Something's been bothering me about Sirius

[Felicia Rickmann]

No: HPFGUIDX 35173

I have a query, and as a new member coming in on many conversations about Sirius Black, I can only hit the ground running so fast, so bear with me.  Query :-  Stan Shunpike (bus conductor) tells Harry that Sirius Black was a great supporter of Lord Voldemort.  Canon reads: "Yeah that's right - very close to You Know Who, they say".  PoA Ch. 3  

 

WHY?  

 

At this mention of Sirius Black what little back history there is, Stan relates to Harry - already in a state of panic fleeing from an inflated aunt and the Dursleys, and convinced he is to be banished from the wizarding world.  Later, when we learn more about Sirius, nothing else links him to Voldemort except the Pettigrew's * explosion *.  Does it?  Sirius, we find out later, was the Potter's Secret Keeper, so why build a mysterious, rumour-fuelled unsubstantiated element to his past linking him to Voldemort?   

 

Sirius imprisoned, languishing for a long, long time in Azkaban before breaking out to get justice, (prompted by the Weasley's picture in Egypt) could be seen as a *maligned hero*; for surviving, retaining his humanity, sanity(?) and for refraining from killing Pettigrew (with Remus) - for Harry's sake - in the Shrieking Shack, in complete contrast with Snape who, as anti-hero, also comes with an unrelated back history, but whose fate turned him into Black's, equally puzzling, * enemy *.  Why indulge in this character assassination?  

 

 

Felicia

 

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