Rulebreaking (Official Philip Nel Question #6) (Take #1)

[dicentra63]

No: HPFGUIDX 38533

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Penny Linsenmayer <pennylin at s...> wrote:
> 
> Sirius is seemingly completely unrepentent about The Prank.  

I'd emphasize "seemingly."  You could read his remark about Snape
sneaking around, trying to get people in trouble as embarrassment
rather than unrepentance.  He's been sitting there listening to Remus
tell these kids, including his own godson Harry, about the stupid
thing he did many years ago.  Remus's tone indicates he didn't think
it was all that funny (he uses "amusing" as a euphemism, but for
what?). Sirius might be too embarrassed, and probably too proud, to
say he was wrong, so he mutters something about how Snape had it
coming to cover his shame.  He might not actually believe what he said.  

<snippage>
 
Penny again:
> He also seeks to take vengeance into his own hands, and it is here
that he runs into problems under Rowling's moral compass IMO.  If his
sole objective had remained the protection of Harry, circumstances
might have turned out very differently.  Consequently, Sirius doesn't
get to clear his name -- a consequence of his attempts to exact his
own scheme of justice.

Dicentra:
I'm not sure this is Sirius's private scheme of justice.  Remus
doesn't  question it for a moment, and it doesn't seem that Harry does
either -- at least, not in terms of its legitimacy.  Harry doesn't
want his father's friends to become killers (he doesn't say
"murderers"), but Harry never implies that a kind of unjustified
vengeance is motivating Sirius or Remus.
OTOH, I can't honestly say where killing Peter falls on "Rowling's
moral compass."  I don't think the only reason she has Harry stop them
from killing Peter is so she can use him to revive Voldemort (there
are other ways) or so that she can set up a life-debt between Harry
and Peter (although that's awfully compelling) or to create a parallel
between Harry "saving their souls" in this generation when James saved
them in a similar manner from the consequences of The Prank (even
though that's a cool parallel).  She's obviously not squeamish about
killing characters -- does she disapprove of killing Peter?  Is she
rejecting the WW's value system?  She has expressed disgust at the
WW's class system in interviews.  Maybe she's not terribly impressed
by their alleged system of justice on all kinds of levels.  And given
that we've talked about WW "justice" to death recently, I'll leave it
at that.

--Dicey, who must confess an extreme bias in Sirius's favor