looong - musings on Dumbledore - Even Longer

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 158667

 
> Sherry:
> 
> I would agree with you, except for one very important fact.  It was 
the mere
> word of Dumbledore that kept Snape out of Azkaban.  All Dumbledore 
had to do
> was to stand up and declare that Severus Snape was not a death 
eater, and
> the whole wizengamut took his word for it.  

Hickengruendler:

I find the situation somewhat different. Snape was spying for 
Dumbledore (at least that's what Dumbledore thought), and that's what 
Dumbledore told Crouch and the others. Dumbledore gave testimony 
about what he knew. He didn't even have to make further 
investigations about Snape's case, because he knew about Snape's 
activities to begin with. With Sirius, he gave testimony to Crouch as 
well, again to his knowledge, and sadly it was a very condemning one 
and probably played a big part in why Sirius didn't get a trial. Is 
Dumbledore therefore responsible that Sirius didn't get a trial? I 
don't think so, because IMO Crouch has made his decisions without 
asking for Dumbledore's advice (see the trials against Karkaroff, the 
Lestranges or even Bagman for example.) With Snape it was something 
different because Dumbledore was an actual witness, not a counsellor. 
Do I think Dumbledore needed to have investigated further about 
Sirius' case? Maybe. But you could just as well argue, that he could 
have investigated some of the other cases further, where nobody got a 
trial. There is just so much Dumbledore can do.