Interpretation (was Re: Dumbledore's "“peaceful expression”?

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 141936

 
> houyhnhnm:
> 
> The missing five hours is from the time TeamHarry took off on the
> thestrals to the time Harry was back in Dumbledore's office.  Sunset
> to the faint line of green in the eastern sky--9:00pm to 2:00am (or
> 10:00-3:00 if the WW observes Summertime).  There is nothing to tell
> when the Order members arrived at the MoM.
>

Neri:
I start counting from Umbridge taking Harry and Hermione to the
forest, since this was the first time, according to Dumbledore, that
Snape contacted 12GP to find out if Sirius was there (actually a bit
before that, when he walked out of Umbridge's office). We don't know
exactly when that was, but it was during dinnertime (Harry can hear
students talking and "the clatter of cutlery on plates" in the great
hall, see the beginning of chapter 33) and we also know it was well
before sunset (the sun was "falling towards the tops of the trees",
also beginning of chapter 33). It seems 7:00 to 8:00pm (not using DST)
would be reasonable time estimations. 

I end the counting with the Order members arriving at the MoM. Again
we don't know exactly when that happened, but if you read the
description in the book it seems impossible that the whole DEs vs
Order battle and the DD vs LV battle together took more than an hour,
perhaps an hour and a half at a stretch. If Harry saw the first light
of dawn at 2:00am then the Order arrived at the DoM around 1:00am or
12:30am the earliest (again not using DST).

Thus reasonable estimation for the time it took the Order to arrive at
the DoM would be 4.5 to 6 hours. I always said 5 hrs was merely one
possible estimation, but it was certainly several hours, and at least
half of that after dark.

Neri