[HPforGrownups] Re: Is Sirius a pureblood? / Snape & insomnia

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 37224

Grey Wolf asked:

> However, I'm pretty unsure of Sirius'
> origins. Are his family wizards, muggles or both? (Please give as much
> canon as possible).
>
> To start you out, the only canon I could recall on the matter is
> Harry's letter to Siruius at the start of GoF, in which he explains:
> (liberal translation) "[...] Dursley threw his console out of the
> window. It's a sort of computer you can play games on" (end of ch. 2,
> GoF) (as always, I'd be grateful if someone could find me the correct
> quote).

Harry might not have any idea whether or not Sirius is pureblood or 
muggle-born, so his reply might be trying to account for either case. 
Sirius did write him a couple of letters at that point, but we don't 
know what he said. Furthermore, unless I'm vastly mistaken they *did* 
have computers way before the 80s, they just didn't have *personal 
computers.* Didn't IBM have giant reel-to-reel punch card readers in the 
60s? It's quite possible Sirius is at least familiar with the term 
'computer' and can extrapolate from there.

I think Sirius is a pureblood. I'd argue that Sirius acts like a wizard. 
He's got that wizarding pride and ethic. Here I'd refer again to Elkins' 
post #34421 on the Warrior Ethos or Eileen's post #36811 on Livian Rome 
(which can be applied here, although it was about the Longbottoms) and 
the posts on real wizards not apologizing. Wizards are proud and 
vengeful; they want to avenge the deaths of their loved ones 
personally -- even Draco espouses this sentiment. When Sirius escapes 
from Azkaban his decision to go after Peter is both honor-bound and 
self-sacrificial. On the one hand he does want revenge on behalf of his 
friends; his willingness to kill Peter in the shack is do-it-yourself 
justice, he considers it his duty to rid the world of the vermin that 
killed the Potters. Remus' willingness to go along with this makes me 
think he's pureblood too. When Sirius relents and defers to Harry to 
make the decision, it goes right along with this mindset; since it was 
Harry's parents who died (and merely Sirius' and Remus' friends) the 
honor or killing or sparing Peter belongs to Harry (and not, as a muggle 
might think, the "Law" or the MoM). At the same time, Sirius is willing 
to sacrifice the best evidence of his own innocence in favor of this 
righteous killing; it would be much easier to prove what really happened 
if Peter were hauled in alive, but Sirius doesn't care about that at 
all, he's much too proud to worry about getting himself cleared. 
Vengeance is far more honorable. More evidence of this is Sirius' 
attitude of death before betrayal; he'd die for the Potters and he 
expects Peter to have made the same choice. I think that Harry's 
merciful perspective shows his muggle upbringing (even if the Dursley's 
don't share it), and Dumbledore's support of him is Dumbledore being his 
usual iconoclastic self.

Of course you could also argue that Sirius has simply internalized the 
values of the wizarding world, and none of this really proves he isn't 
half-blood. But I think he's 'virtually' all wizard.

-----

OK, onto that crucial question of Snape and insomnia. I argued that 
Snape does not wander around in the middle of the night and poor Eloise 
lamented:

> I'm really disappointed now. You've completely destroyed the premise of 
> my
> very first FILK.

Oh, I loved your FILK and I am so sorry if my remarks came across in any 
way as a criticism of it. I'm missing the write-a-filk gene, and I'm 
always astounded at the cleverness of every FILK writer on this list. 
Your FILK still accurately reflects a common belief:

> But it's interesting that that's the
> impression we (well, the less attentive of us) tend to get, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a total *meme*, not just here but on many other HP/Snape 
lists, message boards and groups I've lurked on. I've read innumerable 
comments to this effect.

> And he
> really *ought* to be an insomniac with all the stuff he's got inside his
> head. How can he be tortured and angst-ridden and in mourning etc and 
> *not*
> insomniac? Of course, maybe he is, in the confines of his dungeon, we 
> don't
> know that. If he *can* sleep, I want to know why! (Boring answer, 
> sleeping
> potion; worrying answer, a lack of conscience).

In defense of Catlady, who said:

> I don't know whether Snape makes a habit of prowling the school late
> at night, but supposing that he does sleep soundly at night, that
> doesn't prove that he doesn't have insommnia: there are sleeping
> potions, even Draught of the Living Death.

I'd say that it's more logical than it is boring that the Potions Master 
might knock back a potion when he needs one. :-) If that's the case, I 
hope he's sticking to Dreamless Sleep potion; the Living Death one 
sounds scary.

My own personal interpretation of the Egg and the Eye scene is that 
normally at one in the morning Snape expects to be asleep, and that (at 
least on this particular night) he hadn't taken any sort of sleep-aid 
since he was able to wake up and be perfectly alert when he heard a loud 
noise. So I don't see any evidence of imsomnia, which doesn't prove he 
doesn't have it, but...

Remember that insomnia is one possible symptom of depression, guilt, 
angst and anxiety, but these things can also cause exhaustion and a need 
to sleep 10-12 hours a day. So if I were to project my own personal 
experience of depression on Snape (and where's the fun in life if I 
can't?) then I'd say he desperately needs his beauty sleep because he's 
so worn out from beating himself up all the time. And he needs several 
cups of Java-Jinni to get himself going every morning (hence the 
irritability). There now. With the lack of further evidence, we can all 
chose our favorite symptom and self-medication and be happy with our 
interpretation.

And trust me Eloise, he is guilt-ridden. :-)

Last but not least, thank you Judy for backing me up! You've done all my 
work for me! You are totally right that most of the time Snape catches 
Harry doing something it's during the day, and if Snape is up late 
guarding students from some threat (like in CoS) it's more or less 
against his will. (In CoS when Ron and Harry sneak past him he sneezes, 
poor dear, so I don't think the late hour agrees with him.)

The only instance I was waiting for someone to bring up was the one in 
PS/SS where Harry is poking around the Restricted Section of the Library 
after dark. This, however, probably isn't really late at night. Harry 
and Ron went to bed early and Ron went to sleep right away because he 
was still metabolizing his huge Christmas Tea. Harry the got back up 
immediately and headed for the Library. This could easily have occurred 
around 9pm-11pm; not really that late. Even then it wasn't Snape who 
found him, it was Filch, and Filch had to fetch Snape, who was 
presumably in his office. Snape does prowl around a lot, but I think he 
leaves the night shift for Filch.

~~Porphyria, very glad Eloise is ignoring her execrable tooth remark

Happy Easter for everyone who is celebrating. Being an agnostic, I will 
be observing Mediocre Housecleaning Day.





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]