Dead Sirius *weep* --NOT

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 67822

Some general comments about Sirius's Death- 

Sirius's death was a a hollow empty unsatisfying death. It would have
been better if he had been hit with the blinding flash of a Death
Curse, or cut down by a sword. But to fall in slow-motion through a
curtain, where is the certainty, where is the finality? We are left
with none of these; in a sense, we do not see him die, we aren't even
sure he is completely and fully dead, there is no broken and bleeding
body for us and Harry to weep over, no tearful goodbye. Plus, it
occurs in the heat of battle surrounded by chaos. When it happens,
Harry is certain that Sirius is not dead. There really is nothing to
indicate that he would be dead, in fact, all logic says he's laying on
the other side of the curtain. 

By the time calm is restored, he is simple gone, no different than if
he had stepped out of the room for a drink of water. No realization,
or mourning of his death, no chance to say goodbye, just the gradual
acceptance that he is gone; not alive, not dead, just forever lost
from your embrace.

There first time I read his death, I was not that emotionally moved,
of course, it was 4am and I had been reading for 16 hours, so that may
have affected my reaction. The second reading, I was more moved, but
still, like I said, it was a very unsatisfying death, uncertain,
hollow, empty. It's like having a loved one 'lost in action', you know
he's dead, but there is no body, no account of what happened, where he
went, what he did, how he died, no memorial, no body to weep over,
just hollow empty loss and uncertainty. I do not envy people who have
lost a loved one in this way; it's like a dying that never really
ends, or for that matter, begins. 

I think there is a reason why JKR let Sirius die in this unsatisfying
way. Partly because I don't think he is out of the story just yet, in
some strange and unusual way we will see him again. The other reason
is that I think JKR had this really cool idea for the Chamber of Death
and the veiled Gateway of Lost Souls. She had this cool idea, and had
to find someway to work it into the story.

Sirius was the last person I wanted to die, because I think Harry
needs him desperately. Harry doesn't seem to have truly accepted
Sirius's death, the best he has done is accept that Sirius is gone
forever, and he has not even done that with any certainty as seen in
the attempt to talk to him using the mirror and his conversation with
Nearly Headless Nick.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn