The Sirius Flicker

[dicentra63]

No: HPFGUIDX 37845

Moongirl quotes:
> > "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" he said
> > fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining him of
> > still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke.
> > 
> > Something flickered in Black's shadowed eyes.  "Lie down," he said 
> > quietly to Ron. "You will damage that leg even more."
> > 
> > "Did you hear me?" Ron said weakly, though he was clinging painfully 
> > to Harry to stay upright. "You'll have to kill all three of us!">>>>
> > 
Then Moongirl comments:
I have to wonder about the flickering in Black's eyes.  
> > That interests me at least as much as Dumbledore's gleam of
> triumph.  
> > What does the flicker mean?  
> 
Then Marina answers:
> I think it was guilt.  When Ron stood up and spoke like that, Sirius
> was finally forced to see him not as an anonymous obstacle between
> himself and Wormtail, but as a person -- a really good and loyal
> person whom Sirius, in his single-minded pursuit of vengeance, has
> badly injured.  Being a basically decent guy, Sirius feels bad about
> it (hence his telling Ron to lie down -- it really was an attempt at
> kindness); but being rather unhinged at the time, he quickly swings
> back to his original vengeful mindset.
> 
And Dicentra butts in:

Guilt is no doubt part of it--recognizing that he broke Ron's leg
(although Padfoot broke the leg--I don't think Sirius realized it
until he became a man again).  And it's a clue to us readers that
there is some humanity in Sirius that we didn't expect at this point.

But Sirius has been after Peter since he escaped. I doubt it has
occurred to him that people thought he was after Harry. HE certainly
knew he wasn't going to hurt Harry.  Part of the flicker might have
been a kind of double-take.  "Harry?  Who said anything about killing
Harry?  Now sit down or you'll make your leg worse." 

I read the Shrieking Shack chapters again, a few weeks ago, and
strangely enough, Sirius didn't seem all that unhinged to me. He does
grab Harry's throat to push him off, but at that point, who's more
unhinged? Harry is. It might have been that grabbing Harry's larynx
was all Sirius could do to make him stop. Regardless of what the
narrator says, I'll bet Harry was stronger than Sirius at that point,
so Sirius had to go for Harry's soft spot. Not enough to kill him or
anything. Just make it hurt enough so he'll get off.

And when he lunges at Scabbers, it seemed logical to do so, given that
Lupin was determined to stall while he explained everything. Maybe
Sirius knew Lupin had a habit of having to get all the I's dotted and
T's crossed before making any big moves. Actually, it DOES make more
sense to finish off Peter before launching into any explanations. I
can't see why any *sane* person in Sirius's situation would want to
wait for Lupin and his backstory machine to wind down.

For that matter, as much as I love the Shrieking Shack scene, it
REALLY bugs me that the pace is so slow and cluttered with
explanations. When Lupin insists that they have to explain first, act
second, I thought "no, it's that the author wants to fill us in on
Something Vitally Important right now, so we're going to suspend the
action even though we really don't have to." JKR does a reasonably
good job of keeping the pace up, what with Snape Showing Up At The
Worst Possible Moment and other interruptions, but I keep thinking
that when they translate this scene to celluloid they're going to have
to change from Lupin yakking to actual flashbacks or something.
Otherwise, it will get mighty slow.

--Dicentra, who can't believe she just slammed her favorite HP scene