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

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 34333

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "dicentra_spectabilis_alba" <bonnie at n...> 
wrote:
> 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.  

Right - reliving the worst moments of your life or thinking like a 
dog, nothing to do but think and feel, all alone for twelve years. He 
may have seen few other prisoners who were brought in, but his first 
contact to the World was Fudge and his paper. He's probably been 
thinking a lot about that night, speculating about how things would 
be different if he had acted differently (it's not like he has 
anything else to do). He's probably sworn to himself that if he ever 
gets out, he'll devote his life to protecting Harry.

He escapes when he sees Wormtail in position to get close to Harry. 
This has two options: Protecting the godson and Revenge. At that sad 
night, they were contradictory, now they BOTH aim to same!

>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.

Right... Now he understands the 'why' behind the rules (but doesn't 
quite manage to tell that to Harry).
 
> 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.)

He isn't after letting that Wormtail between him and Harry again! He 
was probably thinking along: "Harry wants the traitor killed. Was 
about to do it himself, but I won't let HIM to become a murderer. 
I'll just kill Wormtail myself... oh, he doesn't want ME to become a 
murderer? Right, the rat isn't worth the trouble - and I don't know 
the Killing Curse anyway. I'll just capture the rat, get free and 
clear, take care of the godson - if he wants me to..."

>  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.

He's all devoted to protecting Harry. Snape smells bad (terrible 
offence to a dog's nose), was badly in the way when he was making 
friends with Harry, seems to be a Death Eater with that mark, treats 
Harry badly by insulting the orphan boy's dead father who just 
happened to save Snape's life, and was also Sirius's best friend and 
now lies dead, thus showing extremely bad manners...

> 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.

If one lasts 12 years in dreadful prison with dementors, one can last 
anything!

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

"Some place warm" - I think he was in Africa. As I don't think a 
hippogriff could fly all the way across Atlantic, America is out. So 
he would have crossed the Chanal to France, then South-West to 
Portugal, then across to Africa, where those "exotic birds" can be 
found.

As to where Sirius got that broomstick: it could have been Harry's 
FIRST christmas-gift from Sirius (didn't Sirius say it was worth 13 
years' christmas-gifts?) before Azcaban. (And Sirius was teaching 
Harry to fly!) Lily would have locked it up until Harry's old enough, 
of course. Sirius sent it to Harry using school Owls...

He might have saved Pigwidgeon. A gentle person may have been told to 
get rid of it, so when Sirius asked to have it, he got it for free.

Once safe in Africa, he may have visited Egypt Gringotts where Bill 
Weasley worked then. It is well possible that Bill somehow turned 
into doing Sirius favors. (Sirius saved his life from a rattle snake 
or something). So when Sirius got Harry's letter he had two comrades, 
Bill Weasley and Remus Lupin. (As Bill was partly for the Triwizard 
Competition and partly for assisting Sirius...)