Case for Marauders

[Cathy Drolet]

No: HPFGUIDX 109952

RMM:
"5th year ends and the boys go home from school.
That summer, Sirius moves out and into the Potters, before his 6th 
year at Hogwarts.
(This means that Voldemort is very popular at this time, because 
Sirius' parents are really being too much for Sirius.)
Sirius and James enter their 6th year at Hogwarts.
Something happens in the 6th year, because Sirius finds his OWN PLACE 
TO LIVE between his 6th and 7th years at Hogwarts.  He only visits
the Potters for Sunday dinner.  This tells me that his visits are with
the parents (who have "adopted" him) and not to James.
Where is James?And what happend to their relationship?  Had James started seeing
Lily at this time?  NO, for we are told that they only started going out 
during their 7th year at Hogwarts.
Something happened to cause a rift between James and Sirius -- being 
two of the closest friends imaginable."


DuffyPoo - who swore to herself she wouldn't get drawn back into this again...but...

"'You ran away from home?'
'When I was about sixteen,' said Sirius. 'I'd had enough.'
'Where did you go?' asked Harry, staring at him.
'Your dad's place,' said Sirius. 'Your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as a second son.  Yeah, I camped out at your dad's in the school holidays, and when I was seventeen I got a place of my own. My Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold -- he's been wiped off here, too, that's probably why -- anyway, after that I looked after myself.  I was always welcome at Mr and Mrs Potter's for Sunday lunch, though.'
'But...why did you..?'
'Leave?' Sirius smiled bitterly and ran his fingers through his long, unkept hair. 'Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a black made you practically royal ... my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them...'"

I think this answers the question quite simply.  Sirius runs away from home when he is about sixteen, because of the attitude of his family, and spends the school holidays with the Potters.  Sirius came of age at seventeen, inherited a "decent bit of gold" from his Uncle Alphard, and decides to get his own place instead of sleeping on the Potters' couch.  No big 'rift' required.  Sirius just has the means to support himself, after his 17th birthday, instead of living off of the Potter family's charity.  

Nora said:
"So the two of them made up later despite this deep rift of James 
becoming a Death Eater?  After all, Sirius is the person who James 
AND Lily entrust with being Harry's godfather and the switch of 
Secret Keepers."

DuffyPoo again:
Which was going to be my next point so I'll let Nora make it instead.  (Happy birthday, by the way, I know....I'm a day late. I hope you got cake!)  From personal experience, anyone I've had a 'deep rift' with, it has never been made up entirely.  It is always there, a niggling doubt in the background.  Which is not to say that James Potter could certainly be a better person than I am in making up old rifts, but I find it doubtful that James would so completely trust Sirius again (or vice versa for that matter) that he would want Sirius as Secret-Keeper or Harry's godfather. 

Nora said:
"Sirius joining the DEs, when he's completely clueless about the existence of the Dark Mark?"

DuffyPoo again:
And when he said twice, that Regulus was an idiot, a stupid idiot for joining the DE's? 

Dumbledore says "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."  The eleven years before Oct 31, 1981 (whether you subscribe to the exact timeline on the Lexicon/DVD or not, it is close to that), is when LV was in power.  That covers, approx., 1970-1981.  While the Marauders were at Hogwarts, LV was running a war.  1976, when Sirius would have been 16 and moved to the Potters, LV, now halfway through that eleven years, was already showing his true colours.  Sirius says, of his parents, "they thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having pure-bloods in charge....they got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though."  Sirius, when he left home, was well aware of what LV was up to, because his parents thought LV had the right idea, and were all for it, until they saw what he was prepared to do to get power.

Alla:
"I frankly don't see how it could be rationalised timelinewise. 
Lexicon places Tom Riddle's resurfaction as Lord Voldemort at 1970. 
Give or take one-two years, but Lexicon is usually correct.
And this is the same time when Marauders start Hogwarts.
So, Valky I guess that Dumbledore hired Voldie , when he already 
became Voldie.
Why am I reluctant  to believe that? :o)"

DuffyPoo:
For the same reason I am reluctant to believe it?  TR *resurfaced* as LV.  I can't imagine DD inviting him to join the staff at Hogwarts as any teacher, never mind DADA.  

RMM:
"He is talking about what he learns 
about the man after much time with him, around him, probablyworking 
with him, learning about him through the Order of the Phoenix's work, 
etc.
He could not say that about Voldemort upon seeing him for the first 
time in 25 years."

DuffyPoo again:
Am I the only one who thinks DD kept tabs on TR from the moment he left school until he "resurfaced as LV?"  He was already suspicious, quite suspicious, of TR from his opening the CoS days. "Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemd to think Hagrid was innocent.  Yes, *I think Dumbledore might have guessed.*  Dumbledore never seemd to like me as much as the other teachers did....Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled."  Certainly, it can be argued that this only says DD watched TR while he was at school, for another year or so, but I suspect, what DD "might have guessed" caused him to keep a watch on TR even after he left school until he resufaced. In his keeping "an annoying close watch" on TR, he could possibly - likely - have heard TR himself, or his friends, referencing TR as Lord Voldemort.  "Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts.  He disappeared after leaving the school ... travelled far and wide ... sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorded with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was *barely* recognisable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here." But DD knew.  LV was *barely* recognisable, but recognisable surely to someone who had "kept an annoyingly close watch on" TR.  DD knew all the things that TR had gone through between leaving Hogwarts and 'resurfacing as LV' because he'd been keeping tabs on him.  My speculation at least. 


RMM
"Remember what Hagrid said?  "Only mystery is why Voldemort didn't go 
after James and Lily -- they were Head Boy and Head Girl." This tells me that other top students were being pegged by Voldemort and/or his agents."

DuffyPoo:
The precise quote, from my book at any rate, is: "Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before ... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' to do with the Dark Side."  Read your way, I supposed it does say that other top students were being pegged by LV, but read in the context of how Hagrid said it, IMO, it does not say that at all.  Hagrid knew LV had never gone after Lily and James before, probably because they were too close to DD to want anything to do with the Dark Side, maybe for some other reason, but it is obvious to Hagrid that LV 'never tried to get 'em on his side before."  Hagrid knew James and Lily, too, after all, "knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people ye couldn't find."  

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