Who is Harry's guardian? WAS: Re: Identifying with Muggles -

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 158368


> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> That's the thing for me - we don't know  IMO how much Dumbledore 
knew 
> at the time of the tragedy and especially in light of invisibility 
> cloak what he was aware of.
> 
> The bottom line is that for me Sirius is secret keeper does not 
equal 
> Dumbledore has a duty to secure Harry away from him.
> 
> Dumbledore having some additional knowledge which I am not aware 
of, 
> well maybe, but not just this piece of information.
> 
> Dumbledore being misinformed by somebody who was sure that Sirius 
was 
> there with voldemort or something like that - maybe ( speculating 
> here ;))
> 
> What I am saying is that IMO Dumbledore had no right to take Harry 
> away based **only** on the fact that Sirius was secret keeper.
> 
> At the very least he had to investigate more IMO as I mentioned 
> before maybe go there himself and not just rely on hearsay.
> 

Julie:

So, even though Dumbledore was told directly by James that
Sirius was the secret-keeper, and he knows that nobody BUT
the secret-keeper can give away the location of the Potters,
thus it HAD to be the secret-keeper who betrayed the Potters,
(and it WAS--only that secret-keeper had been changed to
Peter unbeknownst to DD), that Dumbledore should have thought,
"Hmm, while there seems to be very damning evidence against
Sirius already, and if the evidence is true Harry's life 
will likely be forfeit, still I can't be 100% *absolutely,
postively certain* so given that very small chance something
totally unexpected has happened, hey, why don't I just hand
over baby Harry to Sirius anyway, and if the most likely 
thing indicated by all the evidence I now possess occurs--poor
baby Harry bites it for good--ah, well, at least I can say
I didn't overstep my bounds as a top Wizard, headmaster, 
war general, close friend, all-around decent person concerned 
for the welfare of a helpless child. And my defense for not
acting on the obvious can always be 'Who do you think I am
anyway, God???'"

And remember, we're not talking of convicting a man in court
(which is what "innocent until proven guilty" references)
but of protecting a child to the best of one's ability. It
is the latter that is DD's concern immediately after GH. 

Julie, who thinks the only way Dumbledore should have handed
Harry over to Sirius is if he HAD additional knowledge we
are not aware of (i.e., something that pointed strongly to
Sirius's innocence).