Spies and traitors,

[pigwidgeon37 at yahoo.it]

No: HPFGUIDX 24007


Monika wrote:
<Actually, I think it's quite shocking that James and Lily seem to be 
<the *only* people who trusted Sirius. Everybody else, even those who 
<knew him really well: Remus, Hagrid, McGonagall - were certain he 
<betrayed his best friends and slaughtered the muggles.Still worse, 
<it seems that Dumbledore shared their belief. I think he didn't 
<quite trust any of James's friends, because he volunteered to 
<be the Potters' Secret Keeper.
Amy Z wrote:
<That bit wasn't disinformation, though.  One of their best friends 
<*was* a spy.  Snape didn't know which one, unfortunately . . . of 
<course, maybe James wouldn't have believed him if he'd said it was 
<Peter, either.  I prefer to think that he would have; that he 
<trusted Sirius despite the warnings (if there were even specific 
<warnings against Sirius, which we don't know) because he knew Sirius 
<to the core--and he was right, Sirius would never have betrayed 
<him.  Maybe if the warning had been about Peter, on the other hand, 
<it would have been believed.
Pippin wrote:
<I think Voldemort knew that someone in his inner circle was 
<passing information back to the good guys and took advantage of it. 
<I see a carefully orchestrated campaign of disinformation, in which 
<Snape played an important but unwitting role by informing Dumbledore 
<that there was a spy planted near the Potters. Snape speaks of 
<James' refusal to believe that Black could betray him, which 
<suggests that Snape himself passed information about Black back to 
<the Potters.

IMO, in times like the last year of V.'s reign, you find it difficult 
to trust anybody, even your husband or wife or, as in the 
James/Sirius case, one of your best friends. As Sirius says in GoF, 
everybody was suspecting everybody and after all it was clear that 
one of the Potters' friends had to be the spy. Unfortunately, Snape 
(if it was really him to provide that bit of information) didn't know 
the spy's identity, otherwise things would have gone in a different 
way.
There is that things that keeps bothering me, though, let's see if I 
can put it into words and it still makes sense: 1) There is a limited 
number of Death Eaters 2) Not every DE knows every other DE's 
identity 3) Snape was a DE and mole for Dumbledore (this begins to 
sound like one of the logical puzzles).
Peter Pettigrew has the Dark Mark on his forearm and I think (but 
that could be the hole in the theory) he had to receive it before 
Voldemorts downfall, for the simple reason that afterwards V. had 
neither the strength nor the physical means to mark him. Now, if 
Pettigrew had been a simple spy, seeing Voldemort now and then in 
private to give him some information about the enemy, it would be 
credible that Snape knew there had to be a spy, but couldn't very 
well go to V., saying "Hey, Voldie old boy, tell me who is this spy 
who provides such a lot of useful information about Dumbledore's 
group?" But it seems that Pettigrew was a DE, he and Snape had both 
been at Hogwarts, maybe even in the same year, Snape had spied on the 
Marauders, and it strikes me as impossible that Snape shouldn't have 
recognized him, even if he was hooded and masked: Pettigrew isn't 
much taller than a child and has that squeaky voice- how is it 
possible Snape couldn't identify him? 
Or maybe he did? And couldn't tell Dumbledore in time? Or didn't tell 
Dumbldore on purpose, playing a very dirty and highly dangerous 
revenge- game with the Marauders, bringing them to distrust one 
another?
Comments and clarifications VERY welcome!




Bente wrote:
<Does this mean that Sirius Black was in Slytherin?


As somebody else mentioned, it seems highly improbable that such 
close friendships as the Marauders' could be formed between students 
from different houses. (See what McGonagall tells the first years in 
PS/SS: The respective house is to become the students' family, free 
time is to be spent together with your housemates etc.) No, I think 
Peter has to be a Gryffindor. The interesting bit is: What will he do 
in his life to justify the Sorting Hat's choice? 

Amy Z wrote:
>There's a still, or possibly just a publicity shot, that I'm
>wondering about.  Anyone want to take a guess at what this scene is?


God, that's bothering: You can't see the background very well, looks 
like the columns of some cloister. And is there anybodt on this list 
who actually likes those broomsticks? Just look at the handles! They 
should be straight and polished, not look like some branch you've 
just ripped off a tree.

Amber wrote:
<I think that Draco has to experience a terrible loss to make him 
<reexamine his life. My pet theory is that Lucius is going to be 
<killed by Voldemort before the books are done and what Draco does in 
<reaction is going to be a telling indicator of his character. (Of 
<course, JKR will most likely prove me wrong!)


What you say is based on the assumption that in the Malfoy family 
there is actually such a thing as love, otherwise the loss of his 
father or mother wouldn't be a traumatizing experience for Draco. Now 
I don't think that any of their relationships is based on love, not 
even Draco's with his mother. The "Don't you dare insult my mother!" 
from GoF is no proof whatsoever for Draco loving his mother. It 
merely indicates that family honour is held very high. Lucius getting 
killed would make Draco the "man in the house", he would inherit 
everything and finally be free to do whatever he wants, probably 
turning out much worse than his father- imagine if that is a terrible 
loss to him!!

Susanna