grim truth?

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Is there supposed to have been another Grim Truth post from Sirius? (Arthur tells him he saw his "entry last night.") If so I didn't and can't now see it. I did catch the exchange on Harry's journal where Sirius and Lucius exchanged barbs. Is that all that's meant when Arthur and Bellatrix say that Sirius provoked the attack Lucius led on the Cherwell camp?

Interesting bits and bobs in McGonagall's post tonight, too. (About the book's forgery; mention of Flitwick -- deceased, apparently -- from Molly; about the castle's protections; McG's note that Lucius is not a Legilimens and her clear anxiety about facing someone who IS one.)

ETA. Lucius talks about the provocation as though it was just Sirius' intrusion into Harry's comments thread.

More interestingly, Lucius links the disturbance in the camp with the "robbery" at Gringotts:

After the blackguard (no pun intended) retreated from the journal where he made a nuisance of himself, he apparently decided to incite an attempted break-out at Cheswell. It's all in the papers. He must have accomplices in this country, whom he induced through some method (doubtless an illicit and indecent form of magic) to disrupt the camps. Bella believes, as do I, that these culprits are the same miscreants who corrupted the Goblins enough to gain access to Gringotts and rob the bank last month. It makes sense: Their modus operandi seems to lie more in encouraging - possibly forcing - members of these inferior castes to rise up in revolt, creating chaos and bother for the rest of us.

I take Arthur's account as a truer representation of what happened at Cherwell (Lucius calls it Cheswell), which is to say that Lucius, Bellatrix and others went to the camp and took out their frustration with Sirius on the helpless captives (no uprising, no escape, no initiative on the Muggles's part, just a bit of Death Eater Muggle-baiting like we see canonically at the World Cup match).

I wonder if Lucius' linkage of the Cherwell and Gringotts incidents is more than just a matter of PR spin: perhaps the Gringotts episode was equally a matter of Lucius, Bellatrix, et. al. having done something extra-legal. Perhaps they went to Gringotts with a plan to empty a vault of something of value (the Philosopher's Stone, presumably) only to find that the vault in question (one they did not have legal power to access -- so what would their way around the Goblins have been? maybe I'm wrong) had already been emptied, though they thought that impossible, its rightful owner having been thought to be out of the country. In other words, I'm proposing that the substantial link between the camp riot and the Gringotts "robbery" might be that Lucius and cronies are the active agents in each case and that in each case they've concocted a story of insurgent lawlessness to cover their own dodgy dealing.

Also. It's not lost on me that Lucius hints that Sirius and his insurgent blackguards (a great pun) make use of Imperius to control Muggles.

Comments

[angstalaska.livejournal.com]

I think arthur was merely referring to the exchange, and that a new 'grim truth' should be forthcoming.

I think quirrel broke into the vault, and stole the broom. why? i dunno, just feels right. Maybe he's an agent of the order and minerva is feeding him info on how to get past the safe-guards. maybe he's lurking around trying to figure out how to get past them. i'd be willing to wager that a broom was the first ingredient he needed to get at the stone, and harry's is the best broom at the school.

I doubt lucius/the death eaters tried to steal the philosopher's stone, as they would know where it is thanks to the carrows, slughorn, etc. they no doubt have an interest in protecting it, but from whom or what...

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

I think we're talking at cross purposes here. The Gringott's event is in the past; whatever Quirrell might be up to is something still to come. I agree that he's an active suspect for the broom stealing and for some sort of incursion at Hogwarts on Halloween to parallel the troll episode in canon, which was, of course, an attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone ... for Voldemort's use, and that points to the very different circumstances in this AU and leaves us to wait for more information. I don't have any guesses about whom if anyone Quirrell is allied with in this AU. (Not the Protector, who saw to it he can't work at Hogwarts anymore. And there's surely no need for him to be an agent for McGonagall, is there? or for Dumbledore? If so, there are some big pieces of the puzzle we haven't seen yet.)

I'm curious though by your theory that Slughorn and the Carrows know the stone is currently being hidden at Hogwarts. Do we have any suggestions about who besides McGonagall -- and a few adventurous students -- might know that there is something hidden and guarded there? (Canonically the staff knew; I'm not convinced that's true here -- but I may have missed a key clue about that.)

[angstalaska.livejournal.com]

I'm speculating, not basing my theories on any evidence. Quirrell is the likely supect because i'm operating under the assumption that it's like cannon until it's not. Also, i just find it hard to believe that Fluffy can be a secret from the staff (who have the run of the school and are no doubt encouraged by V. to snoop around and report back). Especially after the kids talked about the incident in their journals.