in defense of sirius black (Long, Rambly)

[monika at darwin.inka.de]

No: HPFGUIDX 14457

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., heidi.h.tandy.c92 at a... wrote:

> You can't even spend 12 years in such a place, starting when you're 
> 21, and end up unscarred and permanently changed. 

Of course not, you are absolutely right here. I should have 
elaborated on this point a bit further, and I really shouldn't reply
to such sirius posts when I have a headache and should rather go to
bed early.

> I don't know if any of you have ever spoken to someone who was sent 
> to prison at 21 (which is, as we extrapolate now, the age Sirius 
was 
> when we went to Azkaban). I have, when I was in law school. 

No, I haven't, and your comment is really interesting, because it
confirms what I had suspected but didn't have any proof for. And I 
always thought that Sirius was a few years older when he went to
Azkaban, but if he was only 21 he literally hasn't had any "adult"
life yet in PoA.

> You lose 
> the ability to age and grow - or at least, it becomes completely 
> twisted onto itself. 

I think this would be even more true for Azkaban. It strikes me as a
place where any human life and feeling is suppressed by the presence
of the dementors, and the prisoners in there are barley alive, they
exist in a physical way, but they deteriorate mentally.

> Over the past few weeks, since a certain column on fanfiction.net, 
> some people have discussed whether the Harry & Hermione in Paradigm 
> of Uncertainty were out of character, given how they behaved in 
> Canon. I gave, as an example, myself. The Me I was when I was 21 or 
> 28 is the same as the Me at 14 in terms of my principles (i.e. 
books 
> are good, honesty is important) but a character sketch of me at 21 
or 
> 28 would not resemble me at 14 in any but the most superficial ways 
> (and even that wouldn't match, given that I had short straight 
brown 
> hair at 14 and long blondish curls at 21). 

It would be the same for me. I don't think you can say that the Harry 
& Hermione in PoU are out of character because we don't know in which
way they would change until then. It depends on a lot of factors in
their lives. And so I would not say that the way Sirius behaved at 16 
is any real indication to his personnality at 35. You have to take
into account a lot of things here. And Azkaban has certainly 
changed him a lot, it is unrealistic to believe that this wouldn't be
the case.

> But what if that whole Change In Character period of one's life is 
> somehow put into a box, and you never get to experience it? I'm not 
> saying it makes a person bad or dangerous or untrustworthy. I am 
> saying, though, that it must be understood in context.

Very well said.

Monika