timing of DEs' arrival at DoM (was: Snape and Occlumency)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 121928


Dungrollin wrote:
> > > Chapter thirty-five: Beyond the Veil "Black shapes were emerging
out of thin air all around them, blocking their way left and right; <snip>
> > > 
> > > An interesting question is what was happening there. There's no
cracking noise reminiscent of apparation, but similarly you'd expect
both Harry and the narrator to recognise invisibility cloaks, ...
> 
> 
Becky responded:
> There is of course the possibility that they had been hiding in wait
in the MoM using a spell similar to the one used on Harry when flying
to the OOTP headquaters. It made him blend in with his background
while in effect and then re-appear when it was removed.


Carol notes:
Since they were all in black (robes, cloaks, hoods, and masks), they
would have blended into the shadows anyway and no such spell would
have been needed. IIRC, the place was dimly lit, possibly only by the
Prophecy orbs themselves. Harry and friends may have had their backs
turned to them as well. (They emerged from left and right but they
could have come from behind along both sides of the shelves while
Harry and his friends were all focusing their attention on the
Prophecy orb.) Maybe Lucius was watching to see when Harry would pick
up the orb and gave the DEs the signal to move forward and surround them.

One tiny thing about that scene bothers me. The narrator says early on
that Harry could see their eyes through slits in their hoods, which
doesn't make much sense. Hoods go over the head and around the face,
not over it. (Even Tolkien's Black Riders merely have huge hoods that
would throw their faces into shadow if they had visible faces.) Later,
though, JKR has at least three of them (Dolohov, MacNair, and
Bellatrix) remove their masks, so clearly it's the mask, not the hood,
that has slits for the eyes. A tiny detail, but as an editor, I'd have
pointed it out and asked JKR to fix it or fixed it myself and queried
it with "Edit okay?".

Carol