Harry Potter and the Indirect Post

[Hermione]

I noticed in HBP that Harry rarely got a letter sent to him via owl. Instead, when Snape or Dumbledore needed to talk with him, they sent a message through someone, or gave the message to someone and had them give it to him.

I wonder why this was. Perhaps is was a protection method to make sure the message wasn't discovered, but it also had to go with mundane things like detention schedules.

[Mr.Prongs]

I believe the reason was that owls could be intercepted. I want to say that JKR mentioned that in te begining, but Im not sure.

[Alz]

I think the MoM were searching all owls - as such if you wanted to keep something a little private then alternative measures are required ...
I'm just thinking in the previous books, when something internal to the school needed to be sent was the owl used? :confused: Cant remember right now.
I think it was because Dumbledore wanted the classes to remain a secret - wouldnt suprise me if that he used secret paper the like of which he used on the Muggle in the orphanage.

[Hermione]

But everyone used a wide array of people. There was not one messanger, such as a house elf, but a lot of people. Hermione was used as was Ginny, Luna and several others. If security was the issue, wouldn't it be better to use more trustworthy powerful messangers?

[Mr.Prongs]

using the same person again and again would say something is up, though. You could see that the same person was delivering a message to harry, for example, repeatedly. From there, it would be easy to track teh sender.

[Hermione]

using the same person again and again would say something is up, though. You could see that the same person was delivering a message to harry, for example, repeatedly. From there, it would be easy to track teh sender.

I agree with you, but using students? They could very easily be compromised. That was my point.

[Fortescue]

If you look back, Harry has never received a message from anyone at the school but Hagrid. Hagrid used owls because, he, of course, lived in his cabin and it was easier. Harry learned of his previous detentions straight from the teacher or in GoF, when Harry was feuding with Ron; Ron relayed the message of the joint detention with Snape. In HBP it's the first time we see Harry get a message at all. It would seem rather stupid to receive an owl from inside the same building. :rolleyes:

[Alz]

One digression point maybe - was all the note passers DA students?
Just trying to cast my memory back - but that might explain why Dumbledore used notes and the candidate selection ... they could all be trusted ...