Why didn't Sirius apparate?

[Tom Wall]

No: HPFGUIDX 82464


sylviablundell at a... wrote:
My 12-year-old has asked me a question I find difficult to answer. 
Perhaps someone could help. The question was: why did Sirius go 
through all that trouble, swimming for miles and then journeying 
north when he could have simply apparated once he was outside the 
prison and re-appeared outside the grounds of Hogwarts.THEN he 
could have slipped in disguised as a dog.Would he require the wand he 
presumably didn't possess to apparate? It all sounds too simple, so 
I suppose there must be some good reason why he didn't use this 
method. I'm probably overlooking something obvious, but would be glad 
if someone could tell me what that is.

Melinda replied:
Perhaps because he didn't know if it was safe to aparate into 
Hogsmead. The only place he could apparate there unseen would b the 
shrieking shack, and having been in Azkaban for so long, he wouldn't 
know if that was safe. Remember also that he first went to Privet 
Drive, presumably a place he had never ben before, so he couldn't 
aparate there.

Tom adds:
Hmph. I love the questions that kids ask!

My guess (if I had to have one, since I never thought to question 
this particular plot point) is twofold: one, I think that a wand is 
*probably* needed for Apparation, although we don't know this to be a 
canon-based fact; in that sense, what with his wand removed and all, 
Sirius would be severely handicapped.

Secondly, we know that Apparation is extremely difficult, and that it 
can go awry if performed improperly; a witch or wizard can 
accidentally `splinch' themselves by leaving part of the body behind. 
Since Azkaban (and the dementors who ran it) severely weakened most 
of the occupants within, perhaps he just wasn't strong enough to 
perform the spell, despite the fact that he was able to stave off 
some of the negative effects of the dementors by turning into a dog.

Oh, and (last minute thinking here) I'm guessing that in order to 
Apparate, he would have had to become a man again... perhaps that 
would have revealed him to the dementors before he could escape?

-Tom