Case for Marauders (was Re: Marauders, Voldemort and the Map)

[dcgmck]

No: HPFGUIDX 109905

[snip]
> Alla:
> 
> LOL, Kathy! You know, for now I pretty much gave up participating 
in this argument  seeing as Nora and now you do it very well, but I 
just wanted to make a quick comment on this one.
> 
[snip]
> I LIKE to speculate, BUT I still prefer that my speculation had at 
> least some canon-support, some roots.
> 
> If my speculation is flat out rejected by canon, it becomes really 
> weak, IMO

dcgmck:

Hm... This does seem, for the most part, like a devil's advocate's 
argument, but while I also appreciate canonical support, I do worry 
when the canon cited is clearly shaded by the cloud of perspective.  

Hagrid doesn't always know what Harry, Ron, and Hermione are thinking 
or doing; neither would he have been in a position to know everything 
that the Marauders were willing to try.  He doesn't seem to have 
known that they were unregistered animagi, nor is it likely that he 
would have disapproved, since he himself clearly dabbles in 
unauthorized magic and experimental breeding.

Nothing Black and Lupin say about their past is definitive.  They 
clearly gloss over what they perceive to have been youthful foibles, 
as evidenced by their delighted reminiscences upon hearing of Harry's 
viewing of Snape's memory in OotP.  Declaring hatred for the dark 
arts is right up there with Barty Crouch, Jr.'s declaration of his 
despite for death eaters that went unpunished after having been 
caught.  He is sincere, yet we, like Harry, are fools to take his 
words at their face value.

Timewise it does seem illogical that the Marauders would have had 
time to be courted by Voldemort before James matured sufficiently for 
Lily to be willing to date him.  What about after graduation and 
before marriage?  How many people stay with their high school 
sweethearts through their twenties?  Is it not just as likely that 
they went their separate ways, only to regroup at a later time?  
There is at present no canonical support one way or the other on this 
point.

I guess my point is that both agreeing and disagreeing seem like 
folly at this point in time.  There just isn't enough hard evidence 
outside the realm of personal testimonials at this point to declare 
absolutely that James and Sirius in particular were not susceptible 
to appeals to intellectual superiority for, as Gandalf said, "the 
good of lesser folk."  Such an appeal won many to Hitler's cause 
until he showed his true colors.  Those "lesser folk" tend to remain 
in the abstract for broad-minded intellectuals who nevertheless cross 
the street from homeless panhandlers and sneer at oily, greasy, 
dirty, foul-mouthed associates.