DD and the rat (was:Re: Minerva McGonagall-/Dumbledore)

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 115689


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Nora Renka" <nrenka at y...> wrote:
> Kneasy: 
> > Because it did cross my mind that to send the Potters to their doom
> > you don't need to tell Voldy their address, you only need to tell 
> > him Peter's address. 
> 
> Nora:
> Except that why WOULD anyone go for Peter.  Most people don't 
> immediately say "Hey, I'm going to go check out and destroy the 
> weakest link of the chain first"...
> 


Kneasy:
Nora, Nora, Nora. So young, so naive, so trusting.

He went for Peter because Peter was set up. A  carefully chosen weak
SK who would fold like an origami master-piece when pressure was 
applied. Voldy was *told* that Peter was the SK. 

If you're a spy, or a half-way competent one, you don't blaze a trail 
to your own door. Somebody has to be set up as fall guy to protect 
your own position. And if that someone can be inveigled into becoming
SK, the only person to know where the Potters are, then you're farting
through silk. You're fire-proofed. "Me? How could it be me? I wasn't 
their SK!" 
Riiiiight. 
But if you betray a weak SK to the enemy, what does that make you?

> Nora: 
> Why would Voldie kill someone who was already (so far as we can read 
> canon, and it hasn't been contradicted) his spy?  That part of your 
> argument just doesn't make sense.  IF the SK had been loyal, then 
> Voldie would have had to torture him to get the secret out--and there 
> probably would have been a body elsewhere, *then* two bodies at GH.
> 

Kneasy:
Canon? What canon? You  don't mean what  Sirius says, do you?
Dear, oh dear. You won't get far in life listening to people like Sirius.

Is there any corroboration/confirmation of what Sirius has to say?
I don't see any.

Peter survived because Voldy got creamed. If Voldy had succeeded
Peter  would have been dog-meat. Voldy would have had no more use
for him.

But Peter lives. 
Where can he turn now?
He *has* betrayed the Potters (though under pressure). He'd be as 
popular as a regurgitating toilet. What can he say? Nothing. Has he
figured out what happened? Probably - hence the "James and Lily -
Sirius, how could you?"
Meanwhile Sirius is after him, determined to tidy up all the loose ends.
So, one chance. Hide. And he does. Quite successfully for 12 years.
Then -  the Shrieking Shack. And the arch-traitor is believed and it
looks like he'll be rehabilitated too. Time to run - and there's only
one possible hiding place left - with Voldy.

Ask yourself - why is Sirius so intent on killing Peter when Peter is the
*only* person who can prove that Sirius wasn't the SK? Because Sirius's
betrayal is more than just the Potters - he's the spy that informed on the
Order for over a year. But kill Peter and there's only Sirius to testify as to
what happened. He'll look good while he does it too. "Revenge for James
and Lily!" - nobody need know that the key betrayal was that of Peter, the
poor bloody SK who was set-up to fail. 

Sirius claimed that Peter'd being passing information to for Voldy for a 
year; that the DEs are screaming for Peter's blood because he betrayed the
Boss - any proof? No. 
Though the latter is quite possible - once Sirius was in the slammer and 
telling them that it was Peter, after all nobody could guarantee that
Voldy, the one person who could put the lie to Sirius's words, would return.

I can believe that they knew there was a spy passing information, though
as DD had his own sources of information inside the DE camp and never 
had a whisper of who it was, I find it doubtful that the DEs knew who the 
source was either. They just knew that there was somebody.

Of course, Sirius as betrayer of Voldy (from Voldy's rather limited and
biased viewpoint) puts a different complexion on things - like why Sirius 
died at the Ministry, the only one to do so.

It would also explain a little niggle I've had for some time.
In the Shrieking Shack, when Harry has his wand on Sirius, he hears a
voice in his head - "Kill him." That wouldn't be Voldy exacting revenge
for Sirius forgetting to mention DD's ancient magic protection, would it?