What does Slughorn knows about Dumbledore's injury? WAS: Re: CHAPDISC: HBP4

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 143378



> Alla:
> 
>It seems like many people ( or maybe even 
> everybody who answered this question) think that Slughorn did not 
> know about Dumbledore's injury before they came. But to me the fact 
> that Slughorn first tells Dumbledore that he ought to think about 
> retirement and THEN narrator says " his pale gooseberry eyes had 
> found Dumbledore's injured hand" implies that Slughorn ALREADY knows 
> why DD may want to think about retirement. Curious, very very 
> curious indeed. :-)

Personally I read that as Slughorn noticing the injury here for the
first time-- "his pale gooseberry eyes HAD found Dumbledore's injured
hand".  Like, '"You've redecorated I see", said Joe;  his eyes HAD
gone to the new curtains.'  Or something like that.  I guess it could
be read as Slughorn looking for the hand, but I don't see any real
reason to read it that way.

> Oh, and  if you say that "Reactions  not what they were, I see" was 
> the excuse that DD and Snape cooked up, then would not it make sense 
> that since Slughorn knows about the excuse, he would already know 
> about the reason for the excuse, namely the injury itself?

I'm trying to remember my original impression, but I think I got a
sense that the type of injury would be recognizable to people who knew
about that sort of thing.  So if you knew it was caused by a
trap-style curse that jumped out at you, and you saw someone with an
injury from that curse, you would say, "Aha!  This guy wasn't quick
enough to counter the sudden-shrivel Curse."  Does that make any
sense? :)  In any case, here's an old gunfighter with a gunshot wound;
so "reactions not quick as they used to be" would be a standard sort
of thing to conclude.

-- Sydney