missing 24 hours

[luna_loco]

No: HPFGUIDX 174841

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Margaret Shannon
<maggyshannon at ...> wrote:
>
> One mystery DH didn't clear up for me is the question of what  
> happened between the deaths of Lily and James and Harry's arrival at  
> the Dursley house not quite 24 hours later.  Did I miss something?   
> Thanks, Maggy
>

No new information directly applicable to the missing 24 hours was
provided, but there was additional background provided that allow for
better guesses about the time to be made.  Pieces of information that
were not previously available are that the attack occurred early
enough in the evening for children still to be out on the street and
that the Potters had neighbors they were friendly with (as opposed to
Muggle neighbors that would have been generally unaware of the
Potters).  Theories that Voldemort was accompanied by Wormtail or that
Lilly performed some special charm also appear to be incorrect.

All this suggests that when the attack occurred and the Potter's house
had a section collapse, Bathilda Bagshot or some other neighbor would
have likely heard the disturbance and been able to send a message to
either Dumbledore, the Ministry, or both.  From this point news of the
event spread fast enough for witches and wizards across the country to
have learned of the event before Vernon Dursley's morning commute to
work.  In the mean time, while Hagrid was collecting Harry, Dumbledore
was undoubtedly spending time at the Ministry taking care of the legal
details involved with moving Harry to the Dursleys.

This reasoning still leaves one big question unanswered: How did
Dumbledore know that Lily sacrificed her life for Harry?  Unless one
of the devices Dumbledore kept in his office was able to provide the
needed information, the answer to this question is still unknown.

Allen