Prank Redux: Voldemort Edition

[sunnyskywalker]

I was re-reading Terri’s analysis of how strange it is that Crouch threw Sirius in prison without interrogating him and had a thought. Leave Crouch aside for today. Let’s take another look at Dumbledore.

Terri suggested that Dumbledore quickly realized (possibly via Moody, whom canon strongly suggests to be a Legilimens) that Sirius wasn’t the Dark Lord’s right-hand man. That in fact, he felt horrifically guilty about James’s death and must have betrayed the Potters inadvertently somehow. This meant he couldn’t provide juicy Death Eater intel, and was either so reckless or so gullible or both that he was a greater danger to his own side — not to mention Muggle bystanders — than many actual Death Eaters. Plus, Dumbledore hardly wanted Sirius spilling the Order of the Phoenix’s secrets to Crouch. So while it was technically unjustified, the world would be safer if Dumbledore let Crouch throw Sirius in Azkaban without interrogation or trial.

But how could Sirius have betrayed his friends inadvertently? Was he duped? Why attack Peter, if so? Dumbledore isn’t the kind of person to throw up his hands and go, “Oh well, I guess we’ll never know.” He’d have had a theory. Which was…?

Let’s back up and consider why Dumbledore found it easy to believe Sirius was a deadly loose canon in the first place. Probably any number of minor incidents, but what’s the biggie?

The Prank. The time Sirius tricked an enemy into taking action he thought would hurt the Marauders but which was, in fact, a trap. One which used Sirius’s friend as both bait and weapon.

Is that what Dumbledore thought happened on Halloween too?

Maybe something like this was Dumbledore’s working hypothesis on November 1, 1981: Sirius gets the bright idea to lure Voldemort into a trap. Why wait for him to attack when the Marauders could choose the time and ambush him? Voldemort will go to Godric’s Hollow, thinking he’s about to burst in on the unsuspecting Potters — but instead, James and Sirius will be ready. They’ll kill or capture him and be big damn heroes. Sirius advises the Potters against choosing Dumbledore as Secret-Keeper and nominates himself. Then he owls Voldemort a note revealing the secret.

But Voldemort shows up before they’ve set the ambush — before Sirius is even aware Voldemort is on his way. Maybe even before Sirius has explained his bright idea to James? And this time, no one arrives in the nick of time to save the day.

Then when poor little Peter has the nerve to confront Sirius about his betrayal, Sirius is so enraged at being called out that he blows up the whole damn street. Maybe he didn’t mean to kill those Muggles any more than he meant to kill James and Lily, but little good that does them!

Sirius wouldn’t be off the hook even if Dumbledore thought James was the brains behind the plan. A reasonable person would have known how likely it was for the plan to fail — i.e., that Voldemort would kill the Potters. Dumbledore has a high tolerance for reckless followers (see: Hagrid and his pets), but even he has limits. And Sirius, unlike Hagrid, has never shown proper appreciation for Dumbledore’s brilliant leadership. Otherwise he’d have run the plan by Dumbledore, and Dumbledore could have shut it down before anyone got hurt. (Or maybe carried it off, whichever.) Sirius agreed to the plan and kept it secret from Dumbledore, so he has to take his share of responsibility for the consequences.

Either way, Sirius’s recklessness is bound to cause more carnage if he wrangles his freedom by convincing people it wasn’t his fault. So Dumbledore testifies that Sirius was the Potters’ Secret-Keeper, and perhaps adds a sorrowful (but vague) comment about Sirius’s recklessness and propensity to violence in school. He thought the boy would grow out of it once given some responsibility, but alas…

And you know, Dumbledore’s hypothesis might not have been entirely wrong?

It isn’t out of the realm of possibility that James, Sirius, and Peter batted around the idea of luring Voldemort into a trap. (Maybe they decided to wait until Dumbledore gave James’s invisibility cloak back?) Peter duly reported the conversation to Voldemort, who decided to act quickly. Not that Voldemort doubted he could handle those little punks, but it would be a hassle, you know? He told Peter that if the Potters cast the Fidelius Charm, Peter had better make sure to be Secret-Keeper. That way, he could betray them when Voldemort chose.

If this happened, it probably made little practical difference. I doubt James and Sirius would have been a match for Voldemort, prepared or not. But it would make Sirius feel extra guilty. No wonder he was hysterical when the Ministry caught up to him.

And no wonder thirteen years later he was still claiming responsibility for James and Lily’s deaths.

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Probably not a good idea to print dozens of letter containing the secret every year, but I suppose they can't be that careful--again, shopping district. And it might never have happened that a Muggle-raised witch or wizard became a house head responsible for escorting other Muggle-raised kids during their first trip, so they'd never have run into the problem that the teacher wouldn't be able to tell the secret.

Still, I think a variant that allows anyone told the secret to become an SK right away makes more sense in this case. If they had to wait for deaths, then--for example--a lot of people wouldn't be able to take their under-eleven children in via the Leaky Cauldron. Possibly for generations. Fine for shopping if they can Floo directly in. But what if an emergency (horde of angry Muggles on the street, rampaging magical beast that broke out of Newt's suitcase, whatever) means their best escape route is running in through the pub entrance--only they can't bring their little kids? Not everyone can Apparate. And families the Weasleys couldn't Apparate with all seven kids at once.

Looking forward to your Neville-as-Chosen-One piece.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Re: AU: I can tell you one thing: If Albus is taken out of the story, things become a lot more simple and sensible. (In canon, even death didn't remove him.) And as Jodell used to say, the villain is the story. So what does it say about Albus?

[sunnyskywalker]

Definitely. I think even if someone is unwilling to go so far as to call him a villain, there's no way around classifying him as an antagonist. Regardless of his intentions (which we only have his word for anyway) he throws up so many roadblocks and causes so many complications and disasters for basically everyone on Team Protagonists that he's more an obstacle than a mentor. By a wide margin.