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How do members communicate with one another?
Patronus Message, a form of communication developed by Albus Dumbledore, which cannot be interfered with using Dark magic. (JKR Official site.)
Hmm, now wait a second.
OotP p. 830, the infodump at the end:
"You see, when you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realized that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries. He, like you, attempted to contact Sirius at once. I should explain that the members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating than the fire in Dolores Umbridge's office. Professor Snape found that Sirius was alive and well in Grimmauld Place."
It is possible that message-by-Patronus is not what Dumbledore is referring to, here, because he does, after all, say "methods" in the plural. But if he is, then the "but this is touching, Severus" scene in DH becomes kind of nonsensical. Dumbledore must surely already know that Snape's Patronus is (still) a doe, so not only does it not make much sense for Snape to try to prove anything by casting it, but "all this time?" is just a head-scratcher.
I think maybe this is just an inconsistency and that JKR wasn't thinking about this when she wrote that scene.
Patronus Message, a form of communication developed by Albus Dumbledore, which cannot be interfered with using Dark magic. (JKR Official site.)
Hmm, now wait a second.
OotP p. 830, the infodump at the end:
"You see, when you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realized that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries. He, like you, attempted to contact Sirius at once. I should explain that the members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating than the fire in Dolores Umbridge's office. Professor Snape found that Sirius was alive and well in Grimmauld Place."
It is possible that message-by-Patronus is not what Dumbledore is referring to, here, because he does, after all, say "methods" in the plural. But if he is, then the "but this is touching, Severus" scene in DH becomes kind of nonsensical. Dumbledore must surely already know that Snape's Patronus is (still) a doe, so not only does it not make much sense for Snape to try to prove anything by casting it, but "all this time?" is just a head-scratcher.
I think maybe this is just an inconsistency and that JKR wasn't thinking about this when she wrote that scene.