alt_fen | another puzzle

Perhaps one of you pieced this together immediately. I haven't.

In the comments on

alt_mcgonagall's 17 September Order Only post, Molly Weasley asks McGonagall if Lucius Malfoy asked to see "the book" during his visit to the castle. McGonagall responds: "As for the book - no, he did not. I believe we've duped him - at least this year."

Thoughts?

Aside: the question has been raised (on the previous thread) whether to start threads for each separate topic or whether this community risks developing too many simultaneous conversations. My vote is for making new posts for each separate topic (and for fresh rounds of speculation on old topics after they've lain dormant for a while). I find this helps me navigate the community if I want to find what someone said on a particular issue. For what it's worth (and in anticipation of the day when it becomes an issue for us), I also think it's helpful to keep threads from collapsing to outline by starting a new post to continue the ongoing conversation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Just casting a net, here, for some possible related evidence on the book issue:

1. Interesting that on the 17th, the day of Lucius' visit and McG's deception, was the same day Sally-Anne Perks reported that business with the biting book that escaped from Madame Pince -- and Pince was angry when Sally-Anne tried to look at the title.

2. If you want to temporarily hide books, maybe sending them out for re-binding offers a good excuse. And Hermione is -- or was -- responsible for rebinding. So is this another way she is being used, here, and is she aware of what's going on?

3. The more I think about it, the odder it seems that Pince would share, and Hermione would post, that picture (http://alt-hermione.livejournal.com/2051.html) of a page of Runic text on the 10th. I mean, it's pretty, but it's the only graphic post like that so far. Could it contain some sort of code or secret announcement, that couldn't be shared (or wouldn't have had the same authority) as a simple posting under Order Only?

I like your #3!

I've no idea what to do with it, though.

This seems to be the RL text from which that image was borrowed for the game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Runicus).

I've no idea what to do with it, though.

Me neither, but that's never stopped us before . . .

Maybe the quill writes in runic, so the page is from The Book. Per your wikipedia entry, the codex includes a list of names, Danish Kings in the real version. A list of magical names might look similar to a casual observer. Who would look twice?

If there's a Hermione-Library-Book connection, I wonder what that says about Lupin's interest in Hermione. I had assumed Lupin was benevolent and Sirius was being paranoid, because I couldn't think of anything that would make Hermione specifically of interest to a spy. But if she's a key player in the child-substitution operation, that's different.

And now I wonder about Hermione's parents' role -- don't they move from camp to camp as dentists? (I'm sorry, I can't find that cite and may be mis-remembering, though Hermione talks about "the camps" (http://alt-hermione.livejournal.com/2398.html) they lived in.) If so, would that have made the whole Granger family perfect agents for this sort of business as well?

Hermione talks about her parents moving between camps in her profile (http://alt-hermione.livejournal.com/profile).

Thanks! I knew I'd seen that somewhere. So that gives them unusual mobility for Muggles, positions them nicely for intelligence activities. Hmmmmm.

It would be very interesting if "the book" were one of the library books that have been encountered by students -- hide in plain sight, indeed!

I'd enjoy the irony if it were Sally-Anne who'd gotten close, but I thought that the biting book was The Monster Book of Monsters, which Hermione mentions (admittedly in a circumstance that makes it seem likely that it wasn't really the book that caused the injury) (http://alt-hermione.livejournal.com/1609.html?thread=4937#t4937).

I think #2 is the more likely scenario. McGonagall might well have taken the precautionary measure of providing herself with a concrete excuse for not being able to show Malfoy the book (and then he failed to ask).

The bigger point that I think you are making is that the players are doing a fabulous job of layering in plot details that may seem irrelevant in their moment of mention, but which are beginning to have significant pay-offs.

FWIW, Draco in Sally-Anne's biting book post suggests that "a" biting book is something you can make just to show that you can. So, there might be more than one, it might not be Monsters, especially if Hermione is good at making "special" covers like she did with Slughorn's potion book. I admit it's a reach to tie Sally-Anne in, here, but I'm leaning toward "not disproven." :)

the players are doing a fabulous job of layering in plot details that may seem irrelevant in their moment of mention, but which are beginning to have significant pay-offs

Most definitely. Which makes it great fun to be a watcher.

but I'm leaning toward "not disproven." :)

As we all know by now, I'm a firm believer in holding in play all possibilities that have not yet been disproven. Doesn't mean I'm not glad to see the field of possibilities reduced eventually or that I can't recognize relative degrees of probability, but I'm with you in appreciating the possibilities while they remain possible.

Or something like that.

:)

Or something like that.

I believe the technical term is "bumbling off after red herrings," and I am all for it! ;)

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