Dishwashers , Puppy hunts and werewolf excursions

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 39856

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> Much as I am enjoying all the Machievellian machinations of the 
> Magic Dishwasher, I think I have found a theory-killer. If 
> Dumbledore knew all about the Marauders' animagi forms, why, 
> in the name of all wizardry, wouldn't he have told the ministry 
> about Sirius during the first puppy-hunt, 12 years before? At that 
> point he, like everyone else, wanted Sirius *found.* 
><Snip>
> Pippin

Oooh, that's easy 
[hoping Pippin doesn't see the sudden flash of panic in my eyes :-)]

The Potters are killed at night. I believe Dumbledore did not have 
any advance warning that the Secret had been betrayed - Voldemort, 
knowing there were leaks, may well have gone to Godrics Hollow 
immediately Pettigrew betrayed them.

Dumbledore finds out the Potters are dead, Harry is alive and 
Voldemort is a wisp of floating noxious gas by some means we don't 
yet know about. Knowing that Harry can only be protected from 
Voldemort by deep magic involving blood relations, he immediately 
details Hagrid to get Harry, then finds out who Harry's surviving 
relatives are, and starts preparing the Privet Drive defenses.

Preparing the Privet Drive defenses takes the rest of the night and 
the following day - in fact, it takes till midnight the next day (see 
PS/SS Chapter One). There's a lot to be done, including arranging Mrs 
Figg's cover. 

Meanwhile, according to Madame Rosmerta, "The Ministry of Magic 
caught up with Black the next day!" (PoA p. 155 UK hardback) Fudge 
corrects her by telling her it was Pettigrew - but doesn't disagree 
with the timetable.

The implication is that Pettigrew caught up with Black the morning or 
afternoon after Harry's parents were killed, when Hagrid was still 
doing a motorbike flight from the West Country to the South East (and 
since he took over 24 hours to do it, I assume he hid during daylight 
to avoid 'Muggles amazed by Flying Motorbike' headlines). 

There's another implication from something Hagrid says:
 "Never occurred to ter me what he [Sirius Black] was doin' there. I 
didn' know he'd bin Lily an' James' Secret Keeper"  (p. 153 PoA)
- which is that Dumbledore was giving all his concentration to 
keeping the Last of the Potters safe and hadn't yet considered the 
need to find and expose their betrayer. He certainly hadn't 
considered the need to warn Hagrid about Sirius Black.

By the time Dumbledore had finished arranging the Safety Net for 
Harry, Black had been caught anyway, and the puppy-hunt was over. 
Black was off to Azkaban - exposing him as an illegal animagi would 
also involve exposing the genuinely heroic James and the supposedly 
heroic Pettigrew as law-breakers.

Before you ask why he didn't tell the Ministry Sirius was an Animagi 
*anyway*, given that that was how Black escaped, the answer is 
probably that since Dementors are known to suck magic powers from you 
Dumbledore assumed it didn't matter exactly what powers Black had. 
"Dementors are supposed to drain a wizard of his powers if he is left 
with them too long. (Lupin, PoA p. 140).

By the time of the second puppy-hunt, of course, Dumbledore had heard 
the rumours that Pettigrew was the real secret keeper...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Naama says:
> But why would Dumbledore have kept quite about it [the Maurauders  
> being Animagi] then? I mean, you have quite a nice theory about why 
> he has to keep silent now, but why keep silent *then*? According to 
> your scenario, Dumbledore knows that four teenagers that are under 
> his charge, are breaking the law while putting themselves and      
> others at risk. Breaking the law, mind you, not just school rules.

My theory means that Dumbledore doesn't find out about the Maurauders 
until *after* the Prank.

I have always assumed the 'werewolf' excursions stopped after the 
Prank. I don't think there's any canon evidence either way; but I 
would assume that after the near-death of a student, James and Sirius 
would have been very strictly forbidden, on pain of expulsion, to go 
near Lupin in his werewolf state. There would then have been no real 
risk in the Maurauders being Animagi.

Leaving aside the question of how much Dumbledore really cares about 
breaking laws per se; I suspect that it would be very much in his 
philosophy to let law-breakers decide for themselves whether to admit 
to 'harmless' law-breaking - he would leave it up to the Maurauders  
to decide whether to register. 

Further, considering that the Maurauders seem to have graduated 
straight into the hottest part of the Voldemort-Potter war, he might 
well have thought that being *unregistered* Animagi might end up 
saving their lives someday. Which it does - one for good ends, and 
one for bad ends.

Pip