[HPforGrownups] Crushes on characters (why Sirius appeals to me)

[Monika Huebner]

No: HPFGUIDX 48146

On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 09:24:04 -0800, "Linda C. McCabe"
<lmccabe at sonic.net> wrote:

> Someone had asked before when you first started identifying or being drawn
> to a character.  Sirius Black is by far my favorite character in the
> Potterverse, but I don't think I started feeling that way after reading PoA
> or even GoF for the first time.  I think it had to have been after about the
> second or third time through as I sifted through all the myriad clues of
> evidence, etc. that I started reflecting on his pathos and it got to me.

I was taken with Sirius right after the first time I read PoA, that
was in May 2000. I had to wait six weeks for GoF to come out, and I
remember very well how afraid I was that he might be the announced
death in Book 4. At the time, he seemed a very likely candidate to me,
and while I wouldn't have wanted it to be one of the students, I admit
I was relieved it wasn't him.

> I started feeling the draw of the hurt-comfort emotional model towards him.
> I wanted to do what JKR has refused to do for Sirius, provide him a
> sanctuary and give him comfort.  This long-suffering wrongly accused and
> imprisoned man has been living on the run for two years living off of rats
> and other vermin, sleeping in forests and caves.  Yeeesh, all I want to do
> it to give him a nice warm bath, get rid of those nasty robes he's lived in
> for fourteen years now, get rid of the fleas and ticks he's picked up from
> the Forbidden Forest, give him a nice hot meal and then comfort him from the
> demons that have been haunting him for years.  I want to provide him human
> companionship, something he's been denied for far too long.  Yes, I want to
> give him comfort and ease his pain.  Heavy sigh.  And then because he still
> is a fugitive, he'd be afraid to leave the sanctuary I was willing to
> provide him.  He'd be mine, all mine.

Well, you said it all much better than I could possibly do with my
limited vocabulary. ;) I guess for me it was this great injustice that
he had suffered that drew me to him over everything else. Yes, it's
true that he is angry and that he sometimes gets more violent than
most of us can tolerate, but after twelve years in a place like
Azkaban, surrounded by Dementors day and night, it's not really
surprising. Just IMHO.

> All you Snape fans can dream about how angsty and misunderstood your Severus
> is, I am interested in his nemesis.

Me too. Snape only became threedimensional to me at the end of GoF,
before that he was just the stereotype of a horrible teacher. Yes, you
can see that something is nagging at him even before, but I'm with
Carole here, I cannot find anything attractive about his bitterness.
And his Death Eater career isn't really something that makes him more
attractive to me either, but at least it sheds some light on what we
see of him in the Shrieking Shack. IMHO what we see there is a glimpse
of Snape the Death Eater. Yes, I know he was convinced he was dealing
with a murderer then, I just wanted to point out that he is capable of
violence and fanaticism, too. I can't imagine him being an innocent
bystander of Voldemort's crowd and leaving before he actually did
something bad. Yes, I am interested in knowing what made him leave
Voldemort and turn to the good side, and given the fact that he has
already redeemed himself, I don't see why he should be punished for
what he did as a Death Eater. He is way more useful to the wizarding
world as a free man. I just think all the Snape fans who think Sirius
should be punished for his "crimes" in PoA after all the abuse he's
already been through, might want to consider that Snape seems to get
away with a lot of things, too.

> This is from an adult woman who has never felt drawn to a fictional
> character before.

The same here. At least not in the way of feeling the urge to defend
someone who doesn't actually exist. ;-)

Monika