Silly Questions (that may never be answered)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 74859

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "KathyK" <zanelupin at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, jazmyn <jazmyn at p...> wrote:
> > 
> > Did Harry get a reward for the captured Death Eaters?  
> >
> >A reward for the  death of the wanted criminal, Sirius Black?  
> > ..edited...
> > 
> > Jazmyn
> 
> ...  Other than the folks in the 
> Order and the DE's, who knows that Sirius is dead?  Are any of these 
> people likely to tell the Ministry that he is dead?  ...edited...
> I don't see any reason why the general public or the Ministry would 
> know that Sirius is dead.
> 
> KathyK

bboy_mn:

A good point to ponder. I don't think the Order has any desire to make
Sirius's death into public or private knowledge. By private
information, I mean they won't tell the Ministry unofficially, or
anyone else who doesn't have a valid need to know relative to the
continued effective operation of the Order.

My particulat vision of what will happen, is the they will try to
clear Sirius's name first. I envision them doing this the same way
they cleared Harry's name in the current book. They get Rita Skeeter
to write another story. A story based on a direct interview with Harry
that explains the details and circumstances around his parents death.

I can see it starting with Harry saying something like, you finally
believed me when I gave you the details of Voldemort's return, now I'm
asking you to trust me again. No one has more reason to hate Sirius
Black that me, Harry Potter, but I swear to you he is innocent and
here is why .... (insert very sympathetic and heart wrenching account
of his dearly beloved Godfather's misfortune and fate not including
his death. An account concluding with Harry's statement of deep love,
respect, and affection for Sirius. What reader could resist a story
like that; action, intrigue, mystery, plot twists, heart felt
emotions, and love.

Just one small catch. Hermione only made Rita Skeeter keep he 'poison
pen' silent for one year. That one year is over. So Rita has lost some
incentive to cooperate with Hermione and Harry. However, Hermione does
still have the unregistered animagus knowledge to hold over Rita's head. 

Perhaps Rita has learned her lesson. Perhaps the acclaim she got for
having an exclusive interview with Harry, and being the first reporter
to dare to go against the trend and report the truth, and for being
the reporter to first break the story of Voldemort's return in detail
will have shown her that the true is far more powerful than lies. 

She has the additional boost to her (and Harry's) credability because
part of that story has now been confirmed because some of the named
previously cleared DE's have been caught in the act of a crime
executed on Voldemort's behalf. If nothing else, the Death Eater Masks
were a dead give away.

Once they have Sirius's name cleared or at least have public sympathy
on their side, they can work behind the scenes to resolve the estate.
I'm wondering if the introduction of Phineas Nigellus wasn't partly
because JRK will need someone to give a final ruling on the
disposition of Black's estate.

Once they have the estate resolved behind the scenes, the can them
make it public knowledge that Sirius is dead. 

First and foremost, there is absolute no reasonfor and several
disadvantages to the order releasing the news of Sirius's death. They
have no incentive for releasing this information until such time as
they can make it work to their advantage.

THE DEATH EATER CAPTURE REWARDS-
This issue is really getting to me, I swear I become more pschotically
obssessed with it everyday. I will simply be furious if the Ministry
does not make good on it's offer of G1,000 per death eater (G=symbol
for Galleons, should actually look like the General Mills 'G' logo),
and they should still get the G1,000 for the capture of the DE's like
Malfoy who were not escaped prisoners. A captured DE is a captured DE;
escaped or not.

If the money is offerred to Harry, I suspect he will insist that
everyone who was involved (other students and Order members) get an
equal share of the reward. Although I think certain members like Moody
will decline. 

The implication is that there were about 10 DE's present, most but not
all of them were caught, and some of them were not Azkaban escaped
DE's. I don't think Moody or Kingsley will accept their share of the
reward. So, let's round it off to 8 bad guys captured by 8 good guys;
that G1,000 each. Worst case, estimate 6 escaped DE's and 10 good
guys' that's G600 each.

1,000 galleons is about US$7,500.
600 galleons is about US$4,500.

Either way, that will be like a small fortune to Ron and Lupin, and it
certainly won't be small potatoes to the other members.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn