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[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 158270

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"jelly92784" <jelly92784 at ...> wrote:
>
> This is a really interesting question to think about.  I've noticed a 
> few people talking about the way that Jo phrased the question, 
> focusing on the "at the time" part.  I just wanted to point out the 
> one thing we do know about the cloak, which is that Dumbledore told 
> Harry, "Your Dad left it in my possession before he died and it is 
> time it was returned to you" (or something along those lines, don't 
> have my book for the exact quote) in the note he gave him along with 
> the cloak.  This points to James voluntarily leaving the cloak with 
> Dumbledore for some reason, probably not being aware of the fact that 
> he was going to die soon and would never get it back.  So the 
question 
> could be why did James give the cloak to Dumbledore, or possibly, why 
> did Dumbledore ask James for the cloak?
>

Julie:
This is interesting. I'm actually surprised JKR would give this
much away, unless it's another clue like "why didn't Voldemort die?"
where she figures we won't be able to guess the full answer. 

The only reason I can come up with so far for DD to want 
the cloak is so someone could infiltrate *behind* enemy lines.
(Yet why not just use Moody's cloak and let James keep his
in case it is useful in hiding from Voldemort?) Maybe though
someone was being sent to spy on Voldemort in hopes of 
discovering his plan of attack against the Potters, or of
discovering any potential betrayer of the Potters who might
be passing info to Voldemort. 

On first thought this would seem to exclude Snape as he is
already a spy within Voldemort's camp, and one who is able
to spy right out in the open. Yet evidence suggests DEs are
very much on a "need to know" basis with Voldemort, who 
seems to inform only those very directly involved about any
given plan. So if Snape was not in on the plan to find and
kill the Potters he would likely have been left out of the
loop. To get any pertinent information he'd have to spy
unnoticed, under an invisibility cloak, for instance. And
he might even be the only one who could do it, as he is a
DE so can pass through any protective barriers that would
stop those without the DE mark.

BTW, if Snape showed up at Godric's Hollow right after the
fact (having followed Voldemort or figured out the location
after the secret-keeper charm was broken, or whatever), we
don't know whether he stayed or not. He might have placed
a protective charm on Harry and then departed before anyone 
could spot him, or he might have remained under the cloak
watching over Harry until Hagrid arrived (and still no one
could spot him). So no reason to assume he deserted baby!Harry
in his time of need ;-)

Julie