Pettigrew in Hagrid's hut - an answer

[Susana da Cunha]

No: HPFGUIDX 113273




Ok. Someone is bound to have come out with this, but I was annoyed at the posts suggesting the Marauders Map didn't sow inside of Hagrid's hut and only then it stroke me. I just couldn't stop myself from posting it - even if it's old news.

>From PoA chap. 17, Lupin says:

""The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back to the castle. But you were now accompanied by someone else.""

Please follow my reasoning: Why was Lupin concern that Harry would visit Hagrid? Because Sirius Black the-mass-murder was after him. On discovering that he had gone to Hagrid's what would he do? He had two choices - stop him or not. Considering he realised he was under the IC (because the three kids were walking so close together) he might have decided to let him go. What would he do then? He would make sure the grounds were safe for him. He'd use the map to search around. What would he find?... 

>From PoA chap. 21:

"They made their way silently through the trees, keeping to the very edge of the forest. Then, as they glimpsed the front of Hagrid's house, they heard a knock upon his door. They moved quickly behind a wide oak trunk and peered out from either side. Hagrid had appeared in his doorway, shaking and white, looking around to see who had knocked. And Harry heard his own voice."

In the very edge of the forest, Lupin saw Harry and Hermione! We have two hypotheses:

1 - Lupin knew about the time turner and he figured out what was going on. In this case, what would he do? The intelligent thing, IMO, would be to run and tell DD what he'd seen, but that meant telling about the Map also. He couldn't have seen too sets of them since one set was under the IC. Hence, he would do what he'd done about Sirius being an animagus: he would stay put and hope for the best. Deciding not to tell DD, what would he do? He would continue to search the grounds for signs of Black.

2 - Lupin didn't know about the time turner or he didn't figure out what was going on. What would he do? Considering Harry's response to the possibility of seeing himself (I'd think I'd gone mad... or that there was some Dark Magic going on.) I'd say Lupin would swallow his shame and go to DD. 

But I am most sure Lupin didn't tell DD about the map: DD seams (to me) surprised about the map at the end of GoF when Barty Crouch mentions it (Map? What map is that?). So, in either hypothesis, I think Lupin found a way to tell DD about the two Harrys and Hermiones. He could have 'forgotten' about the IC and said he'd seen them from the window, for example.

My point is, either way, as soon as Ron/Harry/Hermione arrived at Hagrid's, Lupin would have seen the Harry/Hermione in the forest, deleted the map, tossed it in his pocket and run to Dumbledore's office. When he tells he saw two Harrys near the hut, DD has a strange reaction:

- Really? Now, why didn't I think of that? - And he tells Remus what Hermione and Harry are probably up to. Then the executioners arrive and DD leaves Lupin to go to Hagrid's. It's been twenty minutes. He goes back to his office and activates the map to see - he hoped - Harry and Hermione save Beaky. Instead, he sees Harry, Hermione and Ron leave the hut - with Peter Pettigrew!

Those twenty minutes had bugged me since forever. If someone had waited 20 min for something, I'd expect s/he would say: "I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. *I waited*. Then twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid". 

Those were probably very upsetting twenty minutes: First he thought Harry was in trouble (Because of dark magic or because he would get caught trying to save Buckbeak); then he struggled with himself about the things he was keeping from DD as he told him what he had to; then he wanted to consult the map again to make sure every thing was ok but DD was making chitchat about how clever Hermione is and if her plan will work (and why wasn't Ron with them); then he had the displeasure of meeting Macnair; finely he was alone and couldn't consult the map in the corridor. 

I suppose he thought Sirius would freak out if he had gone into all that in the Shrieking Shack.

Another thing that I wasn't happy about was my prior explanation to DD's lack of surprise regarding Buckbeak's escape and his convenient help keeping the committee inside the hut. Now I'm sure: Lupin told him!

 

Susana

-- always amazed at how carefully back stories are plotted in poterverse.



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