Quick Questionnaire v1.1

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 168651


> Dungrollin:
> <snip>
> Sirius Black "had to die" (according to JKR) to:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> b) Keep ESE!Snape's cover – "I don't care if Dumbledore thinks you've 
> reformed, I know better –" OotP, Ch24 UK p459. Sirius had begun to 
> suspect Snape was cheating on DD, and had to be kept quiet.

Neri:
Although my Snape theory isn't ESE, I can make this option more
detailed and BANGy. It had long bothered me that at the night of the
MoM battle Snape (according to Dumbledore's version) contacted Sirius
at 12GP immediately. Regardless of the whole responsibility argument
that I won't start again here, the picture of Sirius hearing about
what had happened to Harry and just sitting patiently for several
hours doing nothing and waiting for updates from Snape, of all people,
simply strikes me as completely out of character. I remind you that
only a few weeks before that Lupin had to stop Sirius bodily from
going to Hogwarts and confront Snape about the less urgent matter of
stopping the Occlumency lessons. 

Before HBP I explained this paradox by Snape only checking that Sirius
was in 12GP but not actually telling him what had happened the first
time. However, this explanation has always bothered me, because it was
not likely that such little details would be elucidated in later books
(especially if Snape was DDM as we all thought then) and also because
it contradicted one of those (deliberately?) vague explanations from
Dumbledore that Snape "told the Order as soon as he could about what
had happened".  

Now, after HBP all this looks entirely different to me. If Snape is
anything but DDM then his part in the MoM battle still needs to be
revisited when all his true motives are finally revealed, and then we
can get a much more consistent account of the events. Here we have a
few clues that might turn out important: First, after the battle when
Dumbledore joins Harry in his office, he arrive via his fire, not via
portkey, which suggests he could be coming from another place in the
castle, not from the MoM. The first thing he says is that Madam
Pomfrey "is patching everybody now" and that they are all going to be
OK, which sounds like he's coming from the hospital wing. Secondly:
Dumbledore criticizes Sirius but not Snape, another thing that always
strikes me as strange -- why would he attack Sirius about such petty
matters before Sirius's body (if there was one) even had the chance to
get cold? Then we have the narrator telling us (twice, both in the end
of OotP and the beginning of HBP) that Harry only blames Snape about
goading Sirius and only in order to relieve his own guilt, affectively
making Harry appear like a petty child and muddying other, more
tangible reasons to blame Snape. 

After HBP a simpler and more consistent account of the night's events
suggests itself: Snape did not contact 12GP at all the first time, so
Sirius was acting in character when he did nothing. When Dumbledore
was back to Hogwarts from the battle, before he joined Harry he went
to the hospital wing to check on the injured, and there he met Snape.
Snape heard from him that Sirius was dead, so he told him that he had
told Sirius everything the first time, and that Sirius was the one who
had made the decision to do nothing, not even alert the rest of the
Order. So during his talk with Harry, Dumbledore would be under the
wrong impression that Sirius was the one responsible for the Order
taking so long to respond. Of course he would not blame Sirius
explicitly in front of Harry such a short time after Sirius's death,
but this impression would make him criticize Sirius and not Snape. The
whole strange account of that night's events that JKR and Dumbledore
sell us, an account calculated to make Snape appear innocent both to
us and to Dumbledore, depends on Sirius not staying alive to give his
version. 

I doubt that this was the sole (or even main) reason why Sirius had to
die, but I think it would be like JKR to take advantage of his death
to eliminate evidence. Then she can clarify things in DH and change
our negative impression of Sirius's actions during that night, in a
similar way that a few calculated revelations in HBP change the
negative impression of James's actions in Snape's Worst Memory scene.
And Dumbledore muddying details in the talk after the battle reminds
me a lot of Sirius and Lupin muddying details in their vague
explanations after the SWM. JKR is very good at these things. 


> Dungrollin:
> h) To hide something about what happened at GH – was Sirius using the 
> invisibility cloak?
> 

Neri:
A nice possibility I didn't think about. But must it has been Sirius,
and wouldn't Sirius return the cloak to James after finishing with it?


> Dungrollin:
> i) Because JKR wants Harry to be alone. Harry would have found it 
> difficult to keep secrets from Sirius, and she didn't want anyone to 
> help on the Horcrux hunt.
> 

Neri:
JKR has much as said that this was a reason, but perhaps not the whole
reason.


> Dungrollin:
> k) Sirius will play a role in DH which can only be played by a dead
> person. Possibly the specific manner of his death will play a part as
> well (see Carol's theory). (Thanks Zgirnius.)
> -----------------------
> 
> I don't know why I don't like k. Perhaps because JKR's often gone on 
> about how as a children's author you have to be a ruthless killer and 
> I'd feel it was a bit of a cheat if Harry and/or Sirius have an 
> escape clause. I wouldn't mind if the help from beyond the grave were 
> somewhat figurative, but literally? Not so much my cup of tea. Which, 
> of course, rules out nothing at all.
> 

Neri:
It's not my cup of tea either, but given also the two-way mirror, I
think it's the most likely, and JKR usually pulls out  these kind of
things well.


Neri