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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 141953

Neri wrote:
 <snip> here we only have one canonical and well-established timeline,
and the inconsistency is only with Dumbledore's very vague and
hole-riddled explanations that everybody acted "at once". Only if
everybody acted at once, how come Harry is having a public collapse,
breaks into Umbridge's office, reports a mind attack by Voldemort,
taken at wand point to the Forbidden Forest, closely saved from a herd
of rampaging centaurs by a rampaging giant, takes a flight all the way
from Scotland to London on invisible horses, enters a breached and
deserted Ministry, tours the wonders of the Department of Mystery and
has a chat with a bunch of Death Eaters, and he still beats the Order
to the mark? Calling this a "math-based inconsistency" is a bit of an
understatement. <snip> 
> What I find interesting here is that JKR invested considerable
effort in Snape's controversial involvement in the OotP climax. She
could have easily avoided having Umbridge invite him to her office at
all, therefore taking any responsibility from of his shoulders and 
supplying a very satisfying explanation why it took the Order several
hours to respond. Yet JKR insisted on shoving him into the middle of 
this plot, telling us he understood Harry was under a mind attack by 
Voldemort, and then she had Dumbledore covering up for him in a 
rather unsatisfying manner, all this while she knew of her plans for
Snape in HBP. It was very bad plotting by her if she didn't consider 
the elementary timeline of Snape's involvement.

Carol responds:
As you may know if you've ever attempted to write fiction, it's very
difficult to make the actions of two sets of characters match up
within the same time frame. In this case, we don't see Snape's
actions, either, and we can only guess what some of them are.

With regard to Snape, we have the word of two characters on opposite
ends of the evil spectrum (Dumbledore and Bellatrix) that the Order
arrived fairly soon after the DEs attacked Harry and his friends. (We
can estimate the time frame of the battle sequence for ourselves at
perhaps half an hour.) In any case, if DD believed that Snape had
deliberately delayed or behaved inappropriately, he would not have the
deep and often-stated trust in him that we see in HBP.

Also, you can't count Harry breaking into Umbridge's office as part of
the timeline. That occurs before he communicates to Snape what he
thinks is happening. Snape leaves Umbridge's office and immediately
contacts Sirius--which also constitutes contacting the Order since at
least five other members are present at GP. He presumably tells them
what has happened and establishes that Black is not in danger.

He can't go back to Harry with this information. He's been kicked out
of her office. But somehow he finds out that Harry has gone to the
Forbidden Forest (presumably he also knows about Hermione and
Umbridge). His source of information can't be Neville and company, as
they'd have mentioned this to Harry. I'm assuming that he set Filch to
watch the doors to see if Harry and his friends ran out of them. Filch
reporting that Umbridge was out of the building would leave Snape free
to return to Umbridge's office, sort out the various hexes placed on
the Slytherins, and get the story of what had happened. At this point
he apparently reports to Dumbledore, who knows that Snape intended to
go into the forest to search for them. Then, we must assume, he goes
into the forest and does not find them. He knows that Harry can't
apparate and that he was not carrying a broom when he ran out with
Umbridge. Nevertheless, he somehow puts two and two together as only
snape can and determines that Harry and friends have actually gone to
the MoM. He doesn't know they've done so or how long it will take to
get there. He then returns to his office (or Umbridge's to use the
fireplace so he can talk with them directly). He tells them what he
knows or has deduced and tells Black to remain behind because
Dumbledore is coming--which means that he has also contacted
Dumbledore before contacting the Order.

Unless you can explain to me how Snape knew that Harry had gone into
the forest without having someone report the information to him (and
obtaining more details from his own students, whom he was bound by his
duty as a teacher and their HoH to unhex) and how DD could know to go
to the Order without Snape's having contacted him (probably twice), I
see no other explanation for Snape's side of the action. And Snape's
actions would have taken about as long as those of Harry and
friends--or at least we can accept that JKR believes they would in a
work of fiction. There is no need to posit a deliberate delay when the
outcome requires him to have performed something like the actions I
have outlined.

If you want to place Snape's and Harry's actions on a realistic
timescale, perhaps Harry's would have taken a longer time--three or
four hours as compared to two (events occurring after the Order's
arrival can't count as part of the five hours). As for me, I'm willing
to suspend any disbelief I might have regarding the time frame and
take Dumbledore's (and Bellatrix's) word for the reasonably quick
appearance of the Order. Or, I should say, JKR's implied word.

Carol, who will regard the "missing five hours" as canonical only when
JKR herself acknowledges its existence