Training, Part Two

[terri_testing]

“… the light
Gives perfect vision, false and hard…”

*

Albus was gravely disappointed to discover that all of the Marauders were hiding things from him.

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

I like seeing the theories taking form in fic, that's the best test to see if they hang together!

Albus is so convinced he reads Tom correctly (and thinks so poorly of Severus) that he ignores Severus' information.

So there is a DE among the Aurors? Who went through 3 years of training and some length of service undercover? (Or did Crouch really have his own spy - seems doubtful to me.)

Yes, if James has a Hallow, and Tom has a Hallow - and Albus believes Tom knows what he has ... Can't leave that cloak in the open.

I'm wondering what disinformation Albus wants to send to Tom.

[terri_testing]

Well, there's a DE among the Unspeakables, who must have gone through more training than the Aurors..... No, I don't think that someone joined the DE's and then went through Auror training unsus[ected--I think that, like Severus, someone joined and turned.

Yes, there is actually an unselfish reason for Albus to want to take the Cloak away from James.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I'm wondering what would motivate someone who was willing to invest so much in becoming and being an Auror to turn. Were they disappointed with what being an Auror turned out to be?

[terri_testing]

I've been assuming Tom had turned at least one of the Aurors ever since "Liberacorpus"--I mean, if Albus could persuade at least 5 Aurors to violate their oaths of office, why shouldn't Tom manage one? You never knew who was going to turn out to be one, remember?

There might be a lot of reasons for an Auror to join Tom, but I'd think the simplest would be attraction to Tom's stated goals. To a wizarding supremacist, being enough on the inside to see just how much of the MInistry's resources are devoted to hiding magic from Muggles must be quite frustrating. And there might well arise a philosophical difference of opinion with the Ministry about what constitutes "Dark Magic" which ought to be suppressed....

[anne_arthur]

Your Dumbledore is disturbingly plausible! Another very good instalment.

[terri_testing]

Thank you. He gets worse.

[oryx_leucoryx]

BTW what is your timeline, more or less? Are we somewhere in late spring, early summer of 1981?

If you are going to write about the July Order meeting in which the photo was taken, then just for 'color' - my guess is the meeting was the celebration of Dumbles' 100th birthday. The timing is right, there is a mention of raised glasses, and there had to have been something special that day for Aberforth to join them, the only time Moody met him. (Of Course Aberforth is hanging in the back of the photo, far from, but just behind his brother.)

[terri_testing]

Very early summer of 1981, since we know Albus "borrowed" the Cloak from James by late July. Hmm--he might have asked James to bring it to that very meeting. I forget when Albus's birthday is--I know it's not specified in canon, but Jo's said elsewhere, hasn't she

[oryx_leucoryx]

About Albus' birthday, we know he was not yet 18 when his mother died, so he must have had a summer birthday. Out of canon Rowling first gave his age as 150, then changed his birth year to 1881 in his Wizard of the Month card (IIRC), I don't think she gave him an exact birthday yet

[oryx_leucoryx]

Adding to my previous post: If Severus was appointed later than Sep 1st of 1981, it was not because Tom's order came that late but because it took that long for Horace to decide to retire. Maybe there was some event that shook him terribly just then. I'm playing with the idea that a great-(great?)-grandnephew of his turned out to be a DE.

[maidofkent]

In OotP, Severus tells Umbridge that he's been teaching at Hogwarts for 14 years. That comment is made early in October 1995, because it comes shortly after the meeting in the pub to form the DA, which happens on the first week-end of October. It looks as if 14 years is meant to be fairly precise, because Sybill tells Umbridge that she has been teaching 'for nearly sixteen years', and Minerva says '39 years come December'. So, Severus is likely to have started teaching either in September 1981, or right at the beginning of October 1981. That would be before the Potters went under the Fidelius

[oryx_leucoryx]

Dolores' inspections take place in chapter 15, during the second week of September. Still, Severus could have been rounding.

[maidofkent]

Both Sybill and Minerva are inspected in chapter 15, but Severus is inspected later, in chapter 17 (perhaps because Lucius has spoken highly of him).

[oryx_leucoryx]

You are right, two days after the meeting at Hogsmeade. Thanks.

[oryx_leucoryx]

If the TA has no classroom time, of course Harry wouldn't notice. Though Hermione might.

Harry wouldn't even notice 6-7 more people at the staff table than should be expected assuming one teacher per subject. Though odd that w never saw Remus' TA substituting for him.

[lynn_waterfall]

Maybe they can't even get TA's for Defense, any more. Even if nothing happened to them, would you really want to stand *that* close to where the lightning's going to hit? Or perhaps the curse affected a longstanding TA as a side effect, once. After all, Lupin nearly ended up killing three students; another Defense teacher might've hurt their TA.

Or, perhaps there was one, and when Dumbledore informed the staff about the new werewolf professor, they quit. (Since, according to Lupin at least, the staff already knew.)

[nx74defiant]

If the TA has no classroom time, of course Harry wouldn't notice.

LOL Harry doesn't even notice his fellow students enough to know the their names.

[terri_testing]

Well, it could also be that Remus DID have a TA, and that he substituted for every class but Harry's. That may be the bargain Snape struck to stay generally silent for the year, that if he saw Remus sniffing around Harry Snape would be given the chance to issue a veiled warning (which Hermione at least would unravel).