[HPforGrownups] Cedric and Pettigrew

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 91862

Annemehr wrote:
> I lock my doors at night, even though I know a thief could still get
> in.  Dumbledore doesn't have to have 100% confidence in the Fidelius
> to use it, because it *might* work.  Grimmauld Place is protected by
> more than just the Fidelius charm, and I still think it'd be
> reasonable for DD to keep an eye on the Potters even though they had a
> Secret Keeper.

I think there's still an issue, if there's a surveillance device, of who is
supposed to be watching it? Suppose DD has a handy clock for the Potters of
the kind that Molly has. Voldemort arrives, the hands on the clock move to
"mortal peril", but unless DD is watching the clock around the, um, clock,
he might not even be in the room when it indicates the danger. He's still
got his duties as Headmaster and to the Order, after all. Given Moody's
remarks about the state of the war at the time Harry was orphaned, could the
Order have afforded to have a member constantly watching, because surely
that was the idea of the Potters going into hiding, protected by the
Fidelius.

Annemehr:
> I'm just musing here, of course.  Come to think of it, I wonder
> whether Fudge ever found out that Shacklebolt and Tonks were in the
> DoM fight in OoP, and if so what he made of that?

Depends what you think his real motives are. He certainly couldn't do
anything _officially_ - what could he reproach them with? But I think that
in the snakepit of intrigue that's the Ministry, he would certainly not be
happy about his Aurors going off on their own without his knowledge.

Carol wrote:
> I don't understand your position here. Are you assuming that Snape
> knew that Sirius was not the Secret Keeper? How is that possible? I
> doubt that Peter revealed his secret about the Potters in front of
> Snape or any other DE (if we can count Snape as a DE when he was in
> fact a spy for Dumbledore).

We know that Peter was a spy for Voldemort well before he became the secret
keeper.

We _don't_ know when exactly Snape went to Dumbledore, just that he faced
grave personal risk in doing so.

We know that Snape hated James Potter.

And it's a believable assumption that Snape was one of the "absent" DEs in
the graveyard scene, thereby having been one of Voldemort's inner circle.

I put all of those together to assume that:

Peter is made secret keeper. He runs along to the Dark Lord, does a little
dance of glee and tells him that he knows where the Potters are hiding.
Voldemort rubs his hands together, twiddles his moustaches, etc, and decides
that Peter will take him there. As a special treat, he tells Snape to come
too, to see his enemy get fried.

Snape (and in my heart I still think he was carrying a torch for Lily) makes
the decision that will redeem him: instead of going to Godric's Hollow, he
goes to Hogwarts and forewarns Dumbledore of what's going to happen.

That's how Snape knows about Peter. Later on, he has no reason to correct
Dumbledore's assumption that Sirius was the traitor, because as far as
everyone knows, that's all old history/

> At any rate, Snape's behavior throughout PoA indicates that he, like
> Dumbledore himself, thought that Sirius was the Secret Keeper/traitor
> and the murderer of twelve Muggles--a very dangerous man from whom all
> of the students, and Harry in particular, needed to be protected.

But remembering that Sirius was James's sidekick and Snape's tormentor, why
clear his name? Especially as doing so at that point would raise enormous
questions about why he hadn't done so 10 years before!

Cheers

Ffred


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