Since he didn't blame the mailer daemon...

[sunnyskywalker]

Prisoner of Azkaban does a good impression of being one of the best-constructed books of the series, as long as you are willing to smile and nod at time-travel shenanigans (which you pretty much have to in any book where time travel appears). But these gaping chasms keep opening up every time I poke at it. For example, Sirius and the mail.

He apparently has no trouble using a friendly cat to draw funds from his bank account so he can mail-order an expensive racing broom. Magic Amazon must be great. (Just one tap with your wand! Except it must be even easier, since cats don't carry wands...) Fine, maybe that the goblins facilitated this because helping a wanted criminal was a great opportunity to subvert wizarding desires or something.

But it never occurred to Sirius to send Dumbledore or Remus a letter saying that Peter was the real Secret-Keeper all along, is a rat Animagus, and is now in hiding as the Weasley boy's pet, which Sirius realized when he saw the rat's picture in the Daily Prophet?

Sure, it sounds implausible, but it would cost them nothing to look at the picture so Remus could confirm that okay, it does maybe look like Peter. It would likewise cost them nothing cast that spell that reverts Animagi to their human forms on Scabbers. If he's a real rat, it shouldn't hurt him. If he isn't, well, they've just caught a secret Death Eater who spends his days in the company of the Boy Who Lived. They could probably even manage this without alerting Ron, if they're worried about how it looks if Scabbers is just a rat. A house-elf could keep an eye on Scabbers and alert Dumbledore the next time Scabbers is napping in the dorm alone so Dumbledore can pop in secretly and test the spell, for example.

So why didn't Sirius try this at any point during the ten-plus months between his escape and the Shrieking Shack confrontation? I mean, really. He had the time, insight, and attention span to worry about his godson's Quidditch equipment troubles and help, but it never occurred to him to warn anyone that Peter was a traitor and a potential threat to Harry?

Even if they ignore Sirius's letter, it probably doesn't hurt Sirius. They already know he's lurking in the vicinity and has mysterious ways of doing things he shouldn't be able to, so sending a letter from Hogsmeade gives away nothing new. They're very unlikely to go explain to what they think is a real rat that he's suspected of being a human but don't worry, they don't believe a word of it, so Peter shouldn't get tipped off either. At worst, they might start keeping an eye on the rat surreptitiously--and would that be bad, if it means they might notice him doing something suspiciously un-ratlike? (Gnawing his leg until it bleeds and smearing it about and then planting cat hair on the smears before running away, for example.)

Okay, maybe it occurred to him and he didn't think the attempt would cause harm even if he failed. Then the reason he didn't try would be...? Um. I'm struggling to think of reasons that don't make at least one character look really bad.

Sirius might have prioritized getting a chance at personal vengeance over anything else. That is, he didn't want anyone else capturing Peter and turning him over to the authorities--he wanted to kill Peter, no matter the cost.

Or maybe he couldn't think of a way to explain Peter's Animagus ability to Dumbledore without spilling the beans about how they all let Remus roam free in school, and didn't want to get Remus in Azkaban-worthy trouble. But then why not warn Remus directly and let Remus investigate? Or come up with a plausible story for Dumbledore, or find a way to let Crookshanks catch Scabbers, or something. At least Remus would be on his guard, which is surely better than nothing.

Or he might have believed that Remus had been in league with Peter all along, and didn't want to risk tipping him off. But in this case, he'd also have to believe that Dumbledore would be incapable of handling things and would confront Remus before examining Scabbers and then leave Remus alone to warn his confederate or something equally disastrous. In which case you have to wonder exactly how bad a vigilante leader Dumbledore was during the first war.

Is there any scenario that makes sense and doesn't make at least one character look even worse than we thought?

Comments

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

Maybe Sirius does indeed mistrust both Dumbles and Remus, but the moment he meets his darling Wolfie again in the Shack he is so overcome with love that they both forget all their suspicions in a passionate embrace. Well, it makes more sense than Remus/Tonks.

It doesn't, however, explain Sirius's failure to clue anyone else in about Peter, much less how Feline Amazon works. I guess both Sirius and Remus will go to any length to avoid revealing their youthful crimes as part of the Marauders, no matter who suffers from their silence.

[sunnyskywalker]

You really have to wonder if revealing either the Animagus secret or their knowledge of the tunnels would be the critical missing piece that implicates the Marauders in crimes committed off campus. Like, there were eyewitnesses who saw one or more of them do Something Dreadful, but it was supposedly impossible for them to have left school grounds, so obviously it was really Polyjuiced imposters trying to frame innocent students. Or someone spotted a large black dog and a stag driving a werewolf away just before it attacked a villager (they may or may not have spotted the rat scurrying alongside or clinging to one of the larger animals), but this meant nothing at the time because no one suspected the boys were Animagi. (Maybe Uncle Bilius really did see Padfoot a week before he died...) If they reveal either fact now, however, they can reasonably fear that it's Ongoing Criminal Conspiracy time: straight to Azkaban with you!

As it happens, Dumbledore would rather cover it up and force Remus into spying on the werewolves, but they probably couldn't count on that. Not after seeing how he didn't even try to investigate Sirius, let alone defend him.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

This makes sense. By releasing Remus to roam the countryside in a populated area, the Marauders were committing a serious crime. Repeatedly. How many felony counts do you suppose that would be? And I'm not at all sure the wizarding world has such a thing as juvenile court with lower punishments. Being an unregistered animagus is also a serious crime, as we know from Hermione blackmailing Rita with the threat to Azkaban.

Juvenile Court?

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Actually, we don't even have to posit that (though we do know it was unusual for Harry to be tried before the Wizengamot.)

Because it's implied that the crimes continued through 7th year, when they were adults.

Moreover, Sirius's crime of being an unregistered Animagus continues to the present day....

(I did read a fanfic in which Sirius survived and got his trial, post-war. He was sentenced to time served plus an additional decade in Azkaban.)

Something else that may be relevant: at the time James and Sirius were committing crimes in Hogsmeade, they may well have expected that if they were caught, they'd be let off. (So long as they stopped short of murder, which they were fully confident they could do.)

The Potter heir and a Black, even if disinherited, after all!

(And assumed their families could/would protect the other two as well.)

Sirius might well have gone so quietly with the Aurors because he assumed he'd be kept overnight and released, no matter what they thought he'd done. It might have been a serious shock to him when Walburga either wouldn't or couldn't get him sprung.

So he might, once out of Azkaban and pursuing Peter, have realized that if his name didn't save him THEN, it wouldn't save him if his true crimes were now uncovered.

In which case his ONLY chance of safety is to kill Peter, return him to human form, and fudge the tale of how Peter managed to diddle those Muggle witnesses into believing he'd been killed.

Any story that includes Peter's Animagus ability is going to be trouble for him.

Which, huh. Also explains why he never holds it against Dumbles in books 4 & 5 that Dumbles doesn't ever clear his name. He knows his name is unclearable, except so far as betraying James is concerned.

Re: Juvenile Court?

[sunnyskywalker]

Sirius's expectations at his arrest: ouch. Yes, with Regulus dead, he might well have thought that Mum and Grandfather Arcturus would protect him, no matter how grudgingly, because he was the only heir left. Nasty shock indeed.

If he and Crookshanks had managed to kill Peter without witnesses, he might even have gotten away with a fudge that included Peter's ability without mentioning his own, if shrugging and saying Peter must have Apparated away really quickly at just the right second wouldn't fly. "I'm sure I saw a rat scurrying around at a meeting Peter wasn't at, and next thing we knew Voldemort had suddenly figured out how to undermine the Bones family's security..."

But then he and Remus couldn't bear to have Harry think badly of them and spilled--well, not the whole story, but more of it than they might have planned.

Re: Juvenile Court?

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

(though we do know it was unusual for Harry to be tried before the Wizengamot.)

We don't have any information on how Juveniles are treated differently. Harry is able to agree to the contract in GoF.
His "Guardians" the Dursleys were not there when Harry was brought before the Wizengamot. (They would have hurt Harry rather than help, so he wouldn't want them.) Was that unusual? Do only Wizard parent/guardians count?

Is there any kind of Juvenile Hall?

Re: Juvenile Court?

[sunnyskywalker]

I doubt it they have juvenile hall. Would they even have enough convicted juveniles to warrant one, given how small their society is? Plus, at the time they formally split from the Muggle world, you could still execute kids even younger than Harry. Starting there with a small population and relatively few convicted juveniles to spur changes is another reason they might not have a separate legal track for juvenile offenders. Maybe it's up to the officials judging any individual case whether to show leniency in sentencing because of the person's age. Maybe some form of house arrest or close supervision? Do they have magical ankle bracelets to track you? (Maybe they can use your wand if they don't break it like they did for Hagrid. The Trace would be active.)

The Triwizard Tournament contract might be a special case. Limiting entrants to legal adults seems to be a modern innovation. Harry might be able to make that contract (or have it made on his behalf, as it happens), but maybe he can't, say, buy a house or incorporate a business, because those just regular legal things rather than ancient magical contracts.