[HPforGrownups] Living With Sirius

[JayKay]

No: HPFGUIDX 28288


--- Amber ? <inviziblegirl at hotmail.com> wrote:


> I've always 
> been a bit suspicious of how EASILY Sirius has been
> able to slip into 
> Harry's life despite all the obstacles. 

There's a *lot* about Sirius I'm suspicious of. In
addition to the situation you mention, I find it
disturbing that no one seems at all concerned by the
fact that he blithely sent Snape off to the Shrieking
Shack where Snape would have ended up dead or a
werewolf himself, and Remus would have had to live
with the guilt of killing or afflicting Snape for the
rest of *his* life as well. But no, they brush it off
as a "prank."   

Either Sirius is so thoughtlessly impulsive and
completely oblivious to the possible consequences of
his actions, or he's so emotionally unstable that he's
capable of killing Snape in cold blood simply because
Snape followed him and his friends around. Yeah,
that's a "crime" really deserving of death or
lycanthropy, Sirius. 

I'm just wondering if we shouldn't have a knee-jerk
"aww, he's Harry's godfather and is being nice to him,
so we should like him" reaction. If Snape hadn't
pointed out that Sirius' "prank" almost resulted in
murder, I'd think it was JKR glossing over the darker
implications of Sirius' actions for the sake of
keeping it black and white for the kids. 

But Snape *does* point that out, only he gets
dismissed. That makes me wonder whether she's fooling
the readers into dismissing his accusation as well
just because it's coming from Snape, so obviously he's
only saying that because he's been carrying a grudge
all this time -- and then she'll turn this around and
reveal we should've listened to Snape all along. 

Either way, I don't have a very high opinion of
Sirius. IMO, he comes off as a jerk masquerading as a
"cool guy." And I'll stop there before I get pelted
with tomatoes from all the Sirius fans. <g> 

I will say, however, that the first couple of times I
read PoA, I really liked Sirius. I had the "aww, how
sweet, he's an innocent man unfairly accused. Oh, how
he's suffered, poor ickle Siri-kins" reaction. But
once I started really thinking about it, I felt like
JKR had skilfully manipulated me into having exactly
the reaction I was supposed to have based on the
surface circumstances. Thinking about his actions and
attitude in greater depth and detail made me revise my
opinion of him considerably, and not for the better. 



JayKay


=====
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
~~Albus Dumbledore, _Chamber of Secrets_

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