I thought then and think now that it's the Stone she's worried he'll find out about.
Along with her forgery of the Book where names of magical children born in England are inscribed at their birth.
("In Hogwarts there's a magical quill which detects the birth of a magical child, and writes his or her name down in a large parchment book. Every year Professor McGonagall checks the book, and sends owls to the people who are turning 11" source (http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/0200-scholastic-chat.htm))
In canon, the book is probably incredibly secret. Otherwise, why would Neville ever need to worry about possibly being a Squib? He could just write to Hogwarts and ask them to check the book. I suspect Dumbledore doesn't want Wizarding parents to know that they can find out whether their children are Squibs the day they're born. Maybe that would lead to a rise in infanticide, which Dumbledore does not want to condone. And it also puts Muggleborn babies and their families in a certain amount of danger, even before V becomes LP.
Anyway, in Alternity, several people including V know about the book. And McG has a forged version where she leaves out the names of all the kids rescued at Moddey Dhoo. I wonder... are there enough Muggleborn babies that they are unable to smuggle out for one reason or another that the list still includes many Muggleborns? Or does Voldemort think that there are fewer and fewer Muggleborn babies being born, because so many are left off the forged list? And if he does, does he take that as evidence that his plan is working, and that he is stopping Muggles from stealing magic finally?
Actually, I doubt Voldemort believes the stealing magic theory. It sounds like such obviously nonsense propaganda. But I wonder how he does explain the (possible) decline of Muggleborn births, according to the list.
I also wonder how long he has known about the magical book. There was a conversation where Boot said he was taken from his parents when he showed magic at age 4, which implies to me that Voldemort didn't have access to the book at that time, or else why would he have to wait for a child to *show* magic to remove them to the Mudblood camps? So how long did McG keep the book hidden, and what made her finally reveal it? I suppose it's quite possible that her Occlumency has failed her before, and one previous failure outed the existence of the book. It would explain why she is so very nervous about V even after a decade of fooling him.
All this is really just throwing thoughts around and see if they turn into anything interesting. I like your explanation of good Occlumency being about selective showing of memory instead of brick wall... though that makes it a bit hard to understand why being an Animagus would help McG. (Aha! I just checked back, and my memory was a little wrong. She actually says this (http://alt-mcgonagall.livejournal.com/4615.html?thread=25607#t25607). So I'll just guess Sirius's Animagus theory is incorrect, and actually McG's Occlumency is just good in a normal, Snapey way).
also, WHERE IS SNAPE? I don't think we've even had the tiniest clue in-game.
no subject
Along with her forgery of the Book where names of magical children born in England are inscribed at their birth.
("In Hogwarts there's a magical quill which detects the birth of a magical child, and writes his or her name down in a large parchment book. Every year Professor McGonagall checks the book, and sends owls to the people who are turning 11" source (http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/0200-scholastic-chat.htm))
In canon, the book is probably incredibly secret. Otherwise, why would Neville ever need to worry about possibly being a Squib? He could just write to Hogwarts and ask them to check the book. I suspect Dumbledore doesn't want Wizarding parents to know that they can find out whether their children are Squibs the day they're born. Maybe that would lead to a rise in infanticide, which Dumbledore does not want to condone. And it also puts Muggleborn babies and their families in a certain amount of danger, even before V becomes LP.
Anyway, in Alternity, several people including V know about the book. And McG has a forged version where she leaves out the names of all the kids rescued at Moddey Dhoo. I wonder... are there enough Muggleborn babies that they are unable to smuggle out for one reason or another that the list still includes many Muggleborns? Or does Voldemort think that there are fewer and fewer Muggleborn babies being born, because so many are left off the forged list? And if he does, does he take that as evidence that his plan is working, and that he is stopping Muggles from stealing magic finally?
Actually, I doubt Voldemort believes the stealing magic theory. It sounds like such obviously nonsense propaganda. But I wonder how he does explain the (possible) decline of Muggleborn births, according to the list.
I also wonder how long he has known about the magical book. There was a conversation where Boot said he was taken from his parents when he showed magic at age 4, which implies to me that Voldemort didn't have access to the book at that time, or else why would he have to wait for a child to *show* magic to remove them to the Mudblood camps? So how long did McG keep the book hidden, and what made her finally reveal it? I suppose it's quite possible that her Occlumency has failed her before, and one previous failure outed the existence of the book. It would explain why she is so very nervous about V even after a decade of fooling him.
All this is really just throwing thoughts around and see if they turn into anything interesting. I like your explanation of good Occlumency being about selective showing of memory instead of brick wall... though that makes it a bit hard to understand why being an Animagus would help McG. (Aha! I just checked back, and my memory was a little wrong. She actually says this (http://alt-mcgonagall.livejournal.com/4615.html?thread=25607#t25607). So I'll just guess Sirius's Animagus theory is incorrect, and actually McG's Occlumency is just good in a normal, Snapey way).
also, WHERE IS SNAPE? I don't think we've even had the tiniest clue in-game.