Draco’s not stupid. I don’t know how much of the circumstances around the graveyard scene are going to become public, but enough information has already been released to paint a picture of Mysterious Circumstances involving Hermione and Quirrell (and the dead). Knowing that, if Harry—a kid with an uncanny talent for showing up in the center of Mysterious Circumstances, and with close links to both Hermione and Quirrell—shows up and tells you he has a horrible secret that will make you hate him, is it that hard to put the pieces together even without hearing the secret explicitly? Not conclusively, of course, but enough for strong suspicion?
Ideally he has been obliviated of that part of the conversation too. “the most important part of any secret is the knowledge that a secret exists”, etc.
Draco’s not stupid. I don’t know how much of the circumstances around the graveyard scene are going to become public, but enough information has already been released to paint a picture of Mysterious Circumstances involving Hermione and Quirrell (and the dead). Knowing that, if Harry—a kid with an uncanny talent for showing up in the center of Mysterious Circumstances, and with close links to both Hermione and Quirrell—shows up and tells you he has a horrible secret that will make you hate him, is it that hard to put the pieces together even without hearing the secret explicitly? Not conclusively, of course, but enough for strong suspicion?
Ideally he has been obliviated of that part of the conversation too. “the most important part of any secret is the knowledge that a secret exists”, etc.
In the chapter, yes, that’s presumably true. I was replying to cousin_it’s alternative plan, which specified no obliviation.