[HPforGrownups] Living With Sirius

[SALeathem at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 28290


<< 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. >>

Remember, when Sirius did that he was just a kid. A 16 year old boy. How many 
16 year old boys do you know that think before they act? How many 16 year 
olds in general bother to consider their actions before they do anything? Not 
many. Boys in particular are still very immature at that age, look at what 
they get up to. I'm not saying of course that 16 year old girls are saintly 
virgins, but in comparison to the boys of the same age for the most part they 
are slightly more mature... (only just very slightly, and only in some 
cases...)

<< 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 >>

I don't see it like that. As stated before, he was a 16 year old boy when he 
did that and 16 year old boys do not think before they act. If it was the 
other way round, do you really think Snape would have been mature enough to 
think before he acted? I doubt it. He probably would have carried it off as 
well, and thought it was really funny too. Maybe he might have thought better 
of it at the last moment, maybe he wouldn't. 
I think in way, Snape's showing his immaturity in not being able to let it 
drop (yeah I know, it was a big deal, he could have died/ended up a werewolf, 
he could have ruined Lupins life even more as well... but again, if the boot 
was on the other foot etc.) by holding a grudge against Harry for the actions 
of Harry's father. He's acting incredibly childish by doing that (similar to 
Draco for being mean to Hermione cos she was muggle born/keen, not liking Ron 
cos his family's poor etc). Unless there is something else that we haven't 
learned about (such as maybe he was in love with Lily... his jealously of 
James for being a good quidditich player, although strictly speaking, we do 
know about that already), I think it's immature of Snape to act as he does 
towards Harry because he doesn't like James. Especially seeing how James 
died. I just keep on thinking, c'mon Severus, isn't it about time you grew 
up??  I also think, that in a way, the way Snape tells Harry it was as if he 
was saving it to have maximum impact and to deliberatly to upset Harry.  

<< 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. >>

The first time I read PoA I was suspicious of Lupin, and not too keen on 
Sirius either. After it had all been revealed I still wasn't sure of either 
of them really. Reading it again, I like Lupin a lot more, and it makes sense 
about the sneakoscope - on the train the first time I thought it was going 
off at Lupin, and then in the bedroom I thought it was faulty (Ron had said 
Bill had reckoned it was faulty because it went off at dinner, but he didn't 
know that Fred & George had put something in his soup) or was maybe being 
activated by Crookshanks. But on the second reading, it's clear it was 
Wormtail/Scabbers that made it go off all of the time. As opposed to 
Crookshanks or Lupin. 
As for Sirius, I was slightly more sympathetic to him, but his behaviour in 
the shrieking shack was still a worry. Mainly the choking Harry bit. He might 
of course, just be one of those people who, when angry, just see red and 
totally go off their nut. He might also be truely evil and we're yet to see 
it. But I think it's more likely that he just has a nasty temper, but is 
really a nice bloke. Seems to me, if that was the case, James would have been 
a nice foil to him, from what we've learnt about James so far. 

Sara