Queries about Sirius's escape (slight FF)

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 54915

Briony:
> I find it stretching coincidence a bit far that Fudge would happen 
to
> give Sirius that newspaper, which just happens to have that picture 
of
> Pettigrew.  Is there a possibility that someone arranged the whole
> thing?
>... why he didn't escape right from the
> start.  Sirius blames himself for Lily and James' deaths because he
> persuaded them to switch to Pettigrew.  It could be that he stayed 
in
> Azkaban to punish himself for what happened.  Or he could have 
undergone
> something particularly nasty in Azkaban that weakened him. This 
could be
> an illness, extra-special torture, or, as in several fanfics I've 
read,
> attempted suicide.  We just don't know enough about Sirius's arrest,
> lack of a trial, or imprisonment to be certain.  Hopefully OOTP will
> fill us in with more details.

Well, at least JKR did ;-) And as unlikely as it may seem to us, 
these little co-incidents *do* happen occasionally. Of course, in 
stories these do happen more often, partly because the times when 
such incidents don't happen are cut off from the story or otherwise 
unnoticed. If it weren't for Fudge and his newspaper, maybe something 
*else* would have happened in which case _that_ would have been the 
co-incident or Sirius would have stayed in and Harry never heard of 
him...

And as for Sirius blaming and punishing himself: Yes. He would have 
done that - in fact he was *still* doing it in PoA, but he wanted to 
explain, tell the full story of it...

As for escaping - Dementors are, in most cases, capable of preventing 
anyone from even *thinking* of it! Freedom is such a happy thought 
that they'd eat it away. So no one ever escaped Azkaban - until 
Sirius did. Because, Sirius wasn't thinking of his own freedom. He 
was thinking that Harry's in danger, that the nasty rat is out - he 
was desperate to get out. That's why he could think and plan his 
escape, there was no *happiness* involved. Sirius couldn't think how 
happy he'd be out - in fact, I doubt that he could think of his own 
interests at all. He worry about Harry and be angry, bitter etc. at 
Pettigrew... Desperately willing to kill the rat, blaming himself for 
ever trusting Peter, not trusting Remus... That thought-pattern 
stayed on until Harry stopped it. I don't think Sirius would have 
been *able* to stop such thoughts himself. A depressed person isn't 
able to just stop, and anyone in Azkaban is depressed or will be.

However, once the depressed thought-pattern is gone, Sirius does some 
re-arranging of his thoughts. The rat's captured. He'll be free... 
maybe he can even get his godson Harry to live with him? So he goes 
right at it, still caring enough to make sure that Harry knows he can 
refuse... There, Sirius took the happiest thoughts he could in the 
situation...

I think Remus gave him chocolate and told him about Harry and the 
permission slip at some point out of Harry's hearing.

-- Finwitch