Riddle solved - congrats Renee!

[tinglinger]

No: HPFGUIDX 129709

tinglinger
=============
If no one else was at Godric's Hollow to witness the alleged
events that occurred there, then JKR violated the Omnipotent
Observer rule of writing (i.e. a story must be verifiable in
order to have validity.) 
SO........... what does all this tell me ?
SOMEONE ELSE was at Godric's Hollow at the time Harry's
parents were murdered.
As for who .... 

bboyminn:
============ 
<snip>
But I think their is a slight flaw in the reasoning in your
thougths on the riddle and on the 'Omnipotent Observer'.
First, isn't it the  /omniscient/ observer; or the 'third 
person omniscient narrator'.
'Omnipotent' means all-powerful; 'omniscient' mean all-knowing. 

tinglinger -- I agree! Mea culpa should have said
Omniscient Observer as you suggested.

bboyminn
==============
In the Riddle, there is one person who knows the entire story,
and that person is the dead man. The riddle could be related to
us by the all-knowing ethereal spirit of the dead man; as a man,
he knows the dream, and as a ghost, he know the events outside
himself. Therefore, he is able to relate the complete event to
us. In this sense, the ghost of the man is quite capable of
being the omniscient narrator.

tinglinger
=============
I would agree with your argument if the Riddle was a ghost story.
There was no indication from the telling that it was, so it might
be a bit of a reach to make that assumption. Btw, I believe that
this Riddle originally appeared in the Reader's Digest many many
years ago. 


bboyminn
===========
As far as the events at Godric's Hollow, have you ever watched
the TV show 'C.S.I.' (Crime Scene Investigation). It's their
job to know what happened during a crime even when there are
no witnesses to recount the events. The clues and evidence at
the scene can lead them to very sound and reasonable
conclusions.
The question of how anyone could know what happened at Godrics
Hollow come up before, I think at bare minimum, Dumbledore and
the Order examined the crime scene and were able to reach
certain logical, though perhaps not absolutely provable,
conclusion. From the clues, they were able to reconstruct a
reasonable account of the events. 
Of course, from the many discussions of this, the idea that
someone else was there has grown stronger and stronger. I
would say that it has grown to the point where it is generally
accepted. The most likely candidate so far is Peter. However,
if Peter was there, he would not likely have recounted the
events to Dumbledore. There is some chance that, directly or
indirectly, Peter may have recounted the events to Snape who
in turn informed Dumbledore. 

tinglinger
============
Dumbledore and the Order could have figured out what happened
but, unless there was a pensieve recording Lily's words when
she made her sacrifice, how do we know what she did or
whether Voldemort indeed said "You don't have to die!"
I assume that CSI examines "physical" evidence that is
uncovered at the scene.

bboyminn
===========
So, again, I'm not trying to be a spoil-sport. The answer to
the riddle is the answer to the riddle. It's easy, after the
fact, to come up with rationalized alternative scenarios. 
As a side note, I would like to point out that there is a
huge difference between 'rational' and 'rationalize'. Don't
know if it's worth anything, but there it is. 

tinglinger
==============
I always look forward to the comments of any poster who
presents a point of view rather than a guess. We can always
agree or disagree on the interpretation of events. That's
 what makes these groups interesting and fun!

tinglinger
================
who always likes a good discussion and glad that this one is
moving along quite nicely...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/potterplots
for more theories and friendly discussions