Sirius and Remus / In Defense of Moody

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 33965

Catlady wrote:

> 
> I am thinking that Sirius didn't suspect Remus because of believing 
> Remus to be untrustworthy, but because Remus is a werewolf and that 
> might make him vulnerable to something in between being blackmailed 
> and being manipulated in wolf form into doing things he doesn't 
> really remember the next day. And he doesn't want to tell Remus 
> something so unkind, but he broods on it and thus becomes a bit 
cold 
> or constrained in his behavior toward Remus.
> 
> And Remus noticed this unexplained change in Sirius's behavior and 
> the only reason he can figure out for it is if Sirius is the 
traitor.
> 

The wild card in all of this is Peter.  Peter has shown himself to be 
fairly clever and cagey.  I suspect he influenced Sirius and Remus by 
telling each of them things to make each suspicious of the other.  

Elkins wrote (of Moody):

>But he also seems to 
> consider it morally acceptable to _break faith_ with captive
> prisoners ("Let's hear his information, I say, and throw him
> straight back to the dementors.")  He is not adverse to 
> dehumanizing his enemies; he feels free to sneer at them;
> in the course of a single page, he refers to Karkaroff as both
> "filth" and "scum."  He is skeptical of Dumbledore's 
> judgement of Snape; he does not believe in second chances.
> He tries not to kill, but he doesn't seem unduly bothered
> by it when he does so.  And he approves of the use of the 
> dementors as prison guards.  ("For scum like this...")
> 
><snip
> 
> And this is one of the GOOD Aurors.
> 
> I know that many people on this board really really *like*
> Moody, and that I'm probably making myself very unpopular 
> by saying this, but I simply must.  I don't like Moody.  
> I really don't care for him at all.  He strikes me as the 
> sort of person who would happily strip away all of my civil 
> liberties, given half the chance, and I consider such men a 
> serious threat to civilized society.  
> 

Uh, oh.  I don't recall anyone really critizing my beloved Alastor 
before, so this is new to me.  And as a card-carrying libertarian, I 
have to admit you make some darn good points.

Hmmm.  Despite your compelling argument, I still think Moody is 
great.  The reason the civil liberties issues with him don't bother 
me is that this was a wartime situation.  Voldemort was taking over.  
No one in Moody's day went to Azkaban (that we know of) without a 
trial (or, at least, the skimpy excuse for a proceeding that wizards 
call trials), so I don't mind if part of the punishment is having one 
bummer of a day right after another.  Moody did try to bring people 
in alive, although he didn't have to, and he probably risked his life 
doing it.  That he doesn't display compassion for the DEs doesn't 
trouble me much, either.  I'm more interested in his actions than his 
words.

Yes, Moody does say a lot of things that indicate that he doesn't 
play by rules that would work well under our constitution.  But then 
again, Moody certainly operates within the civil liberty protections 
that exist (or don't exist) in the wizarding world.  I get the 
feeling that Moody doesn't make the criminal justice rules, but he 
does follow them.  Should we really ask for much more than that?

Elkins again:

> Also, word of Crouch/Moody's decision to torture a student 
> surely must have made its way to Dumbledore's ears at some
> point, and it didn't tip him off.  I think it safe to assume
> that such an action would have been in character for the
> real Moody as well.


As for the bouncing ferret episode, you make a very good point that 
this sort of thing must be consistent with real Moody's character.  
That's OK, though.  If I might be permitted to hide behind the rule 
of law, Moody acted in defense of another and he did not use deadly 
force (or even sufficient force to injure).  What he did would most 
likely pass muster under U.S. law, so it must be perfectly fine in 
the looser construct of the wizarding world.  

Moody certainly erred in not knowing that different rules apply in a 
school.  He would have known that, however, had he been Real Moody, 
who probably was briefed on school discipline by Dumbledore.

Cindy