Why didn't Sirius apparate?

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 82492


sylviablundell2001 <sylviablundell at a...> wrote:
> > 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.

Melinda <meltowne at y...> wrote:
> Perhaps because he didn't know if it was safe to apparate into 
> Hogsmead.  The only place he could apparate there unseen would be 
> 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 been before, so he 
> couldn't apparate there.
> 
> Presumably he could have gone to Grimmauld Place as well, but that 
> might not have been safe either - we don't know exactly when his 
> mother died.
 

Also it is entirely possible that he was so weak from being in 
Azkaban that his powers were drained from the animagus transformation 
and he lacked the strength to do any advanced magic. Another thought 
is that apparating is less reliable over long distances (even 
Dumbledore doesn't do it that often) so perhaps he had the strength, 
but he didn't trust himself to go so far. Just a thought.
Meri