Triggers (was Sirius, which was The Ginny Weasley Quotient)

[Barb P]

No: HPFGUIDX 44896


bugaloo37 wrote: > I realize Harry attacked Sirius first, and while Sirius is emaciated from his Azkaban stay, he's still a full grown adult and there are other way's to deal with someone "short and skinny and thirteen" besides choking them out.
>

I have to admit this scene has always disturbed me also.  IMO, like you previously mentioned, I put it down to his years in Azkaban.   
 
I believe it was not only the years in Azkaban, but the stress of being on the run as well.  (And living as a dog and eating rats.)  That said, I don't think that, even though he's still on the run, Sirius is unstable now (as Harry ends his fourth year, that is).  I do believe, however, that various characters have hair-triggers about some issues, and that someone who is inherently good can do something stupid on the spur of the moment that could have dire consequences.
 
Sirius' trigger, for instance, would probably be Wormtail.  He almost killed him once, for what he did to the Potters.  I believe that if he confronted his former friend again, especially after what Wormtail put Harry through on the evening of the third task, he would not care about the possibility of returning to Azkaban (although the Ministry would have to be pretty heartless to send someone to prison for killing the right-hand-man of Voldemort).
 
Harry's trigger has long proven to be anyone talking about his parents in less than glowing terms.  He blew up Aunt Marge for calling his father a good-for-nothing unemployed bum, and he screamed at Snape for the same reason.  However, judging from the incident on the Hogwarts Express at the end of GoF, anyone talking about Cedric could trigger his wrath in the future.  (Harry obviously believes VERY strongly in not speaking ill of the dead, especially if they could be considered martyrs.)  
 
Ron, OTOH, has shown that Hermione is his sore point.  When his wand was broken and Malfoy insulted Hermione, he wound up spewing slugs.  Hermione seems to be the most level-headed (other than Remus, ironically), her slapping Malfoy notwithstanding (she was sleep-deprived at the time).  She seems most worked-up about elves these days.  It might actually be somewhat funny if she did something rash on behalf of an elf.  Ginny's trigger in her first year was Harry, as in the way she jumped all over Malfoy on Harry's behalf in Flourish and Blotts.  Now that she's older, that may have changed, however.  Hagrid's trigger has always been anyone insulting Dumbledore.  He scares the daylights out of Karkaroff when the former Death Eater makes this mistake.  And Snape's trigger was Sirius Black (who almost killed him when they were younger) but hopefully he'll be outgrowing that if they're going to be working on the same side. 
 
 I just get the impression that, like Peter Pettigrew coming from among the Potters' circle of friends, some trouble may come from someone close to Harry (or even Harry himself) because of one of these "triggers."  Not a betrayal so much as a spur-of-the-moment reaction that produces a very bad result...
 
--Barb
 
 


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