TBAY: Remus isn't THAT nice NOW Sirius isn't very brave

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 39184

 Pip is busily scrubbing the deck of the Big Bang.  Captain Cindy is 
swaggering past in one of her more forgiving moods, only pointing out 
the occasional (un) missed spot.

As she works, she quietly discusses Sirius Black and the Marauders 
with Felicia.
 " I have a little theory that all the Marauders had some basic 
character flaw, and that one of the effects Harry is having is to 
make them face that and overcome it.", she says.

 This seems to be a slightly controversial idea, unpopular with both 
Remus fans and Sirius fans. 'Wow,' thinks Pip 'it's a good thing that 
only SYCOPHANTS sympathise with Peter, or I could be in real trouble.'

Pip heads for the explosive part. "Sirius - well, pre-Harry Sirius 
isn't exactly *brave*, is he? But he's learning."

Suddenly Pip looks up as a figure looms threateningly over her.

 "He what?" Dicentra interrupts. She stands and puts her hands on her 
hips. Pip shrinks back nervously.  "What do you mean he isn't 
*brave*?"

 Pip, who now has visions of getting a toothbrush Waddiwasi'd up her 
very own left nostril, responds with more courage than sense: "If 
Sirius was genuinely brave instead of only sportsjock brave he'd have 
faced Teenage!Snape himself and not shoved being Secret Keeper onto 
snivelling little Peter."

  "Oh, that will *not* go unanswered," Dicentra begins to mutter,  
teeth clenched. Her eyes are glittering, and Pip is too startled to 
protest as she is hauled unceremoniously away from the partly 
finished deck. Dicentra grabs a lift to shore from Stoned!Harry, and 
drags a protesting Pip towards the Shrieking Shack diorama in the 
Museum.

  "Listen to this," she says, as she punches a white button with her 
thumb. The sound comes on. Sirius is talking to Sniveling!Peter.

 "Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it," 
Black hissed, so venemously that Pettigrew took a step backward. "I 
thought it was the perfect plan...a bluff.... Voldemort would be sure 
to come after me, would never dream they'd use a weak, talentless 
thing like you...."

Dicentra pushes the button again and the action freezes. "Did you 
hear that? Sirius suggested they make Peter the Secret-Keeper,knowing 
that Voldemort would go after Sirius himself. Sirius was planning to 
take whatever torture Voldemort wanted to dish out, but since he's 
not the Secret-Keeper, Voldemort can't get any information  out of 
him. Turning yourself into a decoy to lure Voldemort from  your 
friends isn't my idea of cowardice!" 

She takes a step towards Pip, foam flecking her lips. Pip raises her 
hands and tries to calm her.

"Dicentra, Dicentra, haven't I taught you *anything*? What am I 
always telling you? Never trust anything anybody says *unless you can 
see the supporting evidence*! And what supporting evidence do we 
actually *have* about Sirius's motives for using Peter? None! Zilch! 
Nothing!

"Hah!" says Dicentra, spitting in sheer anger. "You, talk about 
evidence!  You! When we don't know that Sirius played sports at all!" 
Her voice rises to a scream, "So I don't know where 'sports-jock' 
brave comes from."

 Pip takes a couple of steps backward to avoid the spit flying from 
Dicentra's mouth.

"Okay, okay, I admit that there is no can(n)on that says Sirius 
played sports. I concede that point. I was using 'sports-jock' as an 
analogy, ok? Because I think  Sirius *did* play Quidditch, and 
*liked* being seen as brave. But I *can't* prove it.  And all you 
really risk in school Quidditch (unless you're Harry) is broken bones 
that Madame Pomfrey can fix overnight."

 Dicentra breathes heavily, and starts to speak through clenched 
teeth.

"If Sirius has a flaw, it's that he's overconfident about his own 
cleverness. He's sure his plan will work -- so sure he has no problem 
convincing James and Lily. But he was wrong. And he's equally sure he 
can capture Peter single-handedly and kill the Rat, but Peter 
outsmarted him and framed him instead. And THEN he tries to catch 
Peter again, alone, and Peter gets away again." 


"Well, OK," says Pip. "Calm down, it's not such a big deal. Sirius 
might be overconfident - the two ideas aren't incompatible. He could 
genuinely think he has a good plan," (she pauses, then rushes on) " 
which is also going to shove the main responsibility for keeping the 
Secret onto Peter."

At this point Pip becomes aware that a very large, hairy, grey 
streaked dog is frolicking around in the background. Dicentra is 
resolutely ignoring it. The dog, noticing Pip's interest, begins to 
bounce around on its front paws and give short, sharp barks, in the 
way that dogs do when they want you to play with them.

At least, Pip *thinks* it's a dog. It must be, it's full daylight. 

At this point, Pip becomes rather uncomfortably aware that the full 
moon is sometimes visible in the daytime. And there's a suspiciously 
silvery orb just above her...

Pip gulps, and then goes on:

"On to the next point. What about facing teen-aged Snape himself? Why 
didn't he just settle things like a man instead of sending him 
down..."

But Dicentra lays an index finger on Pip's mouth, glaring at Prank as 
he wags his tail.

"Don't. Mention. That. Incident. Ever. Again." she snarls. "This list 
has discussed you-know-what far too many times. Don't get us started 
again."

Prank whines softly, and looks appealingly at Pip. And Prank can look 
very appealing when he wants to.

Pip hisses at Prank out of the corner of her mouth. "Go away, Prank! 
I am not going to play with you! Dicentra's right, EVERYONE plays 
with you! You could spend a month just reading about the games people 
have played with you!"

Prank whines again, and drops a (rather wet) stick from his mouth. He 
scratches it with his paw. 'Go on', he's obviously saying. 'Just one 
little throw.'

Pip picks up the stick, as Dicentra glares venomously at her. 

"Don't get us started again." she says, as she stalks out of the 
museum.

Pip looks at the stick. It has lettering on it. 'People's behaviour 
as children foreshadows their behaviour as adults.' it says. She 
turns it over. On the other side it says 'See Stalky and Co., by 
Rudyard Kipling'

Pip follows Dicentra outside, Prank bouncing happily alongside her. 
Dicentra is still glaring, obviously not happy that Pip is going to 
throw the stick for Prank. Prank wags his tail at Dicentra, who 
sniffs.

"Ok," says Pip, " I'm going to try and keep this down to one throw. 
Ignoring all questions about whether Prank is a silly teenage joke 
that could have had disastrous consequences, or a genuine murder 
attempt, or whether Sirius plays it because he's in love with Lily 
and sees Severus as a rival, or WHATEVER..."

(at this point Prank whuffs in a disappointed manner. 'We could have 
had such larks, Pip', he seems to be thinking.)

"...you will accept, won't you, Dicentra, that in GoF Sirius 
describes Snape as knowing a lot about curses?"

Dicentra nods slowly, but Pip can see the words 'supporting evidence' 
forming on her lips. She hurries on.

"This is supported by the Duelling scene in CoS, and by Sirius 
stopping (very sensibly) completely dead in PoA when Snape threatens 
him with a wand. Snape knows how to fight. Sirius knows that Snape 
can fight."

Dicentra taps her foot impatiently. "Will you hurry up and get this 
dratted dog OUT OF THE WAY!" she snarls.

Pip looks hurriedly at the stick in her hand. "So, stripped down to 
its basics, you could say that in the Prank, Sirius finds himself 
faced with a possibly dangerous opponent and chooses not to face him 
bravely and directly. Instead he chooses to let a friend deal with 
Snape. He appears not to consider (or possibly is too young to 
realise) the consequences that may follow from this."

Pip heaves a huge sigh of relief, and flings the stick as far out as 
possible into the bay. Prank gives one great bark, leaps for the 
stick in mid-air, misses, then races after it, whuffing happily.

Pip takes a deep breath, and looks at Dicentra. "And," she 
continues, "this is very similar to the Secret Keeper affair. Sirius 
is again faced with a dangerous opponent (Voldemort). He has an 
opportunity to face him bravely and directly by keeping James and 
Lily's Secret even if captured and tortured. Instead, he chooses to 
let a friend keep the Secret. He appears not to consider (or possibly 
not to realise) the possible consequences of this; one being that 
(even if Peter had been faithful) once Voldemort realised who the 
Secret Keeper was, Peter is probably the *most* likely to crack under 
Crucio.

Pip returns to her main point. "And I repeat; Sirius isn't exactly 
*brave*, is he? 

Dicentra stares fixedly at Pip, a vein in her forehead starting to 
throb dangerously.

"You are missing" she hisses "the main point. All the evidence 
suggests that Sirius Black was a Gryffindor! And Gryffindors are 
brave! That's WHY they are in Gryffindor!"

Pip looks quietly at Dicentra. "Neville's a Gryffindor." she says. 
She pauses. "This partially depends on Elkins' suggestion that the WW 
is essentially a warrior culture. (Post #36779 and others)" 

Both she and Dicentra look towards the Big Bang. If Captain Cindy 
ever finds out Pip is playing an Elkins, Pip will find herself 
cleaning the heads with the toothbrush, never mind the deck.

Pip continues. "As Dumbledore points out at the end of PS/SS, there 
are many kinds of courage. But the majority of the WW seem to 
see 'true' courage as only the 'warrior' type of courage. The type of 
courage that will rush in against a powerful enemy, that will face 
even death bravely. James has it; he's prepared to save someone he 
dislikes from a transformed werewolf, and in PS/SS Voldemort says 
that James died fighting. "

"And that's what I mean when I say Sirius isn't very *brave*. He does 
not have that kind of direct, 'fighting' courage. But he lets people 
think that he does. Judge by his behaviour, not his words. He never, 
throughout the whole of PoA, rushes in bravely or publicly proclaims 
his innocence. Instead he sneaks in to Gryffindor Tower when people 
are asleep, and hides in the guise of a dog. It's not until Harry's 
life is threatened that he shows himself willing to fight - and then 
it's in his transformed state. IMO, it is Sirius's lack of fighting 
courage, together with James's belief in his friend, that helped to 
kill James and Lily."

Pip looks down at the ground, then up at Dicentra. "But yes, Sirius 
does belong in Gryffindor. Just as Neville does. Because they both 
have one of the other types of courage. Sirius has the courage of 
endurance. He survives Azkaban when it would have been easier to give 
up and die; and in GoF he decides that if being on hand for his 
godson means he'll have to live on rats, he'll eat the wretched rats. 
And he is learning; his failure of nerve has cost him (and Harry) 
James and Lily - but he's not going to let Harry down. He waits for 
Harry in human form inside Hogwarts, despite the risk (end of GoF)."

Dicentra stalks off, still fuming. Pip watches her swim off strongly 
towards the Big Bang. Pip, on the other hand, can only swim 100 yards 
at most. She waves at Stoned!Harry, who is currently walking on the 
water of the bay, throwing the stick for Prank.

"Harry! Any chance of a lift?"

Pip