Sirius Clueless?

[drliss at comcast.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 124592

Catportkey:
In GoF, I don't understand how Sirius would not know what Karkaroof was 
showing Snape (pages 531-532).
If Sirius was battling Death Eaters, surely he or his other fighters would 
have noticed the mark on the Death Eaters' arms, 
OR
when the Death Eaters were put in Azkaban, the authorities must write down 
more than name and address.  Any place of incarceration writes down all body 
making for possible identification.
V was not vaporized when some of his followers were arrested.  Didn't anyone 
notice the arm markings?

Lissa:

The impression I have is that the Dark Mark tattoo is not always visible.  Karakoff says that the mark is "coming back" when he's talking to Snape, indicating that you can only see the mark when Voldemort's around.  What's more, the mark burns black when the Death Eaters are summoned.

I've seen countless fanfics where Sirius checks Remus for the Dark Mark, but I really don't think a.) he'd be able to see it because it's not always obvious, and b.) that it was all that widespread.

The only thing that throws a kink into that theory is that someone (Snape, I think) says that the dark mark was used as a means for Death Eaters to distinguish each other as well, since (in theory) no one is sure who all is a Death Eater.  The easy answer is that the mark is a darker shade of flesh when it's not "in use".  If that's the case, it would be hard to spot.  It really doesn't make a lot of sense to give your minions really obvious tattooes- not only could they be faked easily, but it makes them very identifiable.  

I suspect most of the information about Dark Marks came out after the war, once Sirius was imprisoned.  It's a relatively small detail, and probably not one that Dumbledore or Remus would think to tell him, and not one that appears in the papers.  And if he heard ravings about the Dark Mark in prison, well, the Mark itself refers to the shape of the skull with the snake coming out of its mouth, not the actual physical brand/tattoo.

I agree that Sirius never knew for sure that Snape was a reformed Death Eater until the end of GoF.  Snape's trial sounds like it came after the war ended (after Sirius was already imprisoned), and if Dumbledore had half a brain in his head he wasn't advertising that Snape was a double agent by the end.  And given Sirius and Snape's mutual loathing, I can see where neither Dumbledore nor Remus would tell Sirius about Snape's past until it became absolutely necessary- which was probably during the lie low at Lupin's period.  It might possibly have been big news at the time- it was at least known among the Wizengmot (or however you spell it)- but 12 years later it was a dead issue.

Remember that Sirius had very little access to information once he escaped prison: he could steal newspapers, he had letters from Dumbledore, and he (I assume) had some sort of contact with Remus.  The newspapers mainly report what's current, with some reference to the past, and Dumbledore and Remus have been going on for 12 years- it's hard to catch someone up on that amount of time.

So, I don't think it's too odd he doesn't know about the Dark Mark tattoos.

Lissa
 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]