Sirius' Temper

[c_voth312]

No: HPFGUIDX 44340

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "serenadust" <jmmears at c...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., Carol Bainbridge <kaityf at j...> wrote:
> > I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't see Sirius as 
> having a 
> > temper "problem."   Again, it may just be semantics with me, but 
I 
> just 
> > don't see a problem.  I'm not suggesting that Sirius doesn't get 
> angry, 
> > just contending that the anger isn't inappropriate.  How much 
> evidence do 
> > we have of real anger?  
> 
> 
> I agree, Carol.  I think that anger is often confused with temper, 
> but IMO a person can be exteremely angry and show it without 
> necessarily being considered bad tempered.  For me, it depends 
> entirely upon the reason for the anger and no one in the 
Potterverse 
> has more reason to be angry than Sirius Black.
> 

Sirius doesn't exactly have a "temper problem," at least not in the 
sense you mean of having uncontrolable and/or destructive outbursts 
of rage.  But I do think he sometimes lets his passions get in the 
way of his reason.  Consider PoA, for example--he wants to kill Peter 
and who can blame him, but to what end?  If he offs Peter 
(particularly if he offs him in rat form--or would an Animagus revert 
to human shape after death?  Something to think about), he'll have no 
real evidence of his innocence, and thus will be stuck in the same 
position he was to begin with.  Not exactly the wisest course of 
action.
Hey, I like Sirius--he's probably my favorite character in the 
series, but he's not perfect--a fact which is par for the course as 
far as JKR's characters are concerned.
 
> I must be the only one who thought that Sirius slashed the portrait 
> of the Fat Lady, not so much in a fit of rage at being denied 
entry, 
> but in a desperate attempt to get *through* the actual portrait in 
> order to get to Griffyndor Tower.  At the risk of being insensitive 
> to paintings who can speak and otherwise interact, the portrait 
*is* 
> just paint on canvas, not a sentient being.  On my first reading of 
> this part of PoA, I just believed it was a physical barrier as far 
> as Sirius was concerned.
>

You know, I've never considered that, but now that you mention it I 
think it makes a lot of sense.  
 
~Christi