Sirius' escape

[vjmerri]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C7492
From: vjmerri
Subject: Sirius' escape
Reply To: [Yahoo! #7453] Re: James's death
Date: 8/21/00 10:06 pm  (ET)

By: mkplummer

since Sirius escaped Azkaban by turing himself into a dog, and had done
so many times before, why did he not escape years ago??? He could have
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I've read the replies to your post, but none of them seem real
satisfactory to me. Its REAL difficult, IMO, to rationalize this one
intra HP universe.

JKR has established that _anything_ would be better than staying
in Azkaban. Its oppresive; its depression personified. Most people go
mad. If it were real life and he had thought of it, Sirius _would_ have
already escaped as a dog. He could have traveled to some other country
and lived completely as a muggle, if he had to, in order to get away.

We can suppose, I guess, that he went through several years of depression
and guilt over the deaths of James and Lily. It could be that in some
way he was unknowingly punishing himself; that he thought he had let
the Potters down and thus that he _deserved_ to be in Azkaban, and it
was only when he realized that Peter could get to Harry that he did
the mental equivalent of kicking himself in the seat of the pants and
started to WANT to live again.

Vicki