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

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 141975

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.

houyhnhnm:

There is no way to determine the sun's altitude from the fact that the
sun appeared to be "falling towards the tops of the trees" from the
high vantage point of the castle steps. From the top of the castle
steps, the tops of the trees could appear to barely reach above the
horizon.

Neri:
 
> 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,

houyhnhnm:

There are six action sequences from the time Harry and Hermione leave
the castle with Umbridge to the time Harry grabs the portkey back to
Hogwarts.
1.  The walk into the forest, encounter with the centaurs, arrival of
Grawp, and appearance of the thestrals.
2.  The flight to London.
3.  The search for the Hall of Prophecy.
5.  TeamHarry's battle with the Death Eaters.
6.  The Order's battle with the Death Eater's.

The first is the only one for which there is certain evidence.  It
lasted from the time the school was eating the evening meal to sunset.
 Could be one-two hours; we don't know when they eat dinner.  But from
the description of what happened, it doesn't sound like it took that
long.  That's why I distrust the description of the action as a guage
of the amount of time passing in the other sequences.

The flight on the thestrals seems like it would take a long time, yet
between "On they flew through the gathering darkness;..." and a
paragraph later, "Harry's head was pointing downward.", there is only
"He had lost all sense of how far they come; ..." to give any sense of
how much time was passing.

The dinnertime to sunset to beginning of civil twilight does give 5-6
hours or more.  But the action that is supposed to take place doesn't
seem to add up to that amount of time, which is why I think it is just
Rowling being inexact with figures again, and, therefore, not
significant.