TBAY: Prank and the (Second) Pensieve Four

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 77718

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kirstini" <kirst_inn at y...> 
wrote:
<big snip> "Sirius planned the Prank in advance. Not necessarily to 
any great 
> degree, but he had had it in mind for a while, just toying it over 
in 
> his mind - "yeah, wouldn't that greasy little slimeball like to 
know 
> the *real* reason we disappear at full moon, heh heh heh...", 
> something like that. However, at some point in his mind, it became 
a 
> little more solid, and he mentioned it to Peter. Not James, because 
> James, for all his Snivellus-cursing, actually had brains, and 
might 
> well have pointed out all the spoil-sporty dangerous bits. For all 
> that Sirius told Harry that he was acting too responsibly to be 
like 
> his father after all, at some point over the last year at Hogwarts/ 
> couple of years in the real world, James must have grown up enough 
to 
> shoulder the responsibility of marriage and a family, and judging 
> from Sirius' behaviour in the Gryffindor fire, Sirius wouldn't have 
> liked this. I'm going to source this turn around as beginning 
> slightly before the Prank, because (am I right in thinking?) James 
> was already Head Boy at this point. So he mentions it to Peter, 
whose 
> opinions don't really count, and who is stupid enough (Sirius 
thinks)
> to think it a good idea. <snip> Lupin is probably appalled by 
Sirius' behaviour - 
> it probably hits home to him a lot harder than to the others - and 
> here's the beginning of the seed sown by which they both suspect 
each 
> other and not Wormtail of being the spy. Sirius is isolated (this 
is 
> why I don't think James can have known in advance) and resentful 
for 
> some time, and instead of blaming it all on his own stupidity, 
> cyrstallises it into loathing of Snape, which is how we get to the 
> hospital scene in GoF and the kitchen confrontation in OotP. Sirius 
> didn't *hate* Snape before hand - his life had just never really 
been 
> of any consequence to him. Now he has a "valid" reason for all the 
> hatred we see - it's more of a hatred of equals than of bully and 
> victim. "

Laura:

 Kirstini, say it isn't so!  Your theory is all too convincing, which 
is very unpleasant for a Sirius fan to admit-especially the part 
about Lupin.  If this appears in books 6 or 7, it might be JKR's way 
of helping us (and Harry) stop grieving for Sirius.  And it would 
explain why neither Sirius nor Remus figured out that Peter was the 
spy, given that they knew he was the weakest of the Marauders.  
But...but... *begins to pace the floor*

PS  I don't know what the accepted method is of responding to a tbay 
post in the conventional letter-type format, so I hope I haven't 
committed a gross breach of etiquette here.