memory charm on Marietta, and how
they must keep it a secret that they have had a few minutes to
communicate before Dumbledore leaves -- not something I'd expect him
to say in front of Marietta, even if she is afraid to talk now.

In the MoM we saw Dumbledore's dueling skills go far beyond what we
might have imagined, so I don't have any trouble believing he could
have done what he did in this chapter.  But JKR has described the
event with a lot of detail, and I, like you, am now wondering exactly
what she's telling us -- is it just the action from Harry's POV, or
are there clues embedded?

Perhaps Marietta was meant to hear Dumbledore.  Her mother works in
the Ministry.  Maybe Dumbledore was planning for the day when the
Ministry acknowledged Voldemort's return, and wanted Marietta to be
able to talk about this to her mother.  Or maybe he wanted to let the
girl who was a sneak see a little bit more of the stakes involved in
what she hadden gotten into.  We might well be seeing her in the next
book.

Annemehr