Dishwashers , Puppy hunts and werewolf excursions

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 39871

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "naamagatus" <naama_gat at h...> wrote:
> 
> > Naama says:
> > > But why would Dumbledore have kept quite about it [the 
> > > Maurauders being Animagi] 

<Snip>> 

Pip replies:
> > 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.
> > 
> 
Naama replies:
> Yes, if Dumbledore had found out that James and Sirius hang around 
> Transformed!Lupin then he would most certainly have forbidden them 
> to do that. 
> But ... exactly how could Dumbledore forbid them to go near 
> Transformed!Lupin without revealing that he knows about their being 
> Animagi? 


Again, I repeat, Dumbledore finds out *after* the Prank. I do not 
mean *after* in the sense of 'immediately following'. I mean 'at some 
time following' - which could mean quite possibly months after.

[grin]

I admit it may have been the Prank which started Dumbledore 
wondering. Perhaps Snape did see James become Prongs, and got 
told 'no, don't be so silly, they don't know enough to be Animagi 
yet'. Then Dumbledore started to wonder, James being as talented as 
he was. But at the time the Prank was hot news, Dumbledore didn't 
know.

Naama says:
It would have been pretty weak, wouldn't it, to tell clever 
> 17 year olds that they mustn't go near werewolves. Like, duh, don't 
> they know that already? Nobody in their right senses would go near 
> a werewolf in human form. Can Dumbledore really make it believable 
> that that's what he thinks they have been doing? Hanging around 
> Lupin as humans? Can he make it believable that he thinks they can 
> be that stupid? (and WHY should he, anyway?!)
>  

Well, they've just nearly got a fellow student [Snape] killed by 
letting him go near a werewolf while Snape was in human form, so yes, 
I think it's *very* believable that Dumbledore can think they'd be 
that stupid. They've just BEEN that stupid (at least, Sirius has).

He would probably assume going down the Whomping Willow tunnel was a 
game of 'chicken' (are you a chicken or not? If not, just how near to 
the werewolf do you dare go?) After all, they're Gryffindors, and 
Gryffindors have to act brave. :-)

The alternative is that he has to believe that they *do* know just 
how stupid it is, and THAT means Sirius was trying to kill Snape 
after all...

You would not believe just how stupid a 16 year old can be (I know, I 
was one once <g>). I think the equivalent to playing 'chicken' with a 
werewolf would be playing 'chicken' with the cars travelling on a 
motorway at 70 mph - and kids do do that.

> Dumbledore may not be a stickler for rules per se, but I don't see 
> him allowing his students to break the law for the sheer fun of it. 
> 
> <snip>

I have argued that in the middle of a war where the Ministry of Magic 
is known to include undercover enemy agents, *not* registering might 
be a life-saver one day. There are sometimes perfectly good reasons 
for breaking laws. 

Pip (who is really extremely law abiding)
Squeak