[HPforGrownups] Re: Guardianship, agreements, and public protection

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 158446

> Pippin:
> If I can butt in here, Fudge implies that Sirius was wanted before
> Pettigrew caught up with him.
> "Black was tired of his double agent role, he was ready to declare
> his support openly for You-Know-Who, and he seems to have
> planned this for the moment of the Potters' death. [...] His
> master had fallen at the very moment when he, Black, had
> shown his true colors as a traitor." -- PoA ch 10
>
> This sounds as though other evidence had been planted revealing
> that Black was a Death Eater.

Magpie:
Actually, to me it sounds as if Fudge is making up the story in retrospect, 
showing how people's minds work.  He "knows" Sirius is guilty, he knows he 
declared himself for Voldemort at the moment Voldemort fell, and he's put 
them together into a narrative for Sirius that's completely untrue--but 
seems true given the facts they have.  Your point about their arresting 
Sirius before interviewing any witnesses is persuasive, but knowing how the 
Wizarding justice system works I actually have no problem believing they 
jumped to conclusions every step of the way and had no case against Sirius 
at all--except that they knew somebody was the traitor and when this 
happened it all "fell into place" around Sirius.

As an aside, it really fascinates me how this thread echoes Sirius' life in 
canon.  I don't mean that as a criticism on the criticism of him as a 
guardian, but it's sad that a basically good guy who never got the chance to 
prove himself in any way but by suffering and dying for others is so easily 
dismissed as unfit for the life he was originally supposed to have.  He was 
just never quite important enough to Dumbledore's plans to flourish under 
him--black sheep all the way.  I feel like this might ultimately make him he 
and Regulus a more poingnant pair, somehow.

-m