If apparition(sp.) is impossible, he could've snuck into Aurors' boat. His escape wasn't noticed for some time after all. (at least in canon)

 

The prison does not necesarrily = the island. He could have escaped the prison in animagus form, then transformed back in to human form while still on the island but no longer in the prison, then apparated. No need for swimming at all.

Or he could have stolen one of the brooms used to get to and from Azkaban.

Or he could have hitched a ride while in rat form with some unsuspecting randomer.

 

Then change it to - he was insanely determined to survive and have his revenge. Insane people can do pretty unbelievable things on their own and Peter had also magic on his side. And please, don't say that magic is not reasonable explanation.

 

See, these are decent explanations. I could believe any one of these given just a short line or two of dialogue in the story.

But I don't want to carry on more than I already did and clutter up the thread with nonsense, so I'll leave it at that.

 

What do you mean no swimming? You can't escape from a prison on the island without swimming, even for a short time. That's not how it is done.

 

I brought that up because apparently that's how Sirius escaped in canon (no source on that though), so that's what I immediately focused on. Given the animagus similarity between them, I thought they might have used the same method to escape.

But if Aurors come in on boats, then shouldn't it be impossible to apparate from the island proper, even outside of the main prison?

 

Strictly speaking, canon-wise, Fudge says in PoA that the only way on to the island is by flying.

But most fanfic writers seem to ignore that. The boat is used so much that many people probably think of it as canon by now.

 

If I remember correctly, it took James, Sirius and Peter three years to become animagus. They had both (forget Peter) the talent and the motivation to learn the skill.

It's possible that by hard, Rowlings meant time consuming and not really rewarding while you are learning to become a animagi so wizards may just not bother to learn it because it take too much time and, while cool, it's not really useful. Seeing it on that angle, I find it reasonable that Peter (with the help and encouragement of James/Sirius) and Rita, who do not seem to be more talented than average, have become animagi.

It's like when you are learning a martial art: if the teacher encourage you and you feel like you are always improving, you will like it and continue to practice it, but the moment you began to feel unwelcome or that you do not improve for a sustained amount of time the chance that you will stop are increasing. The same logic may apply to animagi.

And anyone can blackmail anyone, especially if the one blackmailed really don't want the secret to be know. I don't think it's a good point to judge Rita's talent.

I find it ironic that people can't believe that Molly Weasley may be a good witch, but the same disbelief doesn't apply to Charity Carpenter (Dresden files).

Both are house wives and we have little knowledge about them personally outside the fact that they have many children. If Charity can be a blacksmith and help her husband practice his swordsmanship, I don't see why Molly could not be able to fight Bellatrix Lestrange and win, especially if one of her child is in danger.

Even with a more reasonable explanation, at the end of the day, he just got lucky that no one was there to stop him from taking a boat, broom or whatever.

 

The point is we know that Charity is blacksmith and helped her husband with his swordsmanship and Molly, well, I don't remember reading anything about her helping Tonks with her dueling skills or something. It's not that much she did this, but that nothing to that point showed us she could do this.

And personally I've much more problem with her stealing this kill from Neville.

 

If you've raised seven children you can very well take down one insane bitch.

/trufax

 

Maybe someone in the Minister's party had a bag or something that Peter snuck into as a rat. Then he escapes as carry-on luggage.

 

I don't think being insane has anything to do with your ability to apparate. Bellatrix was a certifiable nutjob after Azkaban (and arguably before) and she certainly had no problems with it. Being insane or delusional doesn't detract from the ability to picture the 3 D's of apparation. I'll grant you the cold water making it more difficult, but he's desperate and desperate people can pull off some damn impressive things.

I think it's largely ignored because it doesn't seem to make much sense. They fly every single prisoner to Azkaban? It seems like it would be difficult to transport bound wizards on brooms and they're the only flying device besides the (illegal) magic carpets that we're introduced to.

Yes. This is in fact one of the points I was driving at, as the Animagi transformation was originally brought up as a way to prove that Sirius and James were extraordinary wizards. My point was that it's not proof of that.

I brought up numerous other examples of why Rita appears to be an incompetent wizard. And succumbing to blackmail is relatively pathetic when there are a multitude of easy ways around it. First, who exactly is Hermione going to tell? The Daily Prophet--no they won't out there star reporter. The Quibbler? No one believes anything in it anyway. The Ministry? What possible reason would they have to take a muggleborn schoolgirl with a clear axe to grind seriously?

Also, the blackmail easily avoidable by just registering with the Ministry. In canon there appears to be no way to prevent Animagi from entering somewhere, so registering doesn't deprive her off the use of her talent. Also the incompetence shows in allowing herself to be captured by a 15 year old girl to begin with. So yes the blackmail does help add to the picture of Rita as a relatively worthless wizard.

 

Are you saying that someone who has the determination to learn a skill that most people (young or old) do not have the patience to learn is not extraordinary ? Doesn't make them stand out ?

1- Rita Skeeter live by publishing people dirty secret, she must have many enemies or, at least, people who would like to have some sort of revenge.
2- She never purely lie, she twist the truth to make it more dramatic, find good witness who will support her position, but she doesn't create thing out of nowhere.
3- Because of 1, finding a job may not be that easy.
4- Having nothing to do is very depressing, that may explain why she is in a "bedraggled state".
5- They may not take Hermione word as the truth, but as we can see in GoF, she was not very discrete in her beetle form. Some people may remember having seen a beetle when they spoke of a subject that appears in one of her article and next time she's spying on someone, she may get caught.
6- Her animagus form is effective only because no one know that she is one. The moment her animagus form become common knowledge, she won't be able to act as freely as she can if it's not common knowledge.

So no, blackmail doesn't help to add to the picture that Rita is a relatively worthless wizard.

 

I agree with you. There is also fact that, Hagrid says that there isn't broom that would lift his weight and as we know he must had been somehow transported to Azkaban.


I would love to see more scene with Grindelwald - one of my favourite character in this fiction. There is this cool scene: Nathan mentored by Ablus vs Harry mentored by Gelart in the next most legendary duel of century (XXI), winner gets the elder wand. (Little of my imagination sorry )

 

Demons.. I won't harrass you for nitpicking or anything here, but did you notice which letters Blaise chose to bold in the word apparated? Because it changes the overall affect of his post back there.

 

It may make them stand out but it doesn't make them extraordinary. All it means is that they're more stubborn and persistent than everyone else, or that they see a benefit that escapes others. It has no bearing on their innate skill level.

 

Yeah, a guy learning knitting and weaving isn't extraordinary - he just has far too much time on his hands.

 

I may be prone to fits of stupidity, but I'm not blind.

 

Alright. I was asking because you seemed to take his suggestion seriously, and I only took it as a bad punny. /shrugs

And judging by the way you write, I'd hardly accuse you of stupidity.