JKR/Oprah interview

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189650

Pippin wrote:
<big snip>
 
> As for Dumbledore, if you recall what Sirius says, Crouch sent  a lot of people to Azkaban, many of them  less obviously guilty than Sirius Black, trial or no trial.  If Dumbledore was trying to free anybody, it would be them. There wasn't a reason on earth for him to think that Sirius was innocent before the night of the Shrieking Shack. He wasn't the sort to have eternal faith in the goodness of his friends, not after what happened with Grindelwald.
 <snip>

Carol responds:
Exactly. He knew that the Potters had been betrayed by their Secret Keeper, and he had every reason to believe that the Secret Keeper was James's best friend, Sirius Black, since James had told him that was his intention. He "knew" from the massive evidence of the blown-up street, the testimony of the unfortunately mind-wiped Muggles, and the finger that was (apparently) all that was left of Peter Pettigrew, that Sirius had "murdered" Pettigrew (whom everyone "knew" could not outwit or outfight Sirius Black). Had Dumbledore known that Pettigrew was an Animagus, he might have smelled a rat. But he didn't. Unlike the cases of Hokey and Morfin Gaunt, he saw no reason to investigate.

Carol, noting that most of the characters, including Harry, trust the evidence of their senses at some point only to be proven wrong later