Why the Veritaserum theory is all wet

judyserenity judyshapiro at earthlink.net
Wed Feb 6 19:44:34 UTC 2002


No: HPFGUIDX 34767

Tex wrote:
> >... AFAIKT, Cannon doesn't tell us Sirius' 
> > motive for the prank, i.e. why Serius Told Snape about the Shack.
> > I think Snape spiked Serius' pumpkin juice with Veritaserum and
> > caused him thus to babble. 

Sheesh, will people stop at nothing to malign my poor, misunderstood 
Severus? 

Devin responded: 
> Hmmm...well, I have my doubts about the whole Veritaserum theory.  
> Yes, Snape is often angry for no good reason, but I doubt even Snape 
> could be angry at Sirius for endangering him if the only reason 
> Sirius endangered him was that he was under the influence of 
> Veritaserum.  I think it was just a dumb, very stupid and childish 
> thing Sirius did, and I LIKE Sirius, so there ya go.

Thanks very much, Devin!  I guess some of you Sirists are OK after 
all!

There's a much bigger problem with the "Veritaserum made Sirius talk" 
theory, though.  Think about it.  Ok, suppose 16 year old Snape got 
his hands on carefully controlled Veritaserum, managed to lure Sirius 
away from his friends, and somehow arranged for Sirius to have amnesia 
about the whole thing.  (By the way, that kind of contradicts the 
"Snape is incompetent" theory, doesn't it?)  So, Snape has Sirius 
under the influence of veritaserum.  Snape asks "where does Lupin go 
each month?" Sirius replies "He goes into a tunnel under the Whomping 
Willow.  The tunnel leads to the Shrieking Shack."  

I can pretty much guarantee that the next words out of Snape's mouth 
will be "*Why* does Lupin go to the Shrieking Shack?"  (Or something 
to that effect.)  And, of course veritaserumed Sirius will have to 
reply "Because Lupin is a werewolf."  

Snape would have no reason to go to the Shack after that; the Prank 
would never happen.

-- Judy





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