Hand of Glory

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 183897

> Carol:
> <snip>
> Sirius had not lived at 12 GP for six years when Lily wrote that
> letter. It would have been sent to his other house. If the
> Ministry confiscated his belongings, wouldn't they have kept them?

Mike:
I don't see why the Ministry would keep belongings of anyone. There 
seems to be a practice in the WW of making sure that families retain 
their familial possessions, unless someone like Tom Riddle can steal 
them from you. I can't see the Ministry warehousing incarcerated 
person's possessions, unless they are Dark Objects, which I could see 
them confiscating and destroying.


> Carol:
> If they sent his personal belongings (even perhaps the wand that
> had ostensibly killed thirteen people!) would the Black family
> have kept the treasured artifacts of the son who broke his
> mother's heart? 

Mike:
I think you may be forgetting the timing of Sirius being put in 
Azkaban. I can't blame you, JKR undoubtedly forgot too. (Couldn't 
resist that dig on JKR's numerological prowess.) By 1981, Regulus was 
already dead, and if you believe the Black Family Tapestry, Pa Black 
had also passed on. In OotP, Sirius said that the Blacks originally 
favored Voldemort until they found out what he was prepared to do. 
Since Voldemort was now vapor and Regulus was Inferi guest, this 
transformation of the Black opinion must have already taken place.

I mention this as a way of saying that I think Ma Black may well have 
softened her opinion of Sirius by now. She may have decided that his 
ideas weren't as bad as they once seemed.

Besides, it was said that Sirius broke his mother's heart, not that 
his mother despised him. If he broke her heart by leaving, why 
wouldn't she treasure Sirius's things as memories of the son she 
lost? Especially if she had changed her own political thinking more 
towards what Sirius's position had probably been.



> Carol, who didn't even discuss the dating of the letter as we've 
> been through all that before

Mike:
I actually was never bothered by the date. If I thought about it, I 
might find it strange. But I also wonder if we haven't imposed our 
knowledge incorrectly in this regard. 

The Potters first went into hiding, then had the Fidelius performed a 
year or so later. Could it be that Dumbledore had borrowed James's IC 
while they were still in their simply hiding phase? James still 
wouldn't want to go out without it. Maybe Dumbledore kept it all that 
time performing tests. Or maybe he did some preliminary tests, then 
had to do more research before he asked for it again to perform his 
confirming tests.

Just another possibility,

Mike