a flint regarding wizarding trials

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 71349

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kathryn Cawte" <kcawte at b...> 
wrote:
> thehighinquisitorof hogwarts said about the Potter's secret keeper
>  what about DD being all knowing and being able to determine who is 
> telling the truth and who is not, per his explanation with his bout 
> with Kreacher?  Some would say without "proof" DD's hands were tied 
> but this should be a flaw in the wizarding world judicial system as 
> this type of information (the truth) should be easily extracted 
from 
> all accused with a verdict not entirely relying upon a jury's 
> decision, a process which is flawed in the judical muggle world.
> 
> Me -
> 
> Dumbledore can only tell if someone is telling the truth if they say
> something. Sirius never protested his innocence - he went off the 
deep end,
> laughed insanely and pretty much let them incarcerate him on the 
basis that
> no one would believe him anyway. While he might not have been able 
to
> present his evidence in a court of law I'm sure that had Sirius 
actually
> *said* but I wasn't the Secret Keeper, peter was, oh and btw he's an
> animagus and can turn into a rat then Dumbledore would have been 
able to
> tell he was telling the truth and at least tried to exert some 
influence on
> his behalf. Unfortunately Sirius was somewhat understandably not 
entirely in
> his right mind at the time and did no such thing.

We don't know that he didn't start screaming his innocence to the 
Aurors hauling him in once he stopped laughing. Remember, Fudge is 
the one who tells us about the laughter - we never hear that from 
Sirius.  Fudge was on the scene pretty quickly. It wouldn't suprise 
me in the least if he simply didn't want to hear protestations of 
innocence from someone standing with a wand in his hand in the middle 
of a wrecked street with bodies all around.  It was the end of Vmort, 
or so people thought. It was a time when Crouch, Sr. allowed his 
people to use Unforgivables.  I think it quite likely that no one in 
authority would have wanted to hear anything from a supposed 
desperate Death Eater.  Just toss him in Azkaban and be done with him.
 
> I do wonder if the Order members (including Sirius) knew that 
Dumbledore had
> this skill or if it was yet another thing he decided to keep to 
himself.
> 
> K

Good question. Dumbledore knew of the traitor in their midst in the 
first go round of the OoP.  Did he try to use his Occlumency skills 
to figure out who that person might be? If not, why not? If he did 
use it, did he know or suspect it was Peter?  And, if so, what did he 
do about that? I bet this is one of those things that will disappear 
in the mists and we'll never know the answer.

Marianne