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unpopular opinion galore ! / @cataclysmicdesign / accepting
LET’S TALK ABOUT DUMBLEDORE’S “ABANDONMENT” OF SIRIUS BLACK. the “abandonment” is in quotes because there was none, not in my pretty brown eyes anyways. it was all about Murphy’s Law : everything that could go wrong…will. let’s go back to the b e g i n n i n g of it all. October 31st, 1981.
“Naturally,” said Professor McGonagall, James Potter told Dumbledore that Black would die rather than tell where they were, that Black was planning to go into hiding himself….. and yet, Dumbledore remained worried. I remember him offering to be the Potters’ Secret Keeper himself.”
“He suspected Black?” gasped Madam Rosmerta.
“He was sure that somebody close to the Potters had been keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements, said Professor McGonagall darkly. “indeed, he had suspected for some time that someone on our side had turned traitor and was passing a lot of information to You-Know-Who.”
“But James Potter insisted on using Black?”
“He did,” said Fudge heavily. “ And then, barely a week after the Fidelius Charm had been performed - “
Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban Page 205
First, it is important to note that Sirius Black himself was planning to go into hiding. Second, all eyes are on Sirius Black. Remus thinks him a traitor. Dumbledore does as well. In Dumledore’s defense, this is the year of 1981, a week before the charm was cast. He is a man, a person, but most importantly a general. The state of his mind is important to note. He was the general of the Original Order. This was his team. Yes, there were other leaders within the organization, but he recruited this team ! And “a lot of information” was be passed to Voldemort. A PART OF THAT INFORMATION HAD TO BE IDENTITIES. Remember : the order was a secret organization & where the majority of the team were annihilated within that time frame.
“There’s me,” said Moody unnecessarily, pointing at himself. The Moody in the picture was unmistakable, though his hair was slightly less gray and his nose was intact. “And there’s Dumbledore beside me, Dedalus Diggle on the other side …. That’s Marlene Mckinnon, she was killed two weeks after this was taken, they got her whole family.That’s Frank and Alice Longbottom…. Poor Devils,” growled Moody. “Better dead than what happened to them…and that’s Emmeline Vance, you’ve met her, and that there’s Lupin, obviously … Benjy Fenwick, he copped it too, we only ever found bits of him… shift aside there,” he added, poking the picture, and the little photographic people edged sideways, so that those were partially obscured could move to the front. “That’s Edgar Bones…brother of Amelia Bones, they got him and his family too, he was a great wizard… Sturgis Podmore, blimey, he looks young…Caradoc Dearborn, vanished six months after this, we never found his body…Hagrid, of course, looks exactly the same as ever… Elphias Doge, you’ve met him, I’d forgotten he used to wear that stupid hat…Gideon Prewett, it took five Death Eaters to kill him and his brother Fabian, they fought like heroes… budge along, budge along…That’s Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth, only time I ever met him, strange bloke…. That’s Dorcas Meadowes, Voldemort killed her personally…. Sirius, when he still had short hair…. and … there you go, thought that would interest you!”
Alastor Moody, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 173-174
Look at all the death. All the slaughters. All the annihilations. These deaths were not easy, they were extravagant, needed man power to kill those that had to be killed. the team he assembled, aided in assembling, dead. died. The anxiousness building up in him to protect those who are left is apparent with James & Lily, even more so with them because they are his hail mary. the last lingering hope that this war will be over & won. Because : remember : he is a general. He works like Alastor Moody, a strategic mind to have the less damage occur as possible. This is how the Order thrived with being so out numbered, with people like these two constructing plans to get the less amount of casualties. Then 1981 hit & shit went everywhere. Those dead, someone in the Order FELT responsible. Someone knew the Potters step by steps. I don’t think he would have picked anyone but himself to be “THE SECRET KEEPER” of the Potters because of what this war is c o s t i n g him & everyone around him. JAMES INSISTED. thus, here we are back to the night of October 31st, 1981.
“I met him!” growled Hagrid. “I musta bin the last ter see him before he killed all them people! It was me what rescued Harry from Lily an’ James’s house after they was killed! Jus’ got him outta the ruins, poor little thing, with a great slash across his forehead, an’ his parents dead…. an’ Sirius Black turns up, on that flyin’ motorbike he used ter ride. Never occured ter me what he was doin’ there. I didn’ know he’d bin Lily an’ James’s Secret- Keeper. Thought he’d jus’ heard the news o’ You-Know-Who’s attack an’ come ter see what he could do. White an’ shakin’, he was. An’ yeh know what I did? I COMFORTED THE MURDERIN’ TRAITOR!” Hagrid roared.
“Hagrid, please!” said Professor McGonagall. “Keep Your voice down!”
"How was I ter know he wasn’ upset abou’ Lily an’ James? It was You-Know-Who he cared about’! An’ then he says, ‘Give Harry ter me, Hagrid, I’m his godfather, I’ll look after him - HA! But I’d had me orders from Dumbledore, an’ I told Black no, Dumbledore said Harry was ter go ter his aunt an’ uncle’s. Black argued, but in the end he gave in. Told me ter take his motorbike ter get Harry there. ‘I won’t need it anymore,’ he says.
” I shoulda known there was somethin’ fishy goin’ on then. He loved that motorbike, what was he givin’ it ter me for? Why wouldn’ he need it anymore? Fact was, it was too easy ter trace. Dumbledore knew he’d bin the Potters’ Secret-Keeper. Black knew he was goin’ ter run fer it that night, knew it was a matter o’ hours before the Ministry was after him.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 206 - 207
Actual testimony of the last person who saw Sirius Black before the incident with Peter Pettigrew. No one knew they switched the Secret Keeper jobs. A conscious choice Sirius made to throw everyone off the track, even Lupin, even Dumbledore. This is important when I talk about evidence displayed pretty soon.
“Alas if only we had,” said Fudge bitterly ( about Sirius Black not disappearing ), “It was not we who found him. It was little Peter Pettigrew - another of the Potter’s friends. Maddened by grief, no doubt, and knowing that Black had been the Potters’ Secret Keeper, he went after Black himself.”
Pettigrew…that fat little boy who was always tagging around after them at Hogwarts? said Madam Rosmerta.
“Pettigrew died a hero’s death. Eyewitnesses - Muggles, of course, we wiped their memories later - told us how Pettigrew cornered Black. They say he was sobbing, ‘Lily and James, Sirius! How could you?” And then he went for his wand. Well, of course, Black was quicker. Blew Pettigrew to smithereens……… I will never forget it. I still dream about it sometimes. A crater in the middle of the street, so deep it had cracked the sewer below. Bodies everywhere. Muggles screaming. And Black standing there laughing, with what was left of Pettigrew in front of him…
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Page 207-208
Officially, no one can speak for Sirius Black. Look at the evidence of eye witnesses above which is the relevance of me putting this all in this extremely long post. The majority of the Order is killed, the Order knew there was a leak, everyone believed Sirius to be the Secret Keeper, & everyone believed it was Sirius. THE WAR IS OVER. A war that has plagued this war for over a decade. The countless disappearances, deaths, & tortured. People were out in the streets have a PARTY! because finally they can breathe again. they can move on with their lives. They can go outside & not fear the inevitable happening ( minus the Longbottoms…. ). Unfortunately, tragically, the war is not over for everyone. Trauma is still instilled in the minds of people like those of Dumbledore, those like Moody because this is the time period where he is hunting down remaining Death Eaters, losing his leg, eye, & part of his nose. The government who is left in scrambles trying to tie everything up in a nice, tidy bow had Sirius Black handed to them on a platter L A U G H I N G, showing no remorse. showing no innocence. Was it wrong for him not to have a trial ? yes. did he proclaim his innocence ? no. AND WHY THE FUCK SHOULD DUMBLEDORE BELIEVE HE IS INNOCENT ? there is no reason. none. everything people think they know is not correct. WHAT YOU KNOW AS A READER IS NOT WHAT DUMBLEDORE KNOWS. NOT WHAT ALASTOR MOODY KNOWS. IT IS NOT WHAT REMUS LUPIN KNOWS OR THE SURVIVOR OF THE ORDER dealing with the wreckage of what happened.
SIRIUS BLACK IS NOT ACTING INNOCENT & THERE IS NO ONE AROUND TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF HIS INNOCENCE. James & Lily are dead. Peter is a rat, somewhere, finding Percy Weasley, & Remus Lupin is in full throttle mode mourning over the deaths of James, Lily & Peter, & hating Sirius with all of his ever living might - as he should in this situation.
Is it right ? no. but ! I can see it. I would have wanted this cold asshole to have gone to prison for life, he is lucky he didn’t get the kiss at this point, let’s all be honest ! he was not someone crying his innocence, abandoned by Dumbledore. HE ACTED GUILTY. There was too much proof to the version of the story that happened to make him guilty. As I said, there was no trial ; but evidence was given. i.e. all the eyewitness testimony from above & DUMBLEDORE.
"It is your turn to listen, and I beg you will not interrupt me, because there is very little time,” he said quietly. “There is not a shred of proof to support Black’s story, except your word - and the word of two thirteen year old wizards will not convince anybody. A street full of eyewitnesses swore they saw Sirius murder Pettigrew. I myself gave evidence to the Ministry that Sirius had been the Potter’s Secret Keeper.”
"Proffersor Lupin is currently deep in the forest, unable to tell anyone anything. By the time he is human again, it will be too late, Sirius will be worse than dead. I might add that werewolves are so mistrusted by most of our kind that his support will count for very little - and the fact that he and Sirius are old friends - “
"But”
"Listen to me, Harry. It is too late, you understand me? You must see that Professor Snape’s version of events is far more convincing than yours.”
"He hates Sirius,” Hermione said desperately. “All because of some stupid trick Sirius played on him - “
“Sirius has not acted like an innocent man. The attack on the Fat Lady - entering Gryffindor Tower with a knife - without Pettigrew, alive or dead, we have no chance of overturning Sirius’s sentence.”
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 392-393
Someone call Sirius Black’s legal team & teach him how to act like an innocent man please. At this point, when Dumbledore finally has the full story, you can see how Sirius was not abandoned as an innocent man. Sirius Black was a part of Dumbledore’s recruited original Order. He made a mistake. Human. The General was doing justice for all those whose identities got linked & were killed through the traitor. Now, he is desperate. Giving Hermione & Harry more time ( literally ) to save Sirius Black, a man who is innocent. A man who never seemed innocent. That every shred of evidence is more convincing than any other version of the story itself. The full on documentation between the lines that he is trying to amend what happened twelve years before. Dumbledore can be wrong. Twelve years before, he was not responsible for letting Sirius Black go to Azkaban. It was Sirius Black’s fault, the majority of it, acting the way he did. The premeditated giving his motorbike away to Hagrid because “he didn’t need it anymore” murder. The eyewitness. HIM LAUGHING. He presented himself in a nice little package at the Ministry’s door step, g u i l t y . Dumbledore wanted justice for his team. For the Potters. Sirius Black would have never left that building alive if ever found innocent. Stop saying that Dumbledore just let him go to prison. That is not the case. Sirius Black was not abandoned by him. Dumbledore believed him to be guilty for the reasons literally stated in the text above. Of what happened in the year of 1981. yes, the no trial was a tragedy & another subject, but sirius going to azkaban is his own fault, not dumbledore’s. Thank you & good night.
