Harry Potter: How did Snape track Harry to give him the sword?

[dragonyphoenix]

Is there canon on this? I was watching the movie and it really didn't explain. Death Eaters are searching right and left and can't find him, but Snape has no trouble?

I was wondering if it were canon but do have a couple of theories:

1. Most likely, the sword gave itself to Harry (moving itself into the lake) and Snape, whom we know had the sword, followed it.


2. Ron's deluminator came from Dumbledore. It's possible the process that returned Ron to Hermione (that green ball of light) was something Snape could track. Of course that would mean that Dumbledore would have had to tell Snape to keep an eye out for it.

Comments

[kikimay]

I honestly don't even know XD It was one of the things I couldn't explain to myself while reading the books.

Thing is: the doe appears to guide Harry, so Snape casted the spell that night (I don't think that these spells can last a week or something, it always seemed that the Patroni were very volatile) and send the patronus doe knowing that Harry was in that forest at that time and that Ron was going there ... at this point I guess it was all about the deluminator. In fact, the doe appears and then Ron comes back. Maybe Dumbledore's invention worked like a James Bond's device. XD

The thing that bothers me is: if Snape took the sword and put it in the Forest of Dean himself, how the hell did he know that Harry at some point was about to find refuge there? What if Hermione never had the idea to seek refuge in that particular forest? XDD

Maybe the sword was stolen by Snape but than it moved by itself and track down Harry who was also tracked down by Ron and hence by Snape.

Anyway, it's MAGIC! XD

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I definitely agree that Snape was there and cast the Patronus that night.

Actually I interpreted Ron's comment, at least from the movie, as that he'd been there for a day or two and was hoping one of them would show themselves. A Harry Potter timeline has Ron there the day before and so he's been in the woods all that time.

I think the sword had been in Snape's keeping but the sword then decided to move itself. Why it put itself at the bottom of a pond, I don't know. ;-)

[kikimay]

But, you know, I don't think that Snape was physically there-there. I think that he was maybe in Hogwarts or somewhere safe where he could cast the spell without being seen and then he sent the doe to whatever Harry was. In my understanding patroni can travel (Like it was a patronus that send the allarm at Fleur and Bill's wedding)

Also I've always thought that the sword was there since Snape stole it and maybe it ended up in a pond and then the water freezed in the winter. Like, I don't think it was intended to be under the ice (unless the Gryffindor sword, much like Dumbledore, is a troll XD)

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I had not been thinking of patronuses being able to travel distance but you are absolutely right. So Snape may not have been there.

I'd assumed he'd gotten the sword from Dumbledore because he put he fake one in Bellatrix's vault, but it is possible Dumbledore hid the sword himself. But then we do still have the issue of how he knew to put it there.

[kikimay]

Heh, that's the thing.

I believe that he took the sword (or Dumbledore gave it to him or, like you say, Dumbledore took the sword himself and then told Snape to put the fake one in the vault) and then the sword moved by itself to help Harry???

Basically, "Nevermind, it's magiiiiic" is the solid explanation in all this thing.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I just watched the last movie and the sword did appear out of nowhere for Neville so the sword moving itself does work for me.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is canon support for this, in "The Prince's Tale" chapter towards the end of the 7th book.

Snape has hidden the sword on Dumbledore's order so that he could give it to Harry to destroy the horcruxes. As Headmaster, Snape has all the previous Headmasters' portraits at Hogwarts working for him, and Phineas Nigellus informs him that the trio have been camping in the Forest of Dean.

Dumbledore reminds Snape that the sword must be taken under conditions of need and valor, and Snape tells him that he has a plan.

That plan, as witnessed by Harry, involves the use of a patronus. A patronus is powerful enough to deliver messages to the intended recipient (as established in Order of the Pheonix I think), so it is not surprising that it can lead Harry to the location of the sword (the message in this case is a location, or directions to it). Given that Snape casts the same patronus as Harry's mother, a patronus is used to ward off evil (dementors and lethifolds) and avoided by dark wizards, and Harry is a smart guy, the odds of the plan working is pretty high. (And indeed it does work.) :)

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh, they are dragging a portrait of Phineas Nigellus aroud with them, aren't they? Huh, that does work nicely. Thanks.