That Bloody Man Again WAS Re: The curious incident of the Felix Felicis

[pippin_999]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "nrenka" <nrenka at y...> wrote:
> Everyone mentions the endless red herrings, but at least to my
eyes, 
> we've seen significantly fewer of the sneaky mysteries (not
including  the long-running Big Questions, one of which finally got 
answered) in books 5 and 6.  I see the structure of the series as
having shifted.
> 

Pippin:
Shifted? Oh heavens no. We've far more ahead of us than a 
straight money hunt for the horcruxes, as signalled by the
fact that the first one Harry finds is a fake. 

And what about that, eh? How could RAB have gotten
through protections that even Dumbledore and Harry together couldn't
defeat? If RAB swapped the hx before it was hidden why didn't Voldie
know?

Or *did* he know? A decoy hx would be dead useful, after all. 
 Since Voldemort will never need to recover it,   he
can make its protections lethal. And so they were.


And there's more. Allow me.


1) Snape's outrageous lie
"The Dark Lord is satisfied with the information I have passed him on
the Order. It led, as perhaps you have guessed, to the recent capture
and murder of Emmeline Vance, and it certainly helped dispose of
Sirius Black" -- HBP ch 2

cf OOP
"But he gave Narcissa information of the sort that is very valuable
to Voldemort [...] Voldemort knew already, of course, that Sirius
was in the Order, that you knew where he was--but Kreacher's
information made him realize that the one person whom you 
would go to any lengths to rescue was Sirius Black."

Snape is claiming credit for Kreacher's information, in front of
the very person it was given to. How did he expect to get away
with that?

2) Narcissa's claim that the Dark Lord has ordered her not
to speak of the plan is delivered with eyes tight shut. How much
does she really know?

3) The overheard conversation between Snape and Draco,
where Harry is certain that Snape is sincere in his desire to
help. And why wouldn't he be? Snape is sworn to step in
if it seems Draco will fail to perform the Dark Lord's orders.
But the Dark Lord has ordered some preliminary measures,
 and if Draco admits failure with one of those, then
Snape can  fulfill his oath, and leave the intended victim
quite safe. F'rinstance, suppose Draco had asked Snape to
help him with fixing the cabinet? Snape could have done it,
held his oath fulfilled, and happily prepared to ambush the
DE's when they appeared.


4) Lupin's outrageous lie
"Oh, I've been underground," said Lupin. "Almost literally.
That's why I haven't been able to write, Harry; sending
letters to you would have been something of a giveaway."

But surely Voldemort knows that Lupin is a member of
the Order!  Does Lupin wear another name and face
among the werewolves? It would have to be someone
he was close to, if he was using polyjuice. Hmmm.

5) Dumbledore's choices
DD  feeds us a lot of guff about slowing reflexes. But
he manages to freeze Harry before Draco can deprive
him of his wand. Why in blazes didn't he freeze Draco
first??? Or disarm him? Then he could have dealt
with Harry at his leisure. 

I suspect Dumbledore had something to teach Draco,
and more importantly Harry, and it was that every
racist punk is *not* a would-be murderer. Dumbledore
is reasonably safe in this belief, after all, Draco  passed
up a heavensent opportunity to kill Harry on the train.


Nora:
> -Nora's top request for a question to be answered concerns the
extent  to which Legilimency can be used to communicate specific 
concepts,  natch

Pippin:
But Snape answered your question! 

"Blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your
mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter!" 

and just in case you missed that, Jo makes it clearer still --

Mustering all his powers of concentration, Harry thought, _Levi--
"No, Potter!" screamed Snape. [...] "You dare use my own spells
against me, Potter?

Snape knew what spell Harry was going to use. A specific concept, 
indeed.

Pippin