HP Timeline: Neville, Harry, Spoilery

[Milz]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...>
wrote:
> Milz:
> > Exactly, and since Snape was caught eavesdropping, then Dumbledore
> > should have figured out that Voldy would get that information,
> > eventually (I'm not implying that he knew Snape worked for V. at
> this
> > time, but rather that anyone eavesdropping could have passed that
> > information along to people who would tell V.)
> 
> Pippin:
> Yes, yes, but nothing in the prophecy says that it only applies to
> English wizards. Indeed, it rather sounds as if it doesn't: 'and
> he will have the power the Dark Lord knows not.' Only Voldemort
> could decide who are the people who have defied him three times, 
> and he has traveled far and wide, consorting with the worst of
> magical kind.
> 
True. However if that were the case, then Dumbledore and the OoP had
the responsibility to see that ALL magical babies born in late July
were monitored or at least hidden in a safe spot. As Kneasy pointed
out in his post, it doesn't matter if Dumbledore believed the prophecy
or not, what mattered was that Voldemort believed it or there was a
possibility that Voldemort would believe it. 

That marked all magical babies born in late July for death. It would
be unethical for Dumbledore and the Ministry to not offer protective
services to these families as soon as they knew of the Prophecy.
   
> Everyone was in mortal peril at the time -- not being the parents
> of the Chosen One was hardly a protection. Surely Dumbledore
> was already doing all he could to protect the members of the 
> Order and their families. 
> 

Yes, but being "The" child was even more dangerous and their families
should have had more protective measures than others in the time
between the Prophecy and the final outcome. Here's an analogy: there's
a child predator on the loose in your town. All children are in
danger. But this predator prefers redheaded children, of which 2
reside in your town. Who would be the most likely victim? The
redheaded boy across the street or the brown-haired child next door?
For the town authorities to not provide extra police patrols in those
areas where the redhaired children reside would be socially,
ethically, and morally irresponsible, imo.

> We haven't heard of any special protection Dumbledore 
> gave to Lily and James  except for the secret-keeper spell. 
> But that takes time to set up.
> 
> It was in effect at GP a month after Voldemort's return, but they
> could have started working on it as soon as Sirius returned to
> England, as much as ten months earlier. And that's not counting
> time to learn how to do the spell. Animagus takes five years,
> who knows how long it takes to learn how to cast Secret-keeper?
> 
> Pippin

According to PoA, the Fidelus Charm was performed on Pettigrew one
week before Halloween, 1981. Moreover, canon doesn't state how long it
takes to perform the Fidelus Charm. The Fidelus Charm has more in
common with the Unbreakable Vow than the Animagus transfiguration
because the Fidelus and the Unbreakable Vow work on the same basic
principles of trust and integrity. So, if the Unbreakable Vow took a
matter of minutes to do, I don't think the the Fidelus Charm would
have taken years.

Anyhow, it's still at least 1 year between the time of the prophecy
and Halloween 1981. There's still 2 children who fit the Prophecy
requirements. And the Potters go into hiding at Godric's Hollow in
late October 1981. The timing on that bugs me because it smacks of
incompetence unless there's a mistake in the canon and the prophecy
was really heard sometime in 1981. It also supports Kneasy's idea that
Dumbledore was using Harry or Neville as bait.

Also, another bit of information from Rowling's interview with Emerson
and Melissa http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview3.shtml

Harry was christened while the Potters were in hiding. But again, that
makes me wonder about the Timeline in general. If the Potters were in
hiding during Harry's christening, it implies that Dumbledore did make
the necessary protective arrangements. BUT it still conflicts with the
info in PoA---the date the Potters went into hiding and the date that
Pettigrew was made secret keeper. Unfortunately, Rowling doesn't tell
us the month/year of Harry's christening, because that would clear
things up alittle bit more.

Milz