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

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 142191


> Pippin:
> The general idea is that night is falling, and that's why 
Buckbeak's execution is at sunset in 
> PoA, but in OOP there had to be light enough when Harry and 
Hermione took Umbridge 
> into the forest that Ron et al could have seen which path they 
took. "We saw you heading 
> into the forest out of the window and followed."
>

Neri:
Not bad. Now all that is left is to explain the thematic value of 
dinner, and why it matches the difference in the sun's angle in both 
books.
  
> Pippin:
> Er, then how did Dumbledore know that Snape had contacted the Order 
at all? Snape 
> hasn't had a chance to report but the Order members at the Ministry 
have. Or is this 
> another hypothetical conversation between Snape and Dumbledore by 
means of the 
> hypothetical instant communications device that would cause all 
sorts of plot holes if it 
> existed? <g> (The thing needs an acronym. But in the glory days of 
TBAY, it would have 
> earned its inventor a yellow flag for being  non-canonical magic.)
> 

Neri:
A Yellow Flag Violation is "attempting to resolve a FLINT or other 
mystery in a past book by inventing a spell, charm, potion, magical 
device, or character that would have been described or used in that 
book had such a spell, charm, potion, magical device, or character 
existed."
http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/faq/hypotheticalley.html#flag

I'm not inventing anything. I'm looking for the most likely 
explanation for Dumbledore knowing the full details of Snape's 
involvement in his talk with Harry. Canon doesn't tell us how 
Dumbledore knew, yet he must have been told by somebody after the 
battle. Who was that somebody? 

In the beginning of Ch. 37, when Dumbledore joins Harry in his 
office, he doesn't get there by portkey, the way he sent Harry. 
Instead, he appears in his *fireplace*. This means he could well be 
arriving from somewhere inside the castle itself. From Snape's 
office, for example, where he perhaps stopped by to find out Snape's 
version of the events. 

We have seen once teachers using the fires to move between their 
offices. This was in PoA, and it was Snape calling Lupin to his 
office. We have also seen *once* people arriving to Hogwarts from 
outside by fire – in HBP, Harry and the Weasleys arriving after 
Christmas through McGonagall's fire. This gives equal canon support 
to Dumbledore arriving to his office straight from the Ministry or 
from another room in the castle. 

Even if Dumbledore does arrive to his office straight from one of the 
fires in the Ministry, it would still suggest he now trusts them 
again, after Umbridge was officially removed by Fudge. Which would 
mean a short Ministry-Hogwarts talk with Snape through the fire is 
quite possible.

When talking with Harry, Dumbledore sounds very sure about what had 
happened from Snape's point of view. He seems to grasp exactly what 
was the situation in Umbridge's office without Harry telling him. He 
talks confidently about Snape's realizations, worries, intentions and 
deductions. If I understand your explanation correctly, you think he 
got all that information from questioning the battle-fatigued Lupin 
and Shaklebolt, who in turn got it from Snape by patronus. Now, I 
won't threat you with a yellow flag for inventing a talk that was 
never reported in canon <g>, but it *would* take Dumbledore the same 
amount of time to get this information directly from Snape. These two 
explanations are equally hypothetical and equally probable, and canon 
doesn't favor one over the other. 

And this was exactly my original point. I'm not saying it really 
happened the way I suggested. I'm just saying it's a feasible 
possibility. It's made feasible because JKR has Dumbledore say that 
in the first time Snape attempted to contact *Sirius*, not "the 
Order", and that he found *Sirius* was at 12GP, with no other Order 
member mentioned. And Sirius is now conveniently dead. The 
possibility is left open that Snape never contacted the Order the 
first time around, but told Dumbledore that he did after hearing from 
him that Sirius was killed.

> Pippin:
> Anyway, Snape would have to know that Sirius was going to be killed 
and be certain that 
> he hadn't talked to any other order members before he died.
> 

Neri:
I'm not saying Snape planned it that way from the beginning. Whatever 
really happened that night, it almost certainly didn't happen the way 
any of the sides originally planned it. Everybody was improvising 
and/or temporarily saved by unforeseen occurrences. Snape may have 
been too.

Neri