[HPforGrownups] Re: Sirius

[Jen Faulkner]

No: HPFGUIDX 14965

On Thu, 22 Mar 2001 foxmoth at qnet.com wrote:

> > Amy wrote:
> > What made people believe that Sirius was
> > so powerful a wizard? I still don't get it...
> 
> Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier better known as the 
> Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the Revolutionary War, was appointed a 
> major general in the colonial forces at the age of 19, and was a close 
> confidante of George Washington. 

Is that really a fair comparison though?  Certainly, throughout history
there have been lots of people to have accomplished major military
exploits by that age, but very few of them, if I'm not mistaken, were
still in school (minors) at 17/18.  The wizarding world seems to
coincide with the Muggle world in having a notion of adolescence, a
period between childhood and adulthood, which greatly delays the
beginning of adulthood.  If you've only just entered adulthood, it's
difficult to become a successful general.

But I don't know that the military model of open warfare is really the
best one to use for Voldemort's organization anyway.  There were no
battles or armies involved, as far as I understand -- it seemes much
more like the model of a secret, revolutionary society (the conspiracy
model), with a 'catchy name' (Death Eaters), an anti-establishment
mentality, insignia and loyalty oaths (the Dark Mark), secrecy of
membership (no card-carrying for them), even plausible deniability for
the members at the top (Lucius, e.g.).  Had it progressed, it might well
have turned into an open groups, but I don't think it had yet at the
time of Voldemort's defeat while trying to kill baby Harry.

Given that secrecy, it seems more likely that Sirius could have been
believably high-ranking, even second in command.  After all, we (and the
wizarding world in general) know very little about the actual
organization of the Death Eaters, and what made some of them more
important than others.  Loyalty to V and his ideas?  Magical
ability?  Cunning?  If it was the first, pure fanaticism, it's perfectly
understandable that people would've believed Sirius to be high-ranking,
since he'd just apparently demonstrated his committment to V by killing
his best friend and his wife.  (The other two I find harder to believe
that someone of Sirius' age and temperament could've been expected to
have in large amounts enough to be at the top of the conspiracy.)

--jen :)

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