Portraits (was: Secret Keeper, Godric's Hollow, revisted)

[pippin_999]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" <catlady at ...> 
wrote:
> 
> Paintings, House Elves, ghosts. There are a lot of invisible and/or
> unobstrusive spies available to the Headmaster.
> 
> That makes it all the more remarkable that the Marauders learned
> Animagery without DD knowing. I'd think that would have required a
> paranoid level of security not shown in OoP's Pensieve scene. Not to
> say 'you run with a werewolf every month' where a painting, ghost, or
> House Elf could overhear. Not to leave any books about Animagery lying
> around the dorm room for the House Elves to tidy up, much less any
> potions or talismans involved. 
> 

Pippin:
James had the invisibility cloak. They used the space behind the mirror
on the fourth floor as one of their hideouts. They were probably
practiced at moving around the school and eluding the eyes in the walls
long before their research in animagery got to the practical stages.


Dumbledore  thought they were stealing food from the kitchens 
(no doubt they were.)

Sirius's family had a library of its own. We don't know if the Potters 
were bookish, but  James could probably get
his doting parents to buy all the transfiguration texts he wanted,
not to mention a subscription to Transfiguration Today.

They wouldn't need to smuggle  anything, and unlike Harry, they could 
also practice over the summer. 

Pippin