Sirius Changed Man? Was MadEye & Malfoy - James & Snape

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 68342


> Rebecca ("HunterGreen"): Re: Sirius bullying the fat lady.

> I think a lot of that may have to do with the fact that he was in 
> prison for TWELVE YEARS right before this happens, AND we can 
> probably assume that he hasn't even had a conversation with anyone 
in MONTHS. Obviously Sirius--having attended Hogwarts--would KNOW 
that he can't get into Gryffindor without the password. He acts sort 
of strangely throughout PoA-in the shreiking shack he nearly lets 
Harry kill him rather than bother explaning himself. Its hard to 
believe that he had NO emotional problems from being in a horrible 
jail fo twelve years, especially being cast in there right after 
James and Lily were killed and it was half-his fault (meaning, I 
doubt he had time to even begin to deal with his emotions over his 
best friends being murdered before he was sent off to relieve the 
worst moments of his life over and over again). 


What Rebecca said.

I am astounded to see, after what is going on three weeks of 
apologies for Snape's behavior because he was bullied as a child, the 
idea that Sirius must come out of 12 years of a mental torture prison 
behaving perfectly.

Sirius certainly did not act like an innocent man. He was going to 
kill Peter. He was single-minded and fanatical. He "jumps" when 
Hermione addresses him as civilized people address each other. 

This is a man going through what is likely post-traumatic stress 
disorder, someone completely on the edge. 


>I was less disturbed by the attack on  the fat lady and more on the 
fact that he drags poor Ron in the  passageway with him and breaks 
>his leg in the process.
> 

The first sign we get that Sirius might not be the baddie we think is 
when he shows sympathy for Ron and tries to get Ron to lay down. 

> katiecannon2000:
> We forget this when 
> > reading GoF--my own personal belief is that JKR went overboard 
> > in "Sirius is a logical, protective parent/good guy" and had to 
> sort > of "bad him back up" in OoP for most folks to be able to 
cope with  his death (or whatever it was). 
 
Sirius feels useful in GoF. He's the only one besides Dumbledore that 
knows what Harry is going through. He's the one who Harry confides 
in. He even verbalizes it at one point. "I'm fulfilling my duty as a 
godfather."

In OoP, he feels useless. He is trapped in a house filled with bad 
memories and he has to deal with Snape questioning his courage and 
Molly questioning his parenting skills. 

I think Dumbledore is being a touch hard on himself. Sirius was a 
wanted man and the Snuffles cover was blown. 

But, then again, we've seen Polyjuice Potion. We've seen the spell 
Moody uses on Harry to change appearances. It is illogical that 
Sirius' face (or snout) being recognized was that big of an obstacle.

> 
> katiecannon2000:
> In PoA, honestly, the thing for him 
> > to have done would be to get word to DD that he needed to talk to 
> him > (of *all* the characters, ole forgivin' DD would've listened 
and not turned him in) instead of trying to break into Griffyndor 
rooms.
 

And Snape should have calmed the frick down and taken 10 seconds to 
listen to what Lupin had to say. The lesson of PoA for Harry is that 
when adults give up on rational thought, it is NOT pretty. 

But again, if Snape's childhood explains so much of his present-day 
behavior, I don't see why Sirius' imprisonment can't explain some of 
his.

Darrin
- I love the 80s moment: "I thought Milli Vanilli sucked. Then I 
found out, they were just pretended to suck. Someone ELSE singing for 
them sucked."