Conservation of detail. The two excuses mentioned can be assigned greater significance on a meta level.
And an apocalyptic prophecy is much like Pascal’s Mugger: the centaur may not be in prophecy mode, so fear-of-embarrassment might keep you from telling Dumbledore, but you’d still rather not take the risk.
“I talked to a centaur and he told me x” is hardly embarrassing. She wouldn’t even have to claim to believe it, just say “what do you think of this claim based on your superior experience?” And it’s obvious Dumbledore would want to know.
“Hey, most powerful wizard in the world. I know you’re very busy, but a centaur told me that if I give my sister a beauty potion the world will literally end.”
Conservation of detail. The two excuses mentioned can be assigned greater significance on a meta level.
And an apocalyptic prophecy is much like Pascal’s Mugger: the centaur may not be in prophecy mode, so fear-of-embarrassment might keep you from telling Dumbledore, but you’d still rather not take the risk.
“I talked to a centaur and he told me x” is hardly embarrassing. She wouldn’t even have to claim to believe it, just say “what do you think of this claim based on your superior experience?” And it’s obvious Dumbledore would want to know.
Isn’t it?
“Hey, most powerful wizard in the world. I know you’re very busy, but a centaur told me that if I give my sister a beauty potion the world will literally end.”