Chapter 80 -
Damnit, lost my nice long post. Here’s a short summary:
If this a plot designed by Quirel, it’s to help Harry. If this is a plot to help Harry, my guess is that it’s via the governmental destabilization that will result—Unrest will be caused by the ruling, a lack of trust in the sanity of the government, and this just gets worse when Harry does something drastic to get her out, like taking the whole thing out. If it’s a legit attack, not sure what to do or what will happen.
As for the events themselves, I think they happened. “Oblivation cannot be detected by any means”—Hermoine did cast the B-C charm, and then reversed/treated it… the posited villian then comes in, restores the curse, and oblivates the memories of reversal/treatement. As for getting her to do it in the first place? Muggle drugs to enhance paranoia and aggression—wizards wouldn’t check for it, but Harry would.
The other best possibility I can imagine is that Hermoine cast some other spell as a sneak-attack, and then someone just changed that memory—a work of a few minutes, if that.
Both of these particularly square with Hermoine’s statement, paraphrased, that she woke up to realize what she’d done, not stayed up all night aggravated by it.
I think I should give this a go. I’ll be coming from Santa Monica, and am likely to be late.