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

Comments

[madderbrad]

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

What's the canon on Dumbledore's knowledge of Sirius's circumstances? Did he know that Sirius was innocent all along? Did he cast the Fidelius and therefore know the identity of the secret keeper? I might be getting mixed up with all the conspiracy theory fanfics I read ... :-)

Otherwise, yeah, just another example of a character not doing X because either (a) Rowling didn't (bother to) think of X, or (b) Rowling didn't allow the character to think of X because that would destroy her story.

[sunnyskywalker]

As far as we know, Dumbledore was entirely out of the loop. We can only speculate what he secretly knew or suspected, if anything.

Not knowing is probably better than knowing all along and letting Sirius rot anyway, so Dumbledore should be grateful we're only accusing him of cluelessness ;-) In fairness, even this many years later Sirius is leading by confessing to Harry that it was totally his fault that James and Lily died and only explaining because for some reason all three kids let him and Remus talk endlessly about it, so he probably sounded like he was confessing at the time, too.

[vermouth1991]

While we're at it, it is some good "Dark Lady AU" fuel that Hermione would curse tattletales to get the word SNITCH over their face but NOT stop them from actually betraying Dumbledore's Army, and we have Voldemort who would give Wormtail a magical hand that will kill him, Dr Strangelove-style, if he betrays Voldemort, but it doesn't stop Wormtail from betraying him, or go off to finish the job and kill Harry in the celler.

[sunnyskywalker]

It's as if wizarding society has no experience of ever experiencing violent conflict. I guess the centuries of witch-hunts, the Grindelwar, the possible 19th-century Dark Lord, and Voldwar I taught them absolutely nothing about self-defense and how to handle the possibility of traitors in your midst. There must not be a single wizarding publication about the topic in the Hogwarts library, or Hermione probably would have read it.

Well, we know that DADA teaching focuses on spells, not strategy or tactics (other than Umbridge's attempt to teach the good idea of non-violent conflict resolution for transparently bad reasons), and even that has been a failure for decades. Maybe the Ministry censored every last publication on higher-level defense planning, and were so wildly successful that no one even remembers the books were ever written, let alone the information they contained about how to be a rebel cell or ruthless leader or whatever?

[nx74defiant]

Sirius isn't thinking much is he? Acting rashly - the Gryffidor way - don't think about prevention, don't plan ahead, don't ask for help.

[sunnyskywalker]

I really, really tried to cut him a break here on account of Azkaban swizzling his brain for twelve years, but his relatively elaborate scheme to mail-order broom via cat, because he's been carefully following his godson's Quidditch games, doesn't really support that

[jana_ch]

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

[ext_6058021]

I can see a reason for Sirius not to warn Dumbledore, and it's that Albus shipped him to Azkaban without a by your leave. Or, at the very least, let Wizarding Britain's judicial system decay to such a point that such an action on so high-profile a criminal could happen without comment.

I don't have an idea for why didn't he send a word to Remus though: even fears that Dumbledore could track him back that way run against him sending Harry a Firebolt.

[sunnyskywalker]

Yeah, he might not be confident in Dumbledore's ability to investigate before pronouncing judgment under the circumstances. If he didn't have any living friends he would immediately trust when they walked into the room, that would be fine.

The broom incident torpedoes a lot of possible excuses, yeah. He could think clearly enough for that, and either wasn't worried he could be tracked that way or thought it was worth the risk, so...what does that leave?

[with_rainfall]

I think this is another example of Rowling’s Peter Pan Syndrome. Characters must hold feverishly to the attachments of their past and become entirely unreasonable, even go to extraordinary lengths, to “right wrongs” (see also: Snily Insta-love, Voldie’s refusal to send a couple of hired goons to kill Harry and co). As soon as he gets wind of Peter, it seems, Sirius gets Revenge Fever and wants to track him down and kill him with his bare hands

[sunnyskywalker]

I think it's the timeline that makes it weird. If it was only, say, a week or two between his escape and the Shrieking Shack showdown, no problem. But a year? It really didn't occur to him once during all that time? He never once thought, "Hey, I bet Moony could help! He'll want revenge too once he reads the letter I'll get Crookshanks to send for me!"

Well, the timeline and the broom thing. He didn't order just any broom, but one that wasn't even available to the general public yet during Harry's weeks in Diagon Alley. Sirius had to research broom developments somehow. So he can study broom release news and specs and then plot how to order one via cat. Surely taking five minutes to consider whether he could also drop a few lines to one of his two possible allies at Hogwarts doesn't involve more sitting around and contemplating than that? The very act of sending one letter might give him the idea to impulsively send a second letter--no heavy pondering required, just, "Hang on, Crookshanks, give me two minutes and I'll have another

[danajsparks]

My headcanon for this has been that the Mauraders made some kind of Vow or Secret that placed restrictions on what they could tell others about their activities.

[ext_6058021]

Interesting: on one hand, Remus being a fellow Marauder it shouldn’t make a difference as for warning him and he’s the biggest problem. On the other…it would be perfectly on brand for the Wizarding World that the Marauders’ measures to avoid their activities being revealed would also stop them from dealing with internal treasons, wouldn’t it?