[HPforGrownups] Sirius: Sensory Deprivation and Slashing the Fat Lady

[Rebecca Stephens]

No: HPFGUIDX 47655


--- Sherry Garfio <sgarfio at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I think Judy is getting away from the original
> purpose of Audra's argument
> here.  Whether the portrait people are sentient or
> not, is irrelevant to Sirius
> in his state of mind.  To get back to Audra's
> statement that slashing the
> portrait is equivalent to breaking down a door,
> let's say that the entrance to
> Gryffindor Tower is instead an ordinary door with an
> actual Fat Lady as guard. 
> She asks for the password, Sirius doesn't know it,
> and she says "I'm very
> sorry, but I can't let you in without the password."
>  What would Sirius do?  He
> is desperate to get up there and apprehend Wormtail
> (he hasn't met Harry yet,
> so I assume his object was to get to Wormtail more
> than to protect Harry), and
> he's already committed to doing so by entering the
> castle and risking discovery
> (kind of like how a simple robbery can turn into a
> murder - the intruder is
> desperate).  He's not going to just say, "Thanks
> anyway, I know you're just
> doing your job" and go away.  No, he would probably
> shove her out of the way
> and break down the door.  What he actually did to
> the portrait is really no
> different: slashing it didn't kill the Fat Lady
> (whether she *could* be killed
> or not is moot), she was able to get out of the way,
> so all he did was "shove"
> her out of the way and break down her door.  

I disagree.  I'll admit he didn't hurt her, but it was
an act of terrorism.  He destroyed her home, not just
a door.  Luckily, her home could be rebuilt.  I'll
admit that the painting does serve as a door, and that
that is how Sirius sees it.  But it's not how she sees
it.

I would (if possible without sending him back to
Azkaban) make Sirius serve some kind of punishment for
what he did.  And I would feel much better about
Sirius if he were to have remorse for any of his
actions that terrified or harmed people.  But he
doesn't.  And no one cares.  And that's why I dislike
him most; because no character (other than Snape)
holds him in the least accountable for the
cruel/thoughtless actions he did commit.

Rebecca

ps  I'd just like to say (though it has nothin to do
with the discussion) that when I initally read PoA and
Snape showed up in the Whomping Willow and started
raving, I really thought Snape was gone.  I thought he
was going insane and would be gone from the books.  I
mean, I really thought sanity had just flown out the
window.


=====
http://wychlaran.tripod.com

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