Sirius, Squeamishness (WAS Sirius, House of James Potter)

[dicentra_spectabilis_alba]

No: HPFGUIDX 34317

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at h...> wrote:
> 
> If Sirius has changed at all since his Hogwarts days (which is highly 
> debatable, BTW), I think he has become even more, well, dangerous.  
> There is no doubt in my mind that, had Harry not objected, Sirius was 
> going to kill Peter dead.  Dead, dead, dead.  Had Lupin chickened 
> out, Sirius would have pushed Lupin aside, turned up the voltage on 
> his own wand, and blasted Peter all by himself.  Had that not worked, 
> Sirius would have killed Peter with his bare hands.  Sirius doesn't 
> have a squeamish bone in his body.
> 

I don't know if it's *highly* debatable that he's changed.  Twelve
years in Azkaban aren't going to leave you the same as when you
entered, even if you weren't affected by the dementors to the extent
others were.  He seems to have matured some: Harry gets mad at him in
GoF when he writes him and tells him not to stray outside the
boundaries. "You're a fine one to tell me not to break rules," thinks
Harry [to paraphrase]. But as adults often do when looking back on
their teen years, Sirius cares more about the real danger than about
"what it's like to be 14" and the need to run around with impunity, as
he did at that age.

And it's curious how in the Shrieking Shack (and most of PoA, for that
matter) he's in this murderous rage, but in all of GoF he's rational,
calm, and parental.  (Come to think of it, he goes rational right
after Harry prevents him and Remus from killing Peter, e.g., when he
asks Harry to stay with him, he seems a totally different person.)  In
GoF he paces the cave trying to piece things together, pleads with
Dumbledore to not make Harry relive what happened with Voldemort,
keeps his hand on Harry's shoulder when he does talk about what
happened after he touched the portkey, and grips his shoulder tightly
when he hears about James and Lily emerging from the Priori
Incantatem. At the end, he's got his hands in his face, evidently from
grief.   

As a matter of fact, he hardly has any personality at all in GoF,
functioning mostly as a sounding board for Harry.  The only time he
shows personality is when Dumbledore makes him transform in front of
Snape et al. and he and Snape stare daggers at one another before
reluctantly shaking hands.

It's always been hard for me to reconcile these two Siriuses.
Naturally, I prefer the rational one, but he evidently has it in him
to be a pretty callous person.  Not squeamish?  You're right Cindy,
he's got an iron stomach.  But then, apparently, so does JKR.

--Dicentra, who wonders where Sirius was between PoA and GoF.