Do "the old crowd" know Sirius is Innocent and what about Rita Skeeter?

[Hollydaze]

No: HPFGUIDX 30247

Something I have been thinking about recently and posted but did not 
get any replies to, is it just that no one has an answer or did no 
one see the origonal post?

Dumbledore tells Sirius to round up the Old crowd. Sirius is ony told 
who two of the members are cos Dumbeldore names Arabella Figg and 
Mudugus Fletcher and then just says "and the rest of the Old Crowd". 
This must mean that Sirius automatically knows who the rest of them 
are, implying he is part of the "old crowd". This would imply that 
they are his friends or atleast they all know one another quite well. 
We have been told time and again that EVERYONE thought (ands till 
does) that Sirius is guilty of Killing 13 people, even Lupin who 
seems to be the only one of Sirius' REALLY close friends who is still 
alive, thought he was guilty until the end of book 3. The only people 
who know Sirius is innocent are Hermione, Harry, Ron, Dumbeldore and 
Lupin, although this has expanded to Molly and Snape at the end of 
book 4 (it could be argued that they still think he is guilty 
however), remeber Bill had already left when Sirius transforms.

Now my real question is how is Sirius planning to round up the old 
members if they don't know he is innocent, if he just turns up and 
tells them they have to see Dumbledore or whatever and they still 
think he is guilty, won't they just stun him and call the MoM? 
Dementors swoop down and no more Sirius Black, has Dumbeldre actually 
been in contact with them about what he suspects and told them that 
Sirius is Innocent and to expect a call form him or what becuase 
other wise this does not make sense.

One other thing that worry's me is that Rita Skeeter knows Sirius is 
an Animagus and that he is working with DHHRM and S, Hermione only 
trapped her AFTER Sirius had revealed himself, is this going to be 
key to future books, either in proving Sirius is innocent or in him 
dying/being captured? (this latter thing has been bugging -no pun 
intended- me for a while now but no one seems to have an answer)

HOLLYDAZE!!!