Truth, Lies and GIGO

[pippin_999]

Richard AKA Gulplum
> 
> That said, now on to my main points.
> 
> JKR portrays a multi-faceted and complicated view of "truth" and
"honesty"  in the series. One thing I noticed quite some time ago is
that as far as I  can tell, both the eventual baddie(s) in each book
and those set up as   potential candidates for the role never actually
lie. I'm open to being  proved wrong on that observation, but
Quirrell, Snape, Tom Riddle (and  Ginny, his tool), Sirius and Peter,
the
Crouches and Umridge (and the  authorial voice) all leave us to draw
our own conclusions about their   behaviour, but the unmasking of the
evil-doer  is never a case of having  been caught out telling an
untruth 
(which is far from the norm in mystery  stories).

Pippin:
I'm afraid your observation is incorrect.  In fact, the baddies do
lie, and the  reader could conceivably catch them at it, and vault 
them to the top of the suspect list on that basis. Harry often
catches them at it also, but assumes  they have an innocent reason 
or that the lie is unimportant. Then, in future, he assumes
they are being truthful if he doesn't detect a lie -- and time and
again he lives to regret it.

Gulplum Message 1574:
The whole point, however, is that JKR has him phrase his comment very
specifically so that he doesn't have to lie. Here's another wonderful
one, a paragraph earlier (after Harry says he saw Crouch's name inside
Snape'soffice on the Map):

"Well, he's not there anymore," said Moody, his eye still whizzing
over the map. "Crouch . .. that's very - very interesting... ."


Pippin:
Which edition are you quoting from?  Mine (Bloomsbury, 2000) has
:'Well, he's not _here_ any more."(emphasis mine.) That must be a lie,
 underlined a little later on  when Hermione demolishes Ron's theory
 that Krum attacked Crouch and then stunned himself 'And Mr. Crouch
 evaporated, did he?' 

Quirrell lies about the turban: His turban, he told them, had been
given to him by an African prince as a thank you for getting rid of a
troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. 

Voldemort lies to Harry:
"They died begging me for mercy..."
"LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly. 

This is a half-truth -- Lily did beg for mercy but it was for Harry,
not herself. As far as we know, James did not beg.

Also in PS/SS, Scabbers  appears to fake falling asleep
after being thrown against the compartment window, which
might have raised questions about Quirrell falling in a faint on
Halloween, not to mention Scabbers himself.

In Cos:
Riddle lies to Dippet: 
'Riddle, do you mean you know something about
these attacks?'
'No, sir,' said Riddle quickly.
But Harry was sure it was the same sort of 'no' that he himself had
given Dumbledore.

Riddle lies again, about Hagrid. 
'It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. Well, you can imagine how
it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle,
poor but brilliant, parentless but so *brave*, schoo Prefect, model
student; on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble
every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, 
sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls.'

This is a nest of lies -- not only did Riddle lie to Dippet, he's
also, according to JKR, slandering Hagrid about the werewolves.


In PoA, Peter lies extensively, though he's not convincing at all:
"Don't know...what you're talking about..."said Pettigrew
again,more shrilly than ever. In fact his lack of skill is one of the
things that led me to ESE!Lupin. Lupin, of course, is a skilled
equivocator. Consider his statements in Snape's office:

'It looks to me as though it is merely a piece of parchment that
insults anybody who reads it. Childish, but surely not dangerous?
I imagine Harry got it from a joke shop--"

"It looks like a Zonko product to me--"

"Harry, Ron, come with me, I need a word about my vampire
essay -- excuse us, Severus --"

Whether Lupin was also equivocating in the Shrieking Shack
is yet to be seen, but if so, we can't say JKR didn't warn us.

Moody's lie in GoF is already established.

Kreacher lies also:
Kreacher, it transpired, had been lurking in the attic. Sirius said
he had found him up there, covered in dust, no doubt looking
for more relics of the Black family to hide in his cupboard.
Though Sirius seeemed satisfied with this story, it made Harry
uneasy.

Of course he lies again:
"Where's Sirius,Kreacher?" Harry demanded.
The house-elf gave a wheezy chuckle. "Master has gone out,
Harry Potter."

"What about Lupin? Mad-Eye? Any of them, are any of them
here?"
"Nobody here but Kreacher!" said the elf gleefully and turning
away from Harry he began to walk slowly toward the door at
the end of the kitchen.

And then Kreacher equivocates:
'Master will not come back from the Department of Mysteries!'


Snape is probably lying when he says there is nothing that 
concerns Harry in the Department of Mysteries.

Ginny is lying when she claims she never knew the Diary
was dangerous -- she definitely knew that when she stole
it back from Harry. She lies again in OOP when she tells
her mum that Crookshanks threw the dungbombs against
the door. 

I don't think that there is a magical prohibition against lying,
but I have a suspicion that even a skilled legilimens finds it
harder to detect equivocation than outright falsehood, so the
skilled deceiver may prefer to equivocate when possible.

Pippin