@ Josiah & Grace Has Victory – That passage about Snape passing information on the Order bothered me too (although it doesn’t mention anything about Amelia Bones): “The Dark Lord is satisfied with the information I have passed him on the Order. It led, as perhaps you have guessed, to the recent capture and murder of Emmeline Vance, and it certainly helped dispose of Sirius Black…” I think Grace Has Victory is right that Snape’s assertion doesn’t necessarily need to be true. I can’t think of what information Snape would have given Voldemort about Sirius that he didn’t already have from other sources. We learned in OoTP that it was Kreacher who told Narcissa about the relationship between Harry was Sirius, and that this instigated Voldemort’s plan to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries. I’m not saying that Snape is innocent here, but it’s possible that he’s reframing his contributions to Bella in light of what’s happened.

Also, just want to say that I love Heather Campbell’s depiction of Spinner’s End! Eerie!

Also how difficult must it have been to have Wormtail; the person who really betrayed Lily, living with him. Granted he is fairly horrible to him but were it me i’d be ready to kill him at a moments notice. Considering how he treated sirius when he thought sirius was the one who betrayed her. Anyway i’m rambling but it’s interesting to read the scene bearing this character history in mind.

Great site by the way. Was directed here by the lexicon.
Des

Even those who would have known about the part of the prophecy Voldemort heard would only know that Harry was “the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord”. According to Dumbledore, the eavesdropper only heard up to the description of the parents (“He heard only the first part, the part foretelling the birth of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort”-OoTP, Ch. 37). The “mark him as his equal” and “power the Dark Lord knows not” bits come after that.

So, they would only know that this boy, this baby, managed to defeat their Lord and Master, not how or why. Naturally, none of the good wizards had managed to do it, so it must be something dark as, to them at least, dark magic is more powerful.

Also, just to clarify, it’s not my assertion, per se, but I can understand where they were coming from in thinking it.

However, I think it probably is true. I think that Snape, who is not a nice person, deliberately sacrificed these two innocent people in order to increase his credibility with Voldemort. Perhaps he had a personal score to settle with them. Or perhaps he simply decided that, if allies had to be sacrificed, these two were expendable.

Though the Lestranges might not realize it, he is acknowledging Hermione’s astounding ability, revealing to us that he is not truly so prejudiced towards Muggle-borns, and warning us not to believe that he is truly loyal to the Dark Lord and not Dumbledore.

I mean, what a ridiculous ridiculous statement. How could anyone believe that Harry survived Voldemort’s attack because he was a “great Dark wizard”? He was a year old! And why on Earth would Death Eaters want to rally around the boy who had undone their master. It just really doesn’t make any sense.

On a different note, I think it’s funny to imagine the Minister for Magic sitting in his office, talking to his own portrait of the frog-like man, receiving reports about how the Prime Minister’s amusing attempts to prise the other portrait from his wall. I can just imagine Fudge shaking his head and smiling ruefully at those ridiculous Muggles, forever trying to deny the existence of witches and wizards.