7 reasons why (was Re: Snape finding Lily's Letter

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 174303


> 
> CathyD:
> Oh, you have a different book than I have.Snape never even looked 
at the letter in the Canadian edition, snip

Potioncat:
Yeah, I do. Mine has pictures. ;-)  I put in a disclaimer that only 
the parts between brackets are firm canon. The rest was filler---lots 
of filler. And all of it is 'tongue in cheek.'

CathyD:
 As I have said before, there is no way it could come to be in that 
house as Sirius left the house when he was 16, to return when he was 
35-36 once it was made HQ of the OotP. 

Potioncat:
I've tried to get back to the beginning of this thread, but the 
server is too busy. So I'll just jump in. And another disclaimer, 
I've only read the book once. 

I actually agree with you. Snape's finding the letter makes no sense 
at all for these reasons:

1. If he got into the house before Moody set the curses, why did no 
one notice the house had been ransacked?

2. If he came after Moody died, how did he get past the curses. (Oh 
never mind. Fred and George cooked up worse things in the name of 
jokes.) And anyway, the curses should have faded when Moody died.

3. What was Snape looking for? How did he know a letter from Lily 
would be there? It would make sense if he was looking for something 
else and came across it, but if that's the case, what was he looking 
for? When I first read the earlier chapter, I thought someone had 
come looking for the locket. But we find out later that LV doesn't 
yet know it's missing.

4. It makes no sense for the letter to be forgotten in Sirius's 
childhood bedroom. In fact, I don't think it makes sense for the 
bedroom to still look as it did. I would think that Mrs. Black would 
have blasted all reminders of Sirius out of the house. (If Sirius was 
using that bedroom as an adult he really was emotionally stunted. 
Right down there with Severus.)

5. If anyone ever asks JKR, I'm sure she'll say he had his old stuff 
sent over. She'll either say he had it sent after he returned to 
12GP, or she'll say the MoM sent it when  he went to Azkaban. But 
first she'll have to recall that he ever had a different place. I'm 
sure she's forgotten. 

6. As for the photo: It's been awhile since I had a one-year-old 
around the house. Does anyone really think a baby could sit a broom 
by his first birthday? (Does anyone remember the discussion about 
Dudley and Harry's developmental stages in SS/PS)

7. And again, how did Snape know there would be a letter/photo in the 
house?

So my earlier post was my fairly reasonable explanation, sticking as 
close to canon as I could.