I have some Sirius questions here ... seriously :)

[absinthe at mad.scientist.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 12251

 "Doreen Rich" <nera at r...> wrote:
> When it was described about Sirius killing the 13 people, 12 muggles 
> (there is that number 12 again) and one wizard, Sirius is said to 
> have been laughing. Is this just a "repeated rumor"? If not, why 
> would he laugh if he were innocent and witnessing Pettigrew actually 
> doing the murders?

IIRC, Sirius noticed that Peter turned into a rat. Perhaps the 
"laughter" was one of incredulity and was seen by the bystanders as 
sociopathic laughter. Afterall, Sirius was concentrating on Peter more 
than his surroundings if they dueled in broad daylight in the middle 
of a Muggle street.

> Why did Sirius slash the picture of the Fat Lady?

I think he slashed the picture out of desperation/frustration. Sirius 
knew Peter was in the Gryffindor Tower. He knew that Peter was in the 
same dormitory room as Harry. Again, Sirius was concentrating on 
stopping Peter from harming Harry. It must have been very frustrating 
to him that he couldn't get into the Tower because he didn't know the 
password.
 
> Why didn't Sirius make Harry his Secret Keeper so that he could hide 
> and Harry would know where he was? Then, Harry could go live with 
> him... couldn't he? 

That's a good idea. 

:-)Milz