Dumbledore and the Buckbeak execution

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 131894

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Inge" <Elvishooked at h...> wrote:
> ...edited...
> 
> Book 3 (POA Bloomsbury Paperback p. 288 "Hermione's Secret"):
> 
> Dumbledore: "......If all goes well, you will be able to save more 
> than  one innocent life tonight........"
> 
> My question ... why did he say that? Dumbledore was present at 
> Hagrid's when the execution ...and he knew already that Buckbeak 
> had left the scene and was safe .... But ..., he must also have known
> the first time around that H & H were timeturning ...
> How on earth did he know that?
> 
> Inge

bboyminn:

Not necessarily, Dumbledore was there are Hagrid's Hut, MacNair looked
out the window and saw Buckbeak, they read some documents and signed
some papers, and when they went outside, Buckbeak was gone. It doesn't
really matter how or why his is gone, only that he escaped. At this
point Dumbledore suggest to MacNair that he 'search the skies',
thereby implying that Buckbeak was unlikely to linger on the ground,
especially if someone has assisted in Buckbeaks escape. However, I
think it is very reasonable for Dumbledore to think that Buckbeak
would linger on the school grounds rather than fly away immediately.
So, the point is, that I think Dumbledore reasonably concluded that
while Buckbeak was gone, he was not truly gone; he still linger at
Hogwarts, which meant the was available to be used in Sirius's escape. 

Further, just like Lupin, Dumbledore may have surmised that Harry,
Ron, and Hermione would come down to Hagrids, and may even have
detected the running away under the invisibility cloak. From that, he
could conclude that the Trio may have indeed already been involved in
Buckbeaks escape, but he doesn't necessarily know that they help using
the Time Turner.

So, in the hospital ward, Dumbledore simply inserts a little reminder
that they can save two 'people'. If they understand that the first
'person' they need to save is Buckbeak, then it becomes clear that
Buckbeak can be used to save Sirius.

Finally, 'Plausible Deniability', something Dumbledore needs if this
whole wacky scheme goes wrong. Dumbledore can't flat out say, use
Buckbeak to save Sirius, because that makes him a co-conspirator and
accessory to the crime. If he couches his statements in vague
generalizations, then it all comes back to bite him on the butt, he
can, with some degree of honesty, deny that he told the Trio anything. 

So, while it's not that hard to wonder how Dumbledore magically knows
what he knows, I think in many many cases, he doesn't really know
things in the detail and to the extent our imaginations have lead us
to believe.

Just a thought.

Steve/bboyminn