Sirius's Big Line

dicentra_spectabilis_alba bonnie at niche-associates.com
Wed Mar 20 02:24:43 UTC 2002


No: HPFGUIDX 36712

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "lucky_kari" <lucky_kari at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "dicentra_spectabilis_alba" <bonnie at n...> 
> wrote:
> 
> > I think that Sirius really would have died to save James, and 
> letting
> > everyone believe he was the Secret-Keeper is proof.  He knew that
> > becoming the Potters' Secret-Keeper made him Voldemort's prime 
> target.
> >  Sirius probably thought that Voldemort would go after him, try to 
> pry
> > the secret out of him, eventually killing him in the process. By
> > making someone else Secret-Keeper, Voldemort's killing or torturing
> > Sirius would not put James in danger.  Sirius's primary driving 
> force
> > is loyalty. It's loyalty to his promise to look after Harry that
> > drives him to escape from Azkaban and risk capture and the Kiss.
> 
> Ah, I don't think you've got our bleeding heart way of looking at the 
> world yet. You see, we bleeding hearts do not believe that good 
> intentions success make. We like to believe that you can be 100% loyal 
> and still betray your friends under pressure. We cast around 
> hopelessly for heroes who will prove our point of view, and find quite 
> a few in real life, but very few in fiction, with the exception of 
> Frodo Baggins who cracked most delightfully (and also was sympathetic 
> towards the plights of SYCOPHANTS.) 
> 
> The mechanics of the Secret Keeper charm may guard against torture, 
> but Sirius's "You should have died..." bit still doesn't sit well. He 
> may have had the option not to crack in this specific case, but if 
> Voldemort catches him tomorrow and does horrible things to him, will 
> Sirius Black keep quiet all Dumbledore's plans? I don't think so.
>
The situations aren't parallel.  Peter wasn't tortured into betraying
the Potters, he did it because he wanted to (though he might have told
himself something else). Sirius decided not to go over to the Dark
Side (don't know if he was tempted) and would have opted to die rather
than betray James.  Voldemort might not have given Sirius that option,
but he would have chosen it given the chance. Peter wouldn't.
 
To make the situation parallel, Peter would have to have joined the
DEs under duress, but he didn't. The DEs might use Crucio or Imperio
to get people to do some of their dirty work, but Voldemort's not
going to put his Mark on someone who Cracks, is he?  No, Sirius is
made of better stuff than Peter. Muuuch better stuff.

--Dicentra, who will now stop to think about this better stuff 


  







More information about the HPforGrownups archive