Harry's Jaunt to Hogsmeade

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 57390

Frankly, I can't see why Hogwarts students need parental/guardian permission
to go to Hogsmeade.  We're talking (as nearly as I can tell) about a fairly
typical Scottish village that happens to be all-magical-folk, NOT Patpong
Road, the Amsterdam red-light district, or the Reeperbahn.  (Not that
Hogwarts students would be interested in such goings-on...they're sweet,
pure, chaste, virginal, demure, and disgusted by such things.  At least,
that's the Party line and I'm sticking to it.)

For that matter, it was quite a jump for the MoM to _assume_ instantly that
Sirius Black was after Harry Potter specifically.  "He's at Hogwarts?"  That
could refer to _anybody_ who is currently "at Hogwarts" in any capacity.  It
would have been quite a joke on the MoM if Sirius Black _had_ been
Ever-So-Evil, and had been after _Remus Lupin,_ and had gotten in a good
shot at him while everybody was hovering over poor little Harry Potter.
Somehow, in that sort of situation, I don't quite think "Oops!" will cover
it.  "Uh...gee, Professor Lupin, we're really, really sorry he got you.
Shall I go get Madam Pomfrey?  Oo-er, I bet that smarts!"

Come to it...if they thought that Sirius Black _was_ Voldemort's right-hand
dude, why didn't it occur to anybody that what SB was talking about was his
Lord?  "He's at Hogwarts" could have meant that SB had figured out that
_Voldemort_ was hidden in the school somehow, and had nothing to do with
Harry Potter.  The Big V had been there before, after all.

I think that the MoM was jumping to conclusions, and that this is another
example of Ministry corruption and ineptitude.  Putting Dementors around
Hogwarts, after the Dementors had slipped up already and let SB get loose
somehow, is yet another example...I'd have used Aurors, who can tell the
difference between a student and an escaped convict, and aren't too likely
to try to suck anybody's soul out of them.