From Black to White (was Peter...)
justcarol67
justcarol67 at yahoo.com
Thu Feb 5 18:45:11 UTC 2004
No: HPFGUIDX 90331
Marianne:
Oh - I just had a thought. I could see Harry making a bargain with
Peter that ran along the lines of "I'll do what I can to protect you
from harm or see that you get a only a short prison sentence, but
only if you clear Sirius' name."
bboy_mn:
Now this brings up a very interesting question - Will Sirius's name
ever be cleared and how?
<snip>
My personal opinion has always been that Sirius's name will be cleared
in a pre-emptive effort to clear the Black family estate. Harry will
publish another article/interview in which he explains what happened;
Peter wasn't really dead, Peter actually killed the 13 people, etc....
It would seem that they must first clear Sirius's name, then lay the
ground work for a favorable resolution of the Estate, the acknowledge
that Black is dead, then finally clear the Black Family Estate,
hopefully in Harry's favor, if not directly then at least, indirectly.
The key being that they can't acknowledge that he is dead until the
have cleared his name and have some knowledge that the estate will be
resolved in favor of the good guys. <snip>
Carol:
Although I agree with you that Sirius's name needs to be cleared to
resolve all the loose ends of the story, I think that's going to be
extremely difficult. As you say, Wormtail is the key. If the
Wizengamot sees that he's alive, then Sirius is at least innocent of
his murder. It may be more difficult to prove that he didn't kill the
twelve Muggles (or betray Lily and James, if that matters to the WG).
Proving that he's dead will be even more difficult. Whatever the
significance of the Veil in terms of symbolism and so forth, the fact
remains that it simply absorbed Sirius. There's no body, no proof that
he died fighting Bellatrix, no proof that he was present in the Battle
in the DoM. Fudge, who shows up at the end, sees Dumbledore and Harry
but no one else on the good side. He has only Dumbledore's word for
what happened, and we don't know exactly how much DD thinks he needs
to know ("the important points of what has happened here tonight," as
DD puts it, OoP 818, Am. ed.). Even if DD tells Fudge what happened to
Sirius, is he, with his penchant for denial, likely to believe that
Sirius was in that battle and that he's fallen through the Veil? Will
anyone else believe it? Only the Aurors Fudge brings with him witness
anything, and all they see is Harry, DD, LV, Bellatrix, a group of
stunned and bound DEs, and a lot of rubble. (I'm not sure what happens
to the other children, but the Order members have almost certainly
apparated before the Aurors arrive in the DoM.)
My point is, I don't see any way to prove the story of Sirius's
falling through--unless DD puts Harry's memory of the battle in the
Pensieve and shows it to Fudge. I'm not even sure that would
constitute proof to him, or to anyone else whose opinion matters. I
also don't think that DD would do that, because he still needs to keep
the identities of the Order members secret. (The names of the
arrrested DEs were published, but not the full story of the Battle of
the DoM and its participants.) So even if Sirius's name is cleared, I
don't see how, without a body or testimony from anyone except DD, the
DEs, and a group of children, his death is going to be proved.
Anyone else have any ideas, or something I'm overlooking?
Carol
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