I've got a Sirius problem

[pigwidgeon37 at yahoo.it]

No: HPFGUIDX 25753

Hallo everybody,

after a period of happy lurking (due to writing my very own fanfic 
that is threatening to become longer than GoF), I feel that I just 
have to make myself very unpopular with 90% of you, professing that I 
really got a problem with the character of Sirius Black- I'd even go 
as far as saying that I rather dislike him. Now, practically 
everybody out there is pro-Sirius and so I thought I might eventually 
bore you with my Why-Do-I-Dislike-Sirius- analysis:
I first thought it was all due to JKR's way of introducing him to us 
as a dangerous murderer, describing him as "
a sunken-faced man with 
long, matted hair
", which is enhanced by "Harry looked into the 
shadowed eyes of Sirius Black, the only part of the sunken face that 
seemed alive. Harry had never met a Vampire, but he had seen pictures 
of them in his Defence Against the Dark Arts classes and Black, with 
his waxy white skin, looked just like one." (PoA, p 45/46 of UK 
paperback ed.)
What I would have expected from myself was that, after the whole 
story about Sirius and Peter had been revealed, the image of Sirius 
would correct itself in hindsight, making everything he had done 
before fit into a pattern that became clear once  I had finished and 
re-read the book (Hope this is understandable), more or less the same 
thing that happened with Snape in PS/SS: Once you know he isn't the 
evil one, you reconsider his past actions and see them in a different 
light (He's not cursing Harry during the Quidditch match, he tried to 
get past Fluffy not to steal the stone, but to protect it etc.).
Anyway, it didn't work this way for Sirius. Why did he have to 
destroy the portrait of the Fat Lady, when she refused to let him 
into Gryffindor Tower without a password?  When he entered the boys' 
dormitory to get Scabbers, why was it necessary to slash Ron's 
bedcurtains with a knife instead of drawing them back? He had to drag 
Ron into the tunnel and to the shrieking shack, but was breaking his 
leg in the process absolutely inevitable? Hadn't Hermione kicked him, 
how far would he have gone in defending himself against Harry's 
attack in the Shrieking Shack (But Black's free hand had found 
Harry's throat- "No, he hissed, I've waited too long-" The fingers 
tightened, Harry choked, his glasses askew. –PoA, p. 367)? 
So much for PoA, add the Conjunctivitus Curse he would have suggested 
to Harry for getting past the Hungarian Horntail (I was going to 
suggest a Conjunctivitus curse, as a dragon's eyes are its weakest 
point- GoF, p.363 UK hardcover ed.), which, according to what Ron 
tells Harry after the first task, is none too pleasant.
These are the major points that make me uneasy about Sirius: The man 
has a tendency towards violence I definitely dislike and which, IMO, 
can only partly be explained away by his twelve years in Azkaban. If 
Azkaban was an ordinary prison, where the use of brutality and 
violence is essential for surviving, we could give him credit for 
having got used to it. If his outbursts of uncontrolled rage were 
directed only against Snape and Pettigrew, it would be more than 
understandable (more for Pettigrew than for Snape, but anyway). 
So my problem with Sirius is: What damage might a person who is so 
quick-tempered and so violence-prone do during the next book(s)? His 
character makes him far too susceptible to some nice scheme concocted 
by Voldemort& Malfoy, turning him against somebody on the Good Side, 
thus seriously endangering the Old Crowd and maybe even Harry or one 
of his friends. I can see Sirius causing somebody's death and dying 
himself in some kind of repentance-induced kamikaze action, that 
would fit the picture I've formed of him.

And now, guys, feel free to put me through the shredder! I'm curious 
to hear your comments.
Susanna