It really annoys me ... / checking Sirius' wand

[Michael]

No: HPFGUIDX 163796

Inge <Elvishooked at ...> wrote:
> <snip>
> Having just gone over the Dark Mark chapter in GOF, I realised
> how easy it really was to check Harry's wand for the last spell
> it cast (The Dark Mark). It took - what.... 1½ minute to check
> it out?
>
> Why on earth then is it, that Sirius had to go to Azkaban with
> no trial, when all they needed to do, was to check *his* wand,
> to see if he indeed *did* cast the spell that killed all the
> Muggles - and all it would have taken was a few minutes.....
> not much compared to 12 years of socialising with Dementors.


Michael:
It's simple really; now I agree this would have given at least
some chance of the reprieve for Sirius, but there are few
reasonings behind its downfall.  One, the event was seen by a
fair number of people all say that an enraged Sirius did it and
he himself accepted the guilt for it foregoing a trial.  Two,
the fact that he was the most likely person to be in place to
betray the Potters pretty much already marked him a DE.  Three,
this could only really work if you know that the caster has had
no contact with the wand from the time they cast the spell till
you check it - one quick first year spell would clear the other
spell out.  These combined with the fact that we know that the
magical world's justice system is far from fair made it easy to
overlook the simple answers and leap to a seemingly likely
conclusion.