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The Harry Potter example is the page quote on Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him.
I don't think the Harry Potter example fits this trope, if the message comes to Harry without being changed by the chain of messengers.
"You want weapons?! We're in a Library! BOOKS! The best weapons in the universe!" — The Doctor
HP doesn't fit Gossip Evolution, you're right about that, but I think Gossip Evolution is pretty close to the trope I'm looking for.
Thanks very much!
Feathers or lead?
I've wondered about this one too.
There's another example in Adrian Mole. Pandora asks Claire Nielson to tell Nigel to tell Adrian that Pandora loves Adrian, who tells Nigel to tell Claire to tell Pandora that he returns her love.
Is there a trope for when information gets from Character A to Character B by relaying it via multiple people? Like in the children's game "Telephone" (also called "Chinese Whispers," I'm told) where a bunch of kids sit in a circle and one kid says something to the person on their left, and that kid repeats it to the person on *their* left, and so on, until it comes back to the first person, and often (but not always) the message has gotten distorted beyond recognition along the way?
Example: There's a bit in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where Ron wants Harry to know about the dragon task, but he can't tell him directly because Harry is angry at him, so he tells another Gryffindor who tells somebody and so forth until word gets to Harry that he should be in the Forbidden Forest at a certain time.