Snape vs. Sirius, round 3

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 34765

Well, I'm spending way too much time here, so I'm going to have to be 
terse; please excuse me.

Penny asked:
 
> Perhaps I've forgotten something (it's been awhile since I chimed in 
> on a Sirius debate), but where in canon is the notion that Sirius 
> played  practical jokes on *lots* of people?<
  
You're right that this isn't explicit in the text.  I think I inferred 
it from the claim that James and Sirius were troublemakers, plus the 
comparison with George and Fred.  (I think George and Fred are 
basically OK, but I really dislike their practical jokes.)  The fact 
that James joined in with Sirius' troublemaking doesn't make me like 
Sirius any better.  (I don't know if I'd like James, I don't know 
enough about him.) 

I said
>> [Sirius is] sorry if something bad happens to one of his friends, 
>>  but he couldn't care less if anything bad happens to anyone else, 
>>  not even if it happened *because* of him. << 

Penny asked:
> Care to elaborate on what you mean here?<

It's in my past few posts.  The high points are breaking Ron's leg, 
slashing the Fat Lady, terrifying everyone in England instead of 
asking Dumbledore for help (yes, some people here have excused that 
but I don't buy it), and never being sorry for any of it, in addition 
to saying Snape deserved "the Prank." 


I also said:
> > As for whether Azkaban is still an excuse for Black's violent
> > behavior, even 10 months later, I don't think so. First of all, 
> > PTSD rarely makes people violent, unless they were that 
> > way to begin with.<<

Penny asked:
> Source please?  <g>  

I don't have time to look up a real source, but I do have a 
Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD in Psychology, and have taught it at the 
university level for 8 years. (I will admit that PTSD isn't my 
specialty, though; in fact, psychopathology in general is out of my 
speciality.) PTSD disorder does greatly raise sympathetic nervous 
system arousal (ie, it raises adrenalin levels) but that on its own 
doesn't usually led to actual violence.  

Penny continued:
> Someone close to me recently suffered from 
> PTSD; he's not normally violent but did have violent outbursts in 
> the course of this condition.

Well, I'm not saying your friend is a naturally violent person, or 
that the PTSD had nothing to do with it, but violence is not the 
typical response to PTSD; fear, withdrawal, and depression are. 


I said: 
> > Even more importantly, we know that Hagrid recovers almost
> > immediately after leaving Azkaban; he says so.<<

Penny responded:
> Hagrid wasn't guilty of anything.  Hagrid is & was basically a happy 
> person. ...Hagrid was also imprisoned for what 2 mths? 
> Sirius was there for 12 *years.*<  

Actually, a number of people here have commented on Hagrid's 
depressive symptoms, which started before he was in Azkaban.  He 
bursts into tears quite easily, for example.  Sirius just doesn't 
strike me as the easily depressed sort.  

Penny added:
> Besides, Azkaban wasn't the triggering
> event for Sirius' PTSD, so escaping Azkaban isn't going to 
> miraculously 
> fix that for him.  His triggering event was when he learned of the 
> Potters' deaths and/or his confrontation with Wormtail later the 
> next day. 

 On Sirius' motivations, Penny said:
> Well, he might be motivated both by concern for Harry & a desire to 
> clear his name.  ... If he'd *eaten* Scabbers,
>  he'd have destroyed the one shred of evidence that would clear 
> his name & allow him to live a normal life in the wizarding world 
> again.  Question: if he'd *killed* Scabbers in his rat form but not 
> eaten him  as a dog, could some spell have transformed the dead
> Scabbers into a dead Pettigrew???  I don't know ...just wondering.  
> But, Sirius has never struck me as vengeful so much as interested in 
> protecting Harry & clearing his own name.<

I was just responding to the claim that Sirius was motivated *solely* 
by a wish to protect Harry.  

As for whether a dead Scabbers could be transformed back, I don't 
know.  Sirius could have grabbed Ron's wand, zapped Peter back into 
man form and *then* AK'd him, though.  (And Sirius seemed to want 
vengence in the Shack scene.  It's not that I blame him for being 
angry, it's just the cost to other people that I object to.) 


I said:
> > Good news! The Lollipops theory doesn't require any actual
> > relationship between Snape and Lily! <<
And Penny replied:
> I definitely agree with Judy here.< 

Yay!  We agree on something!

-- Judy