Nagini's attack on Arthur in OotP

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

We know that Arthur was an Order member, guarding the door to the DoM (and asleep on the job under an invisibility cloak which didn't hide him from a creature that hunted by heat and scent), when Voldemort's snake attacked him.

What did the Ministry think, and the average Prophet reader?


If Fudge had realized Arthur was there on Dumbledore's orders, surely he'd have sacked him?

In fact, why wasn't Arthur sacked anyway? What business had he to be in the Ministry at all in the middle of the night? Much less loitering suspiciously outside the DoM with an invisibility cloak?

And just what kind of security does the Ministry have, that Order members, Voldemort's slaves and pets, and schoolkids, can come and go after hours as they please? I've never worked anywhere that didn't lock up when everyone left.

In fact, aren't the Aurors based in the building? Shouldn't they have a night shift (what, Dark wizards never operate at night, you tell me?), and therefore a night shift on reception to check people in who have business there?

Finally, if Fudge didn't think the snake was Tom's pet, whose did he think it was and how did he think it got in and escaped?

Thoughts?

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

It isn't my theory (few are), and perhaps pretense isn't the most accurate term, but what Albus did with the stone is use it as bait to catch the potential thief.

Look whom he sent to transfer it - Hagrid, who is so proud to tell everyone he meets that he is doing some top secret very important service to the headmaster.

OK, he has one good reason to send Hagrid on this mission - he can't be impersonated with Polyjuice. But otherwise, not the best choice.

Then he involves 6 other staff members in the 'hiding', including that young fellow that just returned with a personality transplant. (Possibly also while those mysterious 'sources' reporting that Tom is no longer in Albania.) And he has the whole hiding mechanism accessible to anyone willing to try.

If he had been serious about hiding the stone, why not keep it in his private rooms? On his person? In a mokeskin pouch? Or use a variation on whatever it is the goblins use at the bank for those high-security vaults that only open when a goblin touches them? (The mokeskin pouch in DH can be seen as such a variation, but the principle was present from book 1).

In any case, we know for certain that Albus suspected Quirrell early in the year, probably before Halloween, because he warned Severus to watch out for Quirrell, and on Halloween Severus already suspects Quirrell and tries to beat him to the third floor when Quirrell lets the troll in as a diversion. Yet Albus leaves the stone there. We also know Hagrid received the dragon egg in Aberforth's pub so Albus should have figured out Quirrell was making progress then (someone gives Hagrid a dragon egg - surely not out of the goodness of his heart, shortly after that unicorns start dying in the forest) but he still doesn't move the stone. Even if the pub was not planned to belong to Albus' brother, we know Albus found Harry's invisibility cloak on the Astronomy Tower.

What it adds up to is that Albus used the stone to keep Tom or his agent (or as it turned out, both of them) busy chasing the stone. So he made sure they knew the stone was going to be at Hogwarts. He was confident enough that they wouldn't be able to breach the Mirror of Erised. Apparently he was planning to catch Quirrell by the mirror when he despaired of getting the stone. What we don't know is what he was going to do with Quirrell if he had found him alone there. Did he have any means to capture the disembodied Tom? Or was he counting on Tom remaining stuck to Quirrell when the latter was captured?

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

If he had a means of capturing Voldemort while disembodied, he should still have been able to use it in the events that actually took place.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Well, maybe Albus got distracted by Harry's collapsed form.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

If he had been serious about hiding the stone, why not keep it in his private rooms? ...

Yeah, but I was wondering if there was an actual admission that Dumbledore set things up as a trap. Actual canon proof rather than our supposition.

Like this:

In any case, we know for certain that Albus suspected Quirrell early in the year, probably before Halloween, because he warned Severus to watch out for Quirrell

I dimly remember that, thanks.

Okay, so it was a deliberate trap for the wraith ... allowing a school full of innocent children to be exposed to the dark lord in the process, tch. But Harry's running the gauntlet was still unplanned, right, according to canon?

Still, I'm surprised to be reminded that it was a deliberate trap for Quirrell. Something that Rowling intended all along, given that warning for Snape ... but she never reminded us of it again. She never 'used' that fact, never had any character note it in trying to prop up the headmaster's reputation as an astute leader. Instead I'm left with the overall impression that Dumbledore was crossing his fingers for most of the series.

[oryx_leucoryx]

But Harry's running the gauntlet was still unplanned, right, according to canon?

Sorta. I don't think Albus *needed* Harry to 'save' the stone. But he seemed to have been dangling the stone in front of Harry to a degree, and encouraged recklessness in general. The dangling was in the form of having the stone removed from Gringotts very dramatically in front of Harry. The encouragement of recklessness was in the form of the gift of the invisibility cloak - and returning the cloak to Harry after he used it for the dragon adventure. Also, there was the matter of the forest detention - Minerva's name was on the letter, but I doubt Albus didn't know about it. Which means he either let or even encouraged a nightly encounter between Harry and -er - someone who was relying on unicorn blood to stay alive.

If Hagrid was reporting to Albus about his conversations with the trio then he also knew that the trio was after Flamel and had run across Fluffy, but we don't know any of this for certain, just that Hagrid tends to blab a lot so it's hard to see him keeping anything from Albus the entire year.

Some say Albus wanted to know what Harry saw in the Mirror of Erised as a personality test (how much is he influenced by the Horcrux?), but returning the cloak after it was used recklessly (rather than confiscating it as normal teachers would do) means Albus wanted more recklessness from Harry.

(And to some readers the fact that Harry ended up believing Albus wanted him to go after the stone and meet Voldemort is enough.)

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Madderbrad, I would add to what Oryx said below - I think, knowing what we know now, that Dumbledore was quite content to put Harry in mortal danger. If the horcrux managed to destroy itself, so much the better. Albus could keep his hands clean. Brrr! I really do despise that character.

But, though it's pretty clear that the maze was a trap for Quirrell, it's also true that she never referred to it again. And yes, the "prophecies don't matter" thing when Bode actually died protecting it is maddening!

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

And yes, the "prophecies don't matter" thing when Bode actually died protecting it is maddening!

Yup. Reading that made me an even more madder Brad.

(sorry, had to say it, I'll go away now ...)