16 HP Chamber of Secrets

[chantaldormand]

There is chance I won't be able to post this entry tomorrow so you guys get it a day early. Enjoy! :)

Ch16 The Chamber of Secrets

>Kids being bewildered by upcoming exams reminds me the infamous patch note for the Sims 3 stating that in case of meteor strike kids cannot leave school and are going to die.

>IMHO the school shouldn’t stay open. This whole situation is like something straight out of Battle Royale or Danganronpa, only in this case staff and students can leave at any moment...

>Of course it was Dumbledor’s idea... +1 to CC +1 to LOL

>Poor Ron, his teachers and parents are setting him up for failure =(

>I'm not sure if it says more about characters or the author that non of students who are close to the victims asked if teachers are close to curing them

>Also McGonagall is either insane or used to be the most incompetent law enforcer in history of law enforcing. She doesn’t seem to be setting some kind of trap, yet she informs whole student body that soon, potential witnesses will be cured... +2 to LOL

>Ginny: I’ve got to tell you something.
Harry: What is it?
Ginny: I saw you guys going to Forbidden Forest, but don’t worry I won’t tell anyone!

>Percy: Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was – well, never mind –
Harry: Don’t worry! There is nothing shameful in polishing your own wand!
Percy: Ahhh....yes, I just remembered something. I-I should go! +1 to FWBP

>So, Harry lies through his teeth about not sneaking around and instead wanting to visit Hermione. I must admit that it was remarkably manipulative of Harry. Especially since he doesn't seem to understand why it worked in the first place.

>Considering that at this point boys didn't see their friend for a month, you would expect more enthusiasm from them.

>Woah, Pomfrey's bedside manners are horrible. Sure Hermione might not hear her friends, but it could comfort them. If, you know, they cared, that is.

>”It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.” And then boys discovered what Hermione was protecting this whole time in her hand: an Autograph of Lockhart!
Harry: I knew it! Lockhart is responsible for the attacks!
Ron: Let's burn him like Quirrell!
Harry: Let’s stake him first just to be sure he isn't vampire!

>Food for the thought: Hermione not only destroyed school’s property (+1 to CC), but also probably unintentionally halted someone else’s investigation. Good Job!

>I want to point something out: wizards have to have some way of controlling Basilisks. Basilisks aren’t naturally occurring creatures, yet they are important enough to warrant entry in the book Hermione destroyed. The entry consists all most important information about its creation and habits. And yet while Salazar was famous for his paraseltongue ability nobody suspected “Slytherin’s Monster” to be Basilisk. This means that paraseltongue is not default way of handling those creatures.

>It would be more interesting, if Nick did die again and kids had to figure out why Justin isn't dead.

>Heh, at no point of this conversation, boys realize in how much danger they put themselves by plotting and brewing their illegal potion at entrance to monsters' lair. Ah to be young and that blind...

>”‘What’re we going to do?’ said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. ‘Shall we go straight to McGonagall?’
‘Let’s go to the staff room,’ said Harry, jumping up. ‘She’ll be there in ten minutes, it’s nearly break.’” That is... actually pretty mature and responsible thing to do. Especially coming from these two. Which makes following scene even more bizarre.

>”‘No,’ said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers’ cloaks. ‘In here. Let’s hear what it’s all about. Then we can tell them what we’ve found out.’” *snort* that is the second time in this book when Harry decides to hide in wardrobe. This time he even took his best friend with him! +1 to FWBP

>Ah yes McGonagall once again shows us how to not handle heavy calibre of crisis situation. You don’t wait until morning next day to evacuate! You drag all students out of the building and send in professionals to deal with this kind of shit. +1 to LOL, +1 to CC

>”But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming” Another Red Herring from Jo. No seriously, now I want to read an ff where Lokhart was only pretending to be this oddly incompetent celebrity and in reality was responsible for the attacks. Why would he attack muggleborn students? Well to create situations where he could do some easy heroing!

>I like to imagine that staff was egging on Lockhart to not only kick him out of the meeting room, but also so by feeding him to the Slytherin's monster they would have more time to deal with this situation. It fits well in HPverse

>The meeting ended and our hero doesn’t try to stop his Head of House and inform her that he does know how to get to the Basilisk. Granted he might be in shock, but to him Ginny is this random girl who happens to be Ron's younger sister. Heck I don't even think they talked directly to each other in this book! +1 to LOL

>Ron: It wasn’t some stupid thing about Percy at all. She-
Harry: You mean she didn't want to talk about Percy's polishing technique?
Ron: *chocks* Get your mind out of gutter!
Harry: What are you talking about? +1 to FWBP

>Good to know that even Ron buys into whole "only targeting muggleborns". If I didn't know who HoS is I would be suspecting that he simply targeted convenient victims. Ginny might be pureblood, but she comes from poor family that has many children. If HoS wanted to do something bolder than before, but still not too risky Ginny could be on his list of potential victims.

>Wait what? Lockhart? The guy who you consider an idiot? The guy you think is either fraud or incompetent? The same guy who turned your BBF's arm into pool noodle? That is guy you want to inform about your findings?
How about Sev or Minnie? Both are more competent and more believable that you would choose (if only to get rid of Sev)+1 to LOL

>I'm surprised that MasterAuror!Minnie didn't just seal the kids up in the tower so they won't go on suicidal missions like this one.

>Where the hell this comes from? Up until this chapter boys treated Lockhart like known fraud. Now they cannot believe he is running away after what he wrote in books. Jo, your editor called and asked me to tell you that he doesn't appreciate you missing your appointments! +1 to LOL

>”‘Do use your common sense. My books wouldn’t have sold half as well if people didn’t think I’d done all those things.” Heh, if Lockhart stopped at this point he could claim that he is fantasy author and had to claim he did all those things because otherwise WW wouldn't buy his books.

>The only reasonable explanation for why Lockhart admits anything is the curse. Heck, he could just lie that MOM asked the school to evacuate everybody so they can enter and search the castle.

>”‘So you’ve just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?’ said Harry incredulously.” Oh my Harry, you should be quite familiar with this concept! After all it was you who claimed in PS that if you survived Voldie once you might be lucky the second time, as if the survival was your doing in the first place.

>Wait, so information in these books should be reliable, because he gained it from his victims. That means that the werewolf cure should work... WTF Jo??? Could you please at least try to keep consistency within a book? +1 to LOL

>Why the hell are you announcing you are going to wipe their admittedly empty brains? How the hell did this man managed to con his previous victims? Did it go something like this:
Lockhart: I'm truly sorry, you cannot even imagine how much this is going to hurt me, but it is sacrifice I'm willing to make
Victim: It's ok, go ahead Mr. Shiny teeth. +1 to LOL

>Guys you know you could just drag him to Minnie and this way both mobilise teachers and make sure Lockhart pays for what he did to his victims. Heck I bet you could even upgrade his sentence by telling them that he tried to wipe your memories... +2 to CC 

>Now million dollar question: when plumbing was introduced to Hogwarts? Either the castle went through major renovations where whole walls were stripped so giant pipes could be put into them (and thus potentially exposing location of CoS) or somehow wizards started using pipes way before muggles. There is one problem with the second option: until 18th century wizarding population was openly living alongside muggle one.

>Now I have to wonder just how much Hogwarts' layout changed after introduction of pipes that were big enough for Basilisk to use. And how the hell the Heir managed to justify using such big pipes? Was he a headmaster? So many questions so little answers.

>Whoever is responsible for creating the entrance to CoS should be fired. That is not very discreet... +1 to Uncovered

>You would think that with Diary!Horcrux sliding down this pipe so often, it wouldn't be so slimy anymore. Also kids didn’t even wait to confirm that Lockhart survived the slide... +1 to LOL

>+1 to SC for Harry

>Jo must think very little of builders of Hogwarts. It's the second time she claims that walls deep under school are wet or even water is dripping down them. This would suggest that the castle is slowly flooded by the lake and at some point in future it will become even bigger safety hazard.

>Wait a moment.... Jo, when snake molts it doesn't tear off his whole skin, just gets rid of top layer of it! It's colourless! +1 to LOL

>So the Basilisk is 6 m long at least? Hmm not as big as the movie makes it look like...

>That is not how explosions work! If the explosion was bad enough to damage the tunnel then shockwave should knock boys down, if not away. For that matter Lockhart should have lost his arm and quite possibly hearing. +1 to LOL

>Darn, usually I don't like movie adaptations, but CoS movie did good job with aesthetics in this part of the book. Or at very least better job than Jo.

>”The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.” And then he was promptly eaten by Basilisk. The END +1 to DC

Crime Count: 5

Death Count: 1

Freud Would Be Proud: 3

Leap of Logic: 12

Uncovered: 1

Spell Count: Harry: 1

Comments

[smirkingcat.livejournal.com]

only in this case staff and students can leave at any moment...
but are they gonna XDD


There is nothing shameful in polishing your own wand!
looool i always thought this line came from fandom - how wrong i was

This means that paraseltongue is not default way of handling those creatures.
truebthat - i never thought of that loophole

Darn, usually I don't like movie adaptations, but CoS movie did good job with aesthetics in this part of the book. Or at very least better job than Jo.
i think that is especially true for book 2 and 3 - because there the movies really have so much more of everything ....

yay for another chapter this soon - have a nice weekend; mine already looks brighter

[chantaldormand]

/looool i always thought this line came from fandom - how wrong i was/

Oh, it is line from fandom, in my posts bolded text is usually a quote. But then again I seem to recall there being a scene in GOF where Ollivander praises Cedric for keeping his wand polished...

I can't speak much about PoA movie since it has been years since the last time I watched it, but in CoS movie cinematic reflects very well how atmosphere at Hogwarts should look during this book :)

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/wizards have to have some way of controlling Basilisks/

And avoiding their deadly eyes. I think that one person in this community suggested that Slytherin's locket actually contained some sort of goggles inside (you could shake the locket and it would unfold to reveal goggles or something) as protection against the Basilisk. The problem is that there's no mention of Tom wearing any eyewear, so I guess that he averted his eyes the whole time that he initially controlled the Basilisk?

/How about Sev or Minnie? Both are more competent and more believable that you would choose/

Except that Harry would never dream of asking Snape for anything because he hates him. The only reason that he tried to send a coded message to him about Sirius in OOTP was because Snape happened to be in the room when Umbridge was putting the heat on Harry, and Harry was desperate.

But you're right, it doesn't make sense that Harry and Ron go after Lockhart.

/After all it was you who claimed in PS that if you survived Voldie once you might be lucky the second time, as if the survival was your doing in the first place/

And in OOTP, Harry will take all of the credit for himself when yelling at Ron and Hermione.

/Wait, so information in these books should be reliable, because he gained it from his victims. That means that the werewolf cure should work/

Nice catch!

[chantaldormand]

There is so much wrong in the last two chapters that right now I'm struggling with keeping word count of my posts down. A good chunk of it tends to be focused on Tom's plans and Basilisk.
A goggles idea is neat, but I would even accept classic mirror-shield or even towel wrapped around the handler's head. But then again, if you can't command Basilisk to, for example, close their eyes, you need some way of both being protected from it's sight and be capable of observing it.

Sure, Harry would do that only if he was desperate or as I suggested possibly to get rid of Snape (after all he hates him more than Voldemort). The thing is, if Rowling wrote her books well, Harry should be desperate here.
Ginny according to Jo is supposed to be future Mrs. Potter and currently is sister of Harry's best friend. Because Jo passed over perfect occasion to start setting up their future romance, Harry doesn't feel much distress over the situation (other than worrying about being sent back to his muggle family, that is).
In this chapter it's Ron who is active character, not the protagonist.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

>”It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.”

And none of the adults noticed it?!

Wouldn't competent adults have checked? Well of course no adult is allowed to be competent.

[sunnyskywalker]

Hey, now here's a test they could do: divide the student body into as many parts as they can, then set them all up in different undisclosed locations as tutoring groups to finish the year. (They'd have to hire temp staff, of course.) If the Heir of Slytherin can't restrain themselves from attacking students even without their beloved monster, they've at least narrowed down their list of possible culprits. If the Heir of Slytherin is smart enough to keep their head down, at least they have lots of time for the Auror Department and maybe the Gringotts cursebreakers if the goblins will hire them out for a few weeks to search the castle without worrying about students getting hurt. These efforts would probably fail, but someone at least should have suggested it even if only to get shot down.

Also McGonagall is either insane or used to be the most incompetent law enforcer in history of law enforcing.

Sleep deprivation, I'm telling you. She hasn't had more than four hours of sleep a night since 1959. That's bound to affect one's mental faculties.

As I recall, the sequence of events before Harry and Ron inexplicably decide to ask Lockhart for help is this: they go to the staff room, i think were outside for a minute before going in and hiding, the teachers come in and give exposition for us, and then Lockhart bursts in late and acting clueless. Then Harry and Ron are stunned and sneak back to Gryffindor Tower, wait around for hours, and then go to Lockhart because "they couldn't think of anything else to do." Despite having no reason why they shouldn't go ahead with their original plan of telling McGonagall. Was that right? Last time I read CoS, I thought it might make sense of things if Lockhart had come up behind the boys and overheard them planning to talk to the teachers, and quickly Confunded them out of doing that because it might cause trouble for him. Then he doubled back and showed up "late." Maybe he meant for them to come to his office so he could frame them and/or Obliviate them, or maybe that was an unfortunate side effect of taking away their original plan and he was scrambling for a way out. But when two kids suddenly forget that they could tell other teachers, and a guy who's good at memory magic is wandering around, what else are we supposed to think?

I wonder whether wizarding plumbing grows? Like, it has two paired end points which you stick into the wall and the sewage outflow (or wherever), and then pipes grow between them so you don't have to rip into the walls? It would fit with their version of medicine, where you also don't open anything up. And avoidng that hassle would actually be cool magic which anyone who has ever witnessed major plumbing work would appreciate.

I really hope they have filtration and purification charms on those oversized pipes, though. Myrtle mentions being flushed out into the lake in GoF, I think. So they dump their sewage directly into the lake. And then go swimming in it. And the merpeople live in it. It had really better not be raw sewage. *gags* Maybe the merpeople are tunneling under the castle and slowly undermining its foundations with water seepage in revenge?

[chantaldormand]

The test is either a good way to find the culprit or (considering how incompetent and overworked the staff is) great way to drastically reduce Hogwarts’ student population. Either way it’s still preferable to what Minnie came up with.
On what basis the tutoring groups would be created? Blood status? Houses? Or some other way?

Though I have to wonder: the castle is full of semi-sentient portraits and ghosts, yet it seems that nobody notices the trio and Ginny frequenting the first crime scene. Heck at one point of the story Argus is stationed nearby! Yet the trio ends up caught only once. And the crime scene isn’t even a place where students often visit: its corridor near out of service toilet for Christ sake!

Minnie is like solider trapped in jungle in Congo. Next to no sleep, constantly surrounded by brats who just by flicking their wands could unleash total chaos and destruction and way too many responsibilities she wasn’t prepared for :P
I wouldn’t be surprised if half of Hogwarts’ staff was addicted to drugs just so they could keep up with the workload.

I took a second look on the sequence of events and it goes like this:
1. H&R discover Hermione’s note and get excited about it in Hospital Wing. All deductions happen here.
2. Boys decide to inform Minnie.
3. They walk into empty staffroom.
4. Boys spend some time waiting for teachers to drop by.
5. H&R hear Minnie’s announcement.
6. Ron panic, since in Minnie’s announcement mentions that students should go to dormitories.
7. Harry decides to hide in wardrobe to eavesdrop on the staff meeting.
8. Teachers discuss the incident, Ron is in shock.
9. Happy Lockhart enters the scene.
10. Staff nags Lockhart, less than happy Lockhart leaves the scene.
11. [Off screen] Once staff leaves, boys evacuate to the Gryffs common room.
12. Boys discuss the meeting in the common room.
13. Ron is so desperate that he comes up with idea of talking with Lockhart.
14. Even more strangely Harry has no idea what else they can do and agrees with Ron.
15. The confrontation happens.
If there is any memory-modifications going on then Gilderoy had to enter the staff room as first person talk with boys and swap that memory with the one where they wait until the announcement. But then his behavior during and after the meeting doesn’t fit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
/I wonder whether wizarding plumbing grows?/
Impossible, unless we are talking about two one-way portals (toilet->lake)-again impossible since Harry hears the Basilisk through walls- you would need to at least partially take apart the walls since there wouldn’t be enough space for pipes capable of fitting Basilisk. We are talking here about medieval castle- they were constructed to keep people out so outer walls are thick, while majority of inner walls is thin. Well unless there are no pipes and sewage flows freely between walls directed only by some kind of magic. Makes you wonder about wet walls Harry mentions in PS and CoS. *gags*
Also poor Basilisk, reduced to slithering through sewage…

If I were Harry I would nope out of this task. Kelpies and merpeople would be the least of his worries. *gags*
If merpeople do dig under Hogwarts’ foundations Hogwarts’ residents deserve it :P
Hey, do Hogwarts use lake as their water supply… omg, nope, I’m done with wizards’ insanity…

I think I’m going to need a bath after this discussion :(

[sunnyskywalker]

Probably by House, then year. It isn't a very good plan, but at least it's any plan at all.

It's amazing given how trigger-happy wizards in general seem to be that neither Snape nor McGonagall has snapped and killed a student yet. They seem the most stressed, and by amazing coincidence, have the most stressful jobs! (Both are Heads of House and teach core subjects, plus Snape has the added stress of exploding cauldrons and being a deep-cover spy and McGonagall does all the visible admin work for the school--just imagine trying to make the school schedule every year with their staff limitations, knowing you can't even start until OWL results come out partway through summer. No wonder she's passing out class schedules after classes have already started.) And with Fred and George experimenting with dangerous substances all throughout OotP, there would be a plausible reason for them to die that without looking for someone who could brew untraceable poisons!

Caffeine, various "upper" potions (I bet Snape brews those too), and who knows what else. Sprout probably seems more relaxed because she's in charge of the herbs.

The whole bit with Lockhart and the boys feels like a subplot that didn't get finished. It almost adds up, but like the Dobby subplot, there's always at least one piece that doesn't quite fit...

If wizarding buses can make park benches jump out of the way and wizarding tents can hold three-bedroom flats on the inside, wizarding plumbing probably could tunnel through solid stone and be bigger on the inside. This doesn't mean they have invented it, and the fact that it would be useful argues against it. But the bigger question is why would they want pipes that big, even if they can do it. What giant objects are they expecting to flush, exactly? Or did the Original Wizard Plumber want an excuse to make secret tunnels in the walls--and again, why?

Ugh, but they could be leaking. I bet even magic can't stop plumbing from being a royal pain in the neck and leaking, or backing up, or all the many horrible things plumbing does in real life. Poor basilisk indeed. Maybe this is why Harry only bathes every other year?

[chantaldormand]

I wouldn't be surprised if at some point Jo switched villains (just like in PS) because Lockhart seemed to be too obvious choice. It would explain why there is so many shenanigans concerning memory while local memory charms expert isn't involved.

It seems to be very wasteful to use this kind of technology for plumbing. Benches jumping out of the way are short term use of magic so depending on how this magic works could drain the energy source less than continuous usage. Same goes for wizarding tents- most of people use them only occasionally. Though in both examples artefact running out of energy would be disastrous.
Now depending on how this magic works, it could be hard to maintain a plumbing infrastructure using it... but perhaps that is the point? What if introduction of magical plumbing infrastructure added additional burden to already encumbered Hogwarts' systems and that is why so many dark creatures/artefacts can pass through wards?
I'm convinced that the headmaster responsible for creating plumbing system was paraseltongue who knew location of CoS. They might not be related to Salazar, but they knew about the Basilisk and wanted to create situation where it could travel the castle without meeting students. Perhaps they felt bad for the creature? Or they wanted to utilize it as defensive measure?

[sunnyskywalker]

I wonder how the other permanent-seeming Hogwarts enchantments are powered? Like the moving staircases and the Room of Requirement. Hermione says electricity won't work at Hogwarts because there's too much ambient magic, so there's more magic around the castle than, say, some random place in Sheffield. But I don't think she explained exactly why that is.

I think Mottsnave was the one who had the castle built over a magical "source" which powered the enchantments indefinitely. That's one possibility; there are traditions of some places being inherently magical, and maybe that's true in the Potterverse. Or maybe having lots of magical people in the area is itself a power source because they have magical "charges" which "leak" out of them and build up in the area. The kids' emotions and magic somehow generate Peeves, probably (he's not exactly a traditional poltergeist, but there is a tradition that they're created by emotional teenagers). So maybe that's possible too. Or maybe it's all the magical objects lying around which leak magical energy. (But then how do they stay enchanted indefinitely?) So many questions...

If the basilisk was originally meant to defend the castle, then a Parselmouth plumber who knew the tradition could have wanted to make sure the new system tapped into the Chamber entrance tunnel to give it more chances to do that. The idea that they introduced new magical technology without realizing all the possible consequences and now it's causing problems is tempting... that's basically how it works a lot of the time in real life; why should wizards be exempt?

[chantaldormand]

If this was Urban Fantasy, I would say that Hogwarts lays on Ley line and is powered by it. So highly magical field could potentially interfere with electronics and power up Hogwarts' wards. But Jo never tries to explain how Hogwarts' "enchantments'" work so this is open question.

If castle was built over Ley line and was constantly visited by magical people it could explain so many things. For example: why there are only a few truly magical places? If we go off books we have Hogwarts+Hogsmeade, Diagonal Alley+Knockturn Alley, Ministry and St. Mungos. All those locations could lay on the same Ley line, so if one location took more power others either experience blackouts or simply get less power. Hogwarts should take a lot of power if it is truly the safest place in UK. Kinda makes me wonder how wards at Ministry and St. Mungo look like during Dumbledore's shenanigans.

Indeed. The paraselmouth probably had good intentions, but as usual somebody found a way to abuse the system.

[sunnyskywalker]

I really wish the books had used those (semi-?) sentient portraits better. It's like having security cameras all over the castle! Presumably Tom-in-Ginny could obscure them or Obliviate them or Disillusion Ginny or something, but did he really never slip up? Like missing an itty-bitty portrait in a dark corner which saw everything and immediately nipped off to another portrait to tell someone? He sure has all the luck!

But it's odd how there isn't a huge push to question every portrait in the castle. Between them, they might have seen lots of little clues, at least to eliminate a bunch of suspects. ("Nope, these thirty kids were in the Hufflepuff common room at the time.") At least, eliminate them in the eyes of everyone except Dumbledore, since he's the only one who knows Tom is behind it somehow and that Tom can seamlessly modify memories.

[chantaldormand]

I keep calling them semi-sentient because I'm uncertain of their sentience. Sometimes portraits interact with characters like normal human beings and sometimes they act like chatbots with limited phrase banks. It's mostly Jo being inconsistent in her writing.
But yeah, headmaster shouldn't be able to say that he doesn't know what happens in the castle. After all he has ghosts, portraits and House Elves...
Even if Tom managed to Oblivate every portrait he passes, in theory you could cross-examinate portraits and locate portraits that have holes in memory (after all would Tom have enough time to bother with creating new memories for every portrait?) and thus learn how the culprit moved around castle. That alone eliminates a lot of potential culprits.

[sunnyskywalker]

Right, the elves too! Okay, use the portraits, elves, and ghosts to eliminate crowds of people who were in sight at the time in common rooms and such when the attacks happened, and if there are any locations where portraits frequently have memory gaps. Of the people left, figure out which ones usually walk around together (since no one is supposed to go anywhere alone), and set a house-elf to watch each of those groups, and a couple more on the suspicious locations. That should at least let them eliminate more people from suspicion and leave them with a much smaller pool of suspects. Then those few people will be even easier to have watched...

[sunnyskywalker]

Also just occurred to me: you know what else the ghosts would have been good for? Guarding the Whomping Willow back in the 1970s. They could take turns watching it in pairs--one to stay there and one to float for help if needed. If they did their lurking properly, midnight marauders wouldn't spot them until it was too late. Ghost guards could have nipped those little forest romps in the bud.

It would have been an obvious step to take for Remus's safety, never mind everyone else's (since if a hapless student figured out the tree and went in on a dare, Remus would probably still be punished for it). And if something like that didn't occur to Albus at first, it certainly should have after the "prank" incident. That's exactly the sort of thing that makes people with even halfway decent sense to go, "Oops, security was inadequate. Let's increase it." Because if four other students could figure it out (one of them not even in the same dorm), so could more students. Shutting Sev up doesn't do a thing to prevent anyone else from looking out the window and seeing Pomfrey lead Remus to the willow on a full moon night and start wondering what's up.

[chantaldormand]

Heh, ghosts might be bit too visible during full moon nights, but House Elves would work here wonderfully. But, yeah extra security, especially during civil war should be given.
I wonder what exactly student body knew about this incident. As far as we know nobody else tried to follow Remus, yet everybody seemed to know that Snape was saved by James...

[sunnyskywalker]

Depends on whether translucent, pearly ghosts fade in bright, pearly moonlight, like setting a candle next to a lamp or something. I don't think we ever find out. But you're right, house-elves would probably be even better, since they are experts in not being seen.

Was it everyone, or just Lily? (And Dumbledore, of course.) I can't remember now. I think I blocked it out of my mind because I just could not get it to make sense.

Either way, James would have wanted to make sure Lily found out so she could be suitably impressed. I really wonder what she thought had happened that she didn't ask what the "whatever was down there" was, if only so she could figure out exactly how heroic James had or hadn't been. Either she is the most incurious person in the world, or she thought she already knew but didn't want to tell Sev for some reason. Which makes it possible that she did learn Remus was a werewolf and thought she was helping keep him safe, but in that case it seems very odd that she wasn't furious that his friend(s) had tried to use him as a weapon, which could have gotten him sent to Azkaban. So why would she trust Sirius to the end of her life, if she thought he'd (whether thoughtlessly or premeditatedly) betrayed one of his best friends like that?

And if she didn't know Remus was a werewolf, what did she think was in the tunnel, and why did she think it had to be kept secret? If it were just some random thing, why shouldn't the whole school know all the details? Dumbledore could have awarded James a bunch of points in the entry hall and told anyone passing by what it was for. Horrible thought: maybe she thought it was one of Hagrid's monsters, and she thought she was protecting him, and it was his own fault for wanting to prove his "absurd" idea when "Hagrid's got another pet monster" was the obvious explanation and he really ought to know better than to go messing with Hagrid's monsters by now.

Even in that case, you'd think she'd want to know what Sirius said that made Sev go down there. Did she really think Sirius waltzed up and said, "Yup, you're right about the werewolf thing, and you can see for yourself if you poke this knot on the Willow tonight!" and Sev trusted him and did exactly as he said? There's no way. So it had to be some kind of dirty trick, and she had to have known that, even if she didn't know the details. And just... thought it wasn't that bad, I guess. She'd had five years of Hogwarts Mandatory Brutality Training by that point.

[chantaldormand]

Well:
"Dumbledore’s silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts."
And that is in candle light, so I imagine that in proper full moon light ghosts would be very visible.

According to DH:
“They sneak out at night. There’s something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?”
“He’s ill,” said Lily. “They say he’s ill —”
“Every month at the full moon?” said Snape.
“I know your theory,” said Lily, and she sounded cold. “Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they’re doing at night?”
“I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.”
The intensity of his gaze made her blush.
“They don’t use Dark Magic, though.” She dropped her voice. “And you’re being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever’s down there —"
Snape’s whole face contorted and he spluttered, “Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends’ too! You’re not going to — I won’t let you —””
So it's hard to say what Hogwarts' student population thought about situation, but Remus-is-werewolf theory was on Lily's radar even before she married James.

Whole situation is fishy and smells of Albus' manipulation.

[sunnyskywalker]

Candle light is more golden, though. We know it makes (live) human hair shine, but not having actual ghosts around to test, we don't know whether they look different under different colors of light.

Albus is definitely involved somehow. I mean... Lily knows there was something dangerous in the tunnel, and she knows Sev thought it would be a werewolf. But she doesn't think to ask, "So, was my counter-hypothesis right and they were really just sneaking out to feed some monster Hagrid's keeping there? Don't you feel silly now?" So, either she knows Sev was right but won't say so (maybe because she doesn't understand exactly what happened and thinks she's protecting Remus), or she thinks it was something else but also won't say so, or she is so incurious that she just accepts "something dangerous" and doesn't wonder at all what it was, not even so she can admire James more. The last sounds too unlikely even for incurious Hogwarts kids, unless Albus or one of the Marauders magically induced her lack of curiosity. If she thinks it's something else, then "Hagrid's latest monster" might explain why she doesn't say so--she thinks she's protecting Hagrid by shutting down all conversation about it. And if she has found out Sev was right and Remus is a werewolf, she must be confused about exactly what happened or she'd be at least a little more wary of the Marauders' version.

Albus is well placed to cause the confusion in all cases. The fact that he didn't step up security on the tunnel or on the Marauders during full moon nights would seem like evidence to her that Remus couldn't possibly be a werewolf, because if he were and Sev really had almost been mauled/killed, the headmaster would do something. Therefore, it couldn't be true, QED. That alone makes him complicit in lying to Lily on James's behalf, amongst other problems (like, oh, risking the rest of the student population by not upgrading his security measures after they were proven inadequate).

If he guessed James or his friends would blab to impress Lily, he could get in first to dampen her curiosity, so she just accepted whatever vague bullshit they said. If he realized after James dropped too many hints, he could drop his own misleading hints to Lily to help her conclude either that it was Hagrid's monster or that fine, Remus was a werewolf, but Sev was definitely at fault somehow.

I hope that James only dropped his hints to Lily (or arranged for her to overhear a conversation between him and his friends, maybe) and the whole school hadn't heard that "Snape ran into something dangerous under the Willow and Potter rescued him." Because otherwise we'd have to figure out why hundreds of students wouldn't try to find out more. There should be all kinds of theories! Lots of students should have tried to find a way into the tunnel! Or maybe they did all figure out out, and... uh... everyone forgot by PoA? No, I can't see how that would work. No one knowing anything happened but the Marauders, Sev, and Lily would be the easiest to explain away.

I wonder who the "they" in "they say he's ill" are? The other Marauders? The staff? Other students speculating?

[chantaldormand]

/Candle light is more golden, though. We know it makes (live) human hair shine, but not having actual ghosts around to test, we don't know whether they look different under different colors of light. /

Hmm, what about mist or concentrated dry ice vapours? They should have similar consistency and colour to ghost.

/Or maybe they did all figure out out, and.../
...they are polite enough to not mention it? :P
Honestly the whole incident is one big headache. Just like majority of incidents where Albus is involved. Perhaps by this point it's his habit to meddle and toss around mind magic when he spots opportunity? :P
IMHO the most probable scenario is second one. She either was manipulated by Albus or told by someone else that the incident involved something other than Remus the werewolf. Once she learned the truth she was in no position (nor her pride would allow that) to tell Sev "you were right".

If we take Harry's classmates as a standard year at Hogwarts then either Marauders are only guys who sleep in their dormitory or they have one maybe two other dormmates whom they bribe. So I would say "they" are either Marauders or their dormmates. I mean why Lily would ask teachers about Remus when in HPverse authority figures are universally hated :P