DD's mentorship unknown / The Sorting Hat / Pippin's list of mysteries

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

BTW I'm NOT a scientist and I am NO GOOD at math. I'm a college
drop-out who became a COBOL programmer.

GulPlum wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the
_old_crowd/message/1572:

<< Dumbledore has three basic roles within the plot, of increasing
importance to himself: headmaster of Hogwarts (whilst he's an
essentially inspirational role model for the staff and pupils, let's
face it: he's a pretty crap administrator), mentor to Harry (one of my
major disappointments with OotP was that a significant element of the
plot hinged on the Magical world in general, and Voldemort in
particular, being unaware of this, which I find ludicrous) >>

You wrote a lovely essay on truthfulness and villainy that inspired a
long, thoughtful thread, and my only reply is: please explain how the
plot of OoP hinged on Voldemort being unaware that DD is HP's mentor.
As for 'the Magical world in general', they believed whatever the
Daily Prophet wrote: on Mondays that DD was so senile that he was
inadvertently deceived by a totally loony child's delusions, on
Tuesdays that senile DD was advertently deceived by an evil child's
lies, on Wednesdays that DD wanted to have a coup and become Dictator,
for which purpose he coached a foolish, trusting child to lie, on
Thursdays that DD, desiring his coup, took advantage of the loony
child's convenient delusions, on Fridays that coupmeister DD and the
evil child had planned the whole thing together. (Saturdays and
Sundays being devoted to Quidditch round-up.)

Kneasy wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_
old_crowd/message/1585 :

<< implies that the final decision is open to discussion. This is in
fact what happens with Harry, to a certain extent with Hermione
(seriously considered as Ravenclaw) and it spent a long time
considering what to do with Neville. The text gives the impression
that the other sortees were pretty much cut and dried. >>

IIRC the Hat spent 'almost a minute' Sorting Seamus. I feel that must
be a clue that Something is Up with Seamus, but I can't figure out
what.

My own baseless certainty is that the Hat wanted right away to be put
Neville in Gryffindor and it was Neville who kept arguing for
Hufflepuff, until the Hat silenced him by pointing out that he had the
courage to argue with an ancient and powerful magical artifact.

It is well known that I agree with SSSusan and Dave that the Hat never
*tried* to put Harry in Slytherin. I go further than they do by
thinking that the Hat never *offered* to put Harry in Slytherin. I
think it was just playfully teasing him, in response to his 'Not
Slytherin!'.

Dave Frankis's explanation of the Sorting Hat representing God in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/1586 is quite
wonderful even if my theory that the Hat was just teasing appears to
contradict it.

Pippin wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_
old_crowd/message/1588 :

<< 1. Who told McGonagall that Dumbledore would be at Privet
Drive?
2. Who killed the unicorns?
3. Who was the hooded stranger in the Hogs Head?
4. Who passed the Riddle diary to Lucius Malfoy?
5. Who is the half-blood prince?
6. Who was Voldemort's second in command?
7. Who owns the Riddle house?
8. Who removed Voldemort's wand from Godric's Hollow
9. Who sent the Fearsome Four after the Longbottoms?
10. Who told Dumbledore that the time of Harry's
hearing had changed? >>

What does this list mean! I can't see how these could *all* be part of
the ESE!Lupin theory. I think that Lupin couldn't have had anything to
do with killing the unicorns (surely Quirrelmort did it?) because he
had not yet been introduced as a character. ESE or ESG Lupin would
have had *motive* to tell DD that the time of HP's heading had
changed, but how would he have known it? He was on no closer terms to
Fudge and Wizengamot members than DD was!