Fawkes (D's phoenix) tries to alert Dumbledore to the "not serious" prisoner, for reasons that are not immediately clear.
Fawkes probably wants to help all the prisoners. That's what phoenixes do, they act as anti-Dementors of sorts. Dumbledore probably dismissed it as just the phoenix picking up on the prisoner's distress.
Dumbledore notes to Amelia Bones that there was an item hidden under a piece of cloth in Bellatrix's cell, which he was leaving to the forensic aurors to investigate
We saw Quirrel put this there (and Harry saw him too). What could this item be? Any unexpected item would ruin the death-doll pretense.
My guess: a vial with traces of poison to make it look like someone sneaked in poison for Bella and she drank it. ETA: but we don't know why Quirrel would do that; see discussion below.
ETA: but we don't know why Quirrel would do that; see discussion below.
Misdirection? The scenario would go like this: ideally, Bella is found dead, and chucked out as just another Azkaban victim.
In the event anyone is suspicious and does some checking, the easiest thing to do would be to inspect the contents of the cell, immediately uncovering the poison. (If you were suspicious, it would take you a long time to work down the list of suspiciousness to 'a genius wizard used an incredibly advanced spell to create an identical dead body'.)
Instantly, the in...
- This thread has run its course. You will find newer threads in the discussion section.
Another discussion thread - the fourth - has reached the (arbitrary?) 500 comments threshold, so it's time for a new thread for Eliezer Yudkowsky's widely-praised Harry Potter fanfic.
Most of the paratext and fan-made resources are listed on Mr. LessWrong's author page. There is also AdeleneDawner's collection of most of the previously-published Author's Notes.
Older threads: one, two, three, four. By tag.
Newer threads are in the Discussion section, starting from Part 6.
Spoiler policy as suggested by Unnamed and approved by Eliezer, me, and at least three other upmodders:
It would also be quite sensible and welcome to continue the practice of declaring at the top of your post which chapters you are about to discuss, especially for newly-published ones, so that people who haven't yet seen them can stop reading in time.