Odp: [HPforGrownups] Pettigrew vs. Sirius

[Monika Huebner]

No: HPFGUIDX 10824

On Fri, 26 Jan 2001 14:19:38 +0100, "Monika Zaboklicka"
<monika.zaboklicka at csl.com.pl> wrote:

Carole said:
>>You have to keep in mind Sirius' mental condition at the moment Pettigrew
>>threw that curse.  [...] Isn't a symptom of shock a
>>decrease in reaction time.

Monika said:
>Well, I rather imagine Black full of adrenaline in that scene. Got nothing
>to support this, you know, it's just my weird imagination.

I'll have to support what Carole has said, Sirius must have been in a
state of (clinical) shock at that time. Think about it: his best
friends had just been murdered, even though he had tried everything to
save them, and he was deeply involved himself. Do you really think all
he felt was some kind of rage and need for revenge? I don't think so.

> Anyway, I was
>merely pointing out that either McGonagall was wrong saying Pettigrew's
>hopeless at dueling, or Peter learnt his tricks from Voldemort. Black was
>not his normal self that night, sure, but anyway Pettigrew certainly was not
>"hopeless".

Maybe he wasn't hopeless, but anyone could have defeated Black that
night, it wasn't a big deal given the state he was in.

>Sirius, blind with fury,
>reaches for his wand but his hands tremble with anger so much that he can't
>take it out of his pocket. 

That's one POV, I have another one: his hands may have trembled, but
mostly of fear. I know that it sounds weird, but I really don't think
that rage and fury were Sirius' predominant feelings in this moment.
He was slow to react because of the shock.

>Petigrew casts his spell - not Avada Kevadra,
>some other spell - huge ball of orange light moves torwards Sirius, it tears
>the street open like an eartquake, killing people and speading havoc.

Yes, it must have been a spell that would cause an explosion like a
grenade and thus be able to kill a few people at a time. Maybe it
wasn't even dark magic. And he threw it behind his back, like you
would lance a grenade, away from you so it wouldn't hurt you.

>It's my belief
>that James was his "best friend", Remus and Peter were just "friends". I
>don't see Sirius as a lad who could truly befriend somebody who
>hero-worshippes him.

Where do you get the idea that Remus hero-worshipped Sirius? I always
thought that Remus was as important to Sirius as James was, don't
forget that Remus was the reason they all became Animagi. I think he
must have been *very* important to both James and Sirius to try this
tremendously difficult magic.

>Well, let's start with a thesis that for some reason they couldn't ask
>Remus - maybe he was away, maybe Sirius or one of the Potters heard rumours
>he's cooperating with Voldemort, it doesn't matter.

We don't have to speculate on that one, we know from the conversations
in the Shrieking Shack that Sirius suspected Remus to be Voldemorts
spy and vice versa. So he wouldn't have asked Remus to switch, but he
never thought that Peter could be the spy.

>I agree. But I think that seemingly intelligent boy of sixteen should do
>some thinking before sending a colleague to death or fate not much better
>than it.

Well, teenage boys aren't very sensitive most of the time, they are
some sort of "hormone bombs" (sorry to all you guys, I know there are
exceptions to this rule :-)) ready to go off at any time. I think you
see this from your adult and female POV, and from that POV you are
certainly right. But Sirius was just not mature enough to see it that
way and thus didn't give it a thought.

Just my 2 cents.

Monika Huebner


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