In defense of DD WAS musings on Dumbledore - Even Longer/Sirius and DD

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 158695


> Julie:
>  WHY is this Dumbledore's responsibility??
> He's the Headmaster at Hogwarts, he knows Sirius from when he was a 
student
> but we have no indication that he knew Sirius any better or had any 
closer
> relationship with him than he does with, say, Dean Thomas. Why 
would he be
> expected to have some great insight into Sirius, so great he 
automatically
> suspects or knows that Sirius *isn't* guilty of betraying the 
Potter's
> secret, when every single bit of evidence points directly to that 
guilt?

> Sherry now:
> 
> But we're not talking about the Dumbledore of the Fudge era.  We're 
talking
> about the Dumbledore who was able to get his spy off from any 
deserved
> charges simply by his own word.  That *is* power and playing God.  
So, why
> couldn't that same powerful, god playing so-called epitome of 
goodness have
> bothered to take two minutes to ask Sirius what happened?  

zgirnius:
Juli's point, above, was that Dumbledore, in Sirius's case, testified 
about what he knew, which consisted of one rather damning fact; 
Crouch made the decision to send Sirius away (and probably, not 
*just* because of Dumbledore. I forget the impressive number of 
witnesses Fudge cites who saw the confrontation of Peter and Sirius).

We do not know what Dumbledore knew about Snape, or what he told the 
Ministry. Crouch took his bare word as a *reminder* of his previous 
testimony regarding Snape, during Karkaroff's hearing. But that 
previous testimony is something we do not have in evidence. It could 
have been quite extensive.

His greater success with Snape may reflect, for example, Dumbledore's 
ability to provide detailed substantiation of spying activities by 
Snape over the course of a year. It is an interesting observation 
(credit to poster Maiab at CoS Forums) that Karkaroff was apparently 
arested about a year before Voldemort died, as were a number of the 
people whom he names. If someone at the Ministry knows Snape provided 
the information which led to these arrests, it would not require any 
godlike influence on Dumbledore's part to get him off. They were more 
than willing to let Karkaroff go, apparently, for the same sort of 
information. 

Speculation, of course. We do not have a firm timeline for Snape's 
alleged activities in the last war. However, since we don't have that 
evidence, we can hardly conclude that Dumbledore ran the show back 
then using his ability to clear Snape as evidence.