HP Timeline: Neville, Harry, Spoilery

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Milz" <absinthe at m...> wrote:
> 
> I see your point but... according to Rowling's interviews, there is a
> book at Hogwarts that has the name of every magic child when it is
> born. I don't think it would have been too difficult for Dumbledore to
> check that book for the July babies. Moreover, Lily and Alice were
> both part of the OoP---again, unless magical pregnancies manifest
> themselves differently from Muggle ones, I'd think Dumbledore would
> notice a 7 months pregnant woman and I'd think he would be able to
> estimate the date of the births by counting on both hands.
> 
> But if it is the case that Dumbledore chose to not act on information
> because he didn't believe it was credible and that lead to James and
> Lily's death, then I hold him as responsible for it as Snape and
> Pettigrew.
>

This is a nice point.
Because it doesn't matter what DD believes, it's what Voldy believes that 
counts.

If Voldy believes in prophecies then the children are in danger even if the
Prophecy is the demented maunderings of a senile old bat. And I can't
accept that DD didn't realise that. But DD must have had doubts about
his own scepticism, else why stash Trelawney at Hogwarts? 

Alternatively, if he doesn't believe Sybill but tucks her away because he's 
afraid that Voldy might get to hear of it otherwise, then he's bolting the 
stable door after the equine escape. There's an eavesdropper and DD 
knows it.

Nope; DD used the Prophecy to flush Voldy into the open IMO.
And the protective spells (on both boys, I'll bet) were carefully designed to
knock Voldy out of the game. Pity about James, Lily, Frank and Alice, though.

Kneasy