Saving Ginny (was Re: Lockhart's incompetence)

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 143242


> 
> Geoff:
> My concern is, that although there is a certain amount of smug 
> satisfaction in watching Lockhart backpedalling, what were the staff 
> actually proposing to /do/ about Ginny once they'd got him out of 
> the way?
> 
> It seems fairly obvious that they <snip> immediately turned their 
> minds to less urgent matters such as keeping the students secure <snip>


Valky:
Not really that obvious Geoff. When Harry returns with Fawkes, Ginny,
Ron and Lockhart from the Chamber he goes immediately to MacGonagalls
office once. The beginning of Chapter 18 shows us that inside McG's
office was Molly and Dumbledore waiting for them. My assessment of
that situation is that MacGonagall's next move toward saving Ginny was
to get *someone* (anyone) in contact with Dumbledore, who knew more
than she did about the situation.

I would guess that from there Dumbledore had sent for all the
information he could think to gather on the matter. I would guess he
questioned Molly to see if he could discover where Ginny might have
come in contact with something of Voldemort's, and he probably sent
others to look for Harry. I think these are safe enough guesses now
since Dumbledore has explained more about what he knew at this time to
Harry in HBP. 

I am wondering what Dumbledore thought when Harry couldn't be found,
though. I suppose he trusted in Harry's abilities more than anything
else, since he had no other recourse but to slowly probe information
from Mrs Weasley and possibly eventually discover that Lucius was
involved and summon him to Hogwarts. Come to think of it maybe that is
why Lucius turned up. <g>

FWIW, I would say that the teachers had as good a plan as they could
come up with, given the circumstances. The Chamber could only be found
by a person with the ability to speak Parseltongue. Possibly Snape
knew something of this nature but whether he would have had the
self-confidence to allow every one else to know Harry could help, well
it's unlikely. What's more likely is that he would go looking for
Harry alone. 

Just my humble opinion.

Valky