Letting People Know About Sirius/Pettigrew

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 55978

> I am curious about whether people here agree with the decision not 
to 
> go public with Sirius' innocence.  I can see why Dumbledore does 
not 
> want to get HRH involved with the MoM, but there is a life at stake 
> here.

> If Dumbledore were to have gone public first, then I would think 
that 
> Sirius would at least be given veritasirum first, if only to answer 
> any possible doubts in the public mind.

That all sounds completely logical and plausible.  Then, why does no 
one, in either PoA or GoF, think or suggest that Sirius come in and 
use veritaserum - not Sirius, not Dumbledore, not Lupin, not Harry, 
not Hermione - no one.  After all, these are not stupid people here.  

That leads me to believe that there's something about the use or 
properties of veritaserum that we don't know.  Is it only effective 
when questioning a person about events during a certain time span?  
In other words, could you ask about things over the previous, say 5 
years, but anything older than that would be considered suspect? If 
that's the case Sirius could certainly say he was not guilty of 
betraying the Potters, but any questions about his activities, or 
what he knew of Peter's activities at the time of the Potters' deaths 
would fall outside that safe time span, and thus, no one could be 
sure that he was telling the truth. So, any evidence he gave to 
support his side of things would not automatically be believed.  

Or is there a fear that, due to Sirius' long incarceration, Ministry 
officials and/or the public would simply assume he was insane, and 
thus, anything he said, under the influence of the serum or not, 
would be construed as wild ravings?

Or, is it so ingrained in the public's mind that Sirius was V's right-
hand man and thus probably knows devilish Dark Magic that might 
thwart the effects of veritaserum so that, again, anything he said 
would not be believed?  

The one thing above all else that would help Sirius clear his name is 
the presence of Peter Pettigrew. Saying that Pettigrew is really 
alive doesn't buttress Sirius' defense nearly as well as actually 
having the real flesh and blood Peter standing right there. So, since 
Peter was off tending to Voldemort, that may have been reason enough 
for Dumbledore to keep things quiet.

Marianne