What did Snape know, and When did he know it?

montavilla47 montavilla47 at yahoo.com
Mon May 28 16:46:54 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 169393

> Dana:
> I have been thinking about this and I know people already stated that 
> Karkaroff said LV kept the identity of his DEs hidden but there is 
> one problem I still have with this. And that is the Graveyard scene 
> in GoF. The DEs come in and they take a specific place in the circle, 
> they form around LV, leaving gaps that should contain DEs that are 
> missing, like they were expecting more still to come. Of course one 
> could state that people were just told were to stand without knowing 
> the identity of the people standing next to them but to me this still 
> gives a problem. If there is a specific place for each DE to stand, 
> this indicates to me that LV had these meetings often with all his 
> DEs present because why else dedicate specific places to each DE if 
> they never met in this way before or just once, how would they even 
> know where to stand after 13 years if they only met like this once or 
> never had before or how would they know how much room to leave 
> between them and the next person if they did not know how many people 
> actually where DEs. 
> 
Montavilla47:
I agree with you that this graveyard circle is a problem for DDM!Snape if
we examine it closely.  But, if we do, then it just becomes a problem in 
general.

Because, there is a big *practical* difficulty in forming this circle with
everyone's specific place, whether they all knew each other's identities 
or not.  They're all wearing black cloaks and masks.  How the heck are
they supposed to know where to stand, even if they know each other's 
identities when they're all disguised?

If, for example, Bellatrix knows that she's supposed to stand next to
Lucius in the circle, how does she know which of the cloaked, masked
figures is Lucius?  By his distinctive aftershave?

Or would every meeting start with everyone bumping awkwardly into
each other and whispering, "Hi!  This is Wormtail.  Are you Avery or
Nott?"

I can imagine each new Death Eater being assigned his or her spot in 
the circle and frantically trying to memorize the height of the person 
next to them.

Or, each person could memorize his or her spot according to how 
many places they are distant from Voldemort, which would really be
the most practical method (assuming that he has a spot in the circle
and doesn't simply stand in the middle).

If they are figuring their place by counting, say, twelve spots from 
Voldemort on the right, and seven spots from Voldemort on the 
left, then it's fairly easy to get the right spot in the circle, regardless
of whether or not you know who your neighbor is.  

Montavilla47





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