[HPforGrownups] Re: Sirius and the Dark Mark

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 35595

In a message dated 21/02/02 17:34:47 GMT Standard Time, foxmoth at qnet.com 
writes:


> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "hollygolightly95" 
> <miss_hollygolightly at h...> wrote:
> 
> > If all Death Eaters have the Dark Mark on their arm, it should be 
> > easy enough to identify them. If Sirius never was a Death Eater, 
> he  doesn't carry the mark, so why was that not enough to prove 
> his  innocence? Why was he sent to Azkaban without even a 
> trial?
> 
> Sirius was captured after Voldemort's fall when the Mark had  
> vanished. The vanishing would have been among the signs that 
> Voldemort had really gone. The mark only returned as Voldemort 
> began to regain his physical form. Thus Snape's remark in the 
> Penseive, "It's coming back...Karkaroff's too...stronger and 
> clearer than ever." 
> 
> I wonder how the Mark was hidden when the Dark Lord was still 
> strong. Perhaps Voldemort can control how visible it is. Or 
> perhaps the Ministry knew about the Mark from Snape but did not 
> dare to use the knowledge, say to  search any suspects, 
> because it might have revealed that one of Voldemort's Inner 
> Circle was a traitor, thus compromising Snape. In World War II 
> the British had to be very cautious about using information they 
> had deciphered from the Enigma code because they didn't want 
> the Germans to know they had broken it.
> 
> Pippin
> 

Two further comments ( all this happened whist I was tucked up in bed, so I'm 
trailing in last, as usual).

First, Crouch/Moody reveals to Snape that he knows about the Dark Mark during 
the pyjama party. Yes, we could say he knows because he is really *Crouch*, 
but OTOH, he was pretending to be Moody as far as Snape was concerned and 
wouldn't want to raise suspicion, thus suggesting that Aurors did indeed know 
about it. Unless he was hoping that Snape would put two and two together and 
join him (I only just thought of that) - a risky strategy.

Secondly, the fact of the mark 'becoming stronger' suggests that to me that 
it is always present, not just there when Voldemort is communicating via it 
(Snape notes that it burned blacker when Voldemort summoned the DEs to the 
graveyard, but it was still there later). Which does make it a very risky 
device.

And finally ( I know I said two, but never mind), we do not know that *all* 
Voldemort's supporters are a) DEs and b) have the Dark Mark. The Potter's 
betrayer did not *have* to be  a DE. Sirius *could* have been a spy ( From 
the MOM's POV) without being one of the inner elite.

Eloise, delighted that Holly and Dicentra have joined the Evil Fudge camp. 
(Acronym, Tabouli?)


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