[HPforGrownups] Re: Sirius & remorse; Fat Lady

[Sherry Garfio]

No: HPFGUIDX 47781

<Carefully adjusting my shiny new Sirius Apologist hat (how *did* I get myself
into this?)>

Much ado has been made about Sirius's attack of the Fat Lady - he "terrorized"
her to get to Pettigrew, so therefore he must be evil.  This was followed by a
huge debate as to whether the portrait people are sentient.  I argued that
their sentience or lack thereof is moot as far as Sirius is concerned at this
point.  Judy quoted me:

> Sherry objected that perhaps the portrait people are *not* sentient,
> because Sir Cadogan seems unintelligent.  I'd say that Sir Cadogan is
> just supposed to be crazy.  (In fact, Sherry, you point this outself
> when you quoted Bill Weasley from GoF: "Is that picture of the mad
> knight still around?  Sir Cadogan?")

Okay, I was pretty much kidding about Sir Cadogan.  My whole point was not to
prove or disprove sentience, but to show that Sirius didn't actually *attack*
anyone to get in to Gryffindor Tower, and to support Audra's analogy to
breaking down a door, as I said in the next quote:

> Sherry asked what Sirius would do if the Fat Lady had been human: 
> > 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 interpreted Peeves' comments that the Fat Lady was "ashamed" and "a
> horrible mess" as meaning that the Fat Lady *herself* had been
> damaged, not just her home.  I'd expect that if she were intact, she'd
> just move in with Violet or another painting until hers was fixed, and
> the other paintings wouldn't be frightened. So, I think Sirius did
> more than just "push her out of the way."

Agreed, he did do more than just "push her out of the way": he broke into her
home and destroyed her property, which is very traumatizing.  *However*, my
point was that he didn't consider her feelings when he did this - he was
focused on getting to Pettigrew.  Have you ever seen someone who is wholly
focused on a single goal?  Pushing the Fat Lady out of the way and destroying
her home was incidental to his goal; he may be feeling bad about that after the
fact, or he may discount her feelings altogether, or he may simply be unaware
of it since he had tunnel vision at the time.  My point is that he didn't do it
to terrorize the Fat Lady; he did it rashly, without considering the
consequences for her.  This may indicate that he is rash, or immature, or
whatever, but it does *not* indicate that he is evil.  The incident *did* help
to lead the Trio down the wrong path, since they took it as further evidence
that Sirius Black was a mad murderer and that he was after Harry.

Then there's the incident of choking Harry.  I think others have explained this
very well.  Again, he was bent on getting to Pettigrew, and now here's this
meddling little brat getting in his way.  This was *extremely* rash, and I
don't intend to defend Sirius for it.  Again, my point is that Sirius is not
*evil*.  He didn't throttle Harry with the intent to murder an innocent
bystander.  He was also, at this point, desperate to explain himself to Lupin
(and to Harry, to a lesser degree), adding a high level of frustration.  It
does point to a dangerous lack of self control, though, and Harry needs to
learn this, since he tends to see his godfather through rose-colored glasses.

As for his lack of remorse about the Prank, I submit that he *does* feel
remorse over the Prank.  In fact, he is positively *dripping* with remorse, so
much so that he can't bring himself to admit it, even to himself.  His comment
that Snape was asking for it is a defense mechanism.  He now has the (adult)
ability to realize all the things that the listees have pointed out - Snape
could have been killed, Lupin could have been killed, Lupin could have become a
murderer, etc.  But this wound is still raw, and he is unable to bring himself
to examine it at this point.  I suspect that this is one of the things that the
Dementors forced him to relive in Azkaban.  His time there couldn't have been
*all* focused on his innocence of the Muggle Massacre; he is guilty of certain
things after all, not murder, but certainly he is flawed and has done things in
the past that the Dementors could draw on; otherwise, he wouldn't have needed
to *concentrate* so hard on his innocence and revert to his dog form when
things got bad.

In conclusion, my take on Sirius is that he has a lot of issues to work
through, but he is *not* Ever So Evil, and has the potential to become a good
force in Harry's life.  I suspect that Sirius and Harry will do a lot of
growing up together.

Sherry


=====
"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers."

      -Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"

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