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

[shellebrownies]

No: HPFGUIDX 68647

I agree that we probably see the worst of Sirius in OoP and PoA
because of the extreme mental circumstances we find him in in those
books. Yes, he doesn't act like an innocent man in Azkaban because he
wasn't. He wasn't trying to kill Peter specifically to protect Harry
(although that was a side effect); he wanted to finish what he'd
started 13 years before. The thought of killing Peter Pettigrew for
what he did to Sirius' best friends was one of the only thoughts that
kept Sirius going in the weeks before his escape. I don't think Sirius
had even considered the fact that if he could produce a live Peter
Pettigrew, he could possibly be found innocent. He was too bent on
revenge.

Sirius hadn't seen Harry since he was a little baby, and seeing
Sirius' past, he was not the most responsible or rational person
alive. However, after seeing Harry, after talking to him, it helps
Sirius to see there are more and better things he could and should be
doing. I believe it is Harry's presence that brings Sirius to his senses.

I think this is why we see such a kind and helpful Sirius Black in
GoF. He is free, thanks to Harry, and has the ability to have a small
piece of normalcy in his life after so many years of horror. He feels
he can be of help, be useful. I do believe he loves Harry in the
fatherly way he appears in GoF.

However, I think that all that time in Azkaban did ultimately take its
toll on Sirius in OoP. There was an interesting parallel between Harry
and Sirius where both of them were "locked up" against their will, and
they both had very similar reactions to it. But the combination of
being locked up in general, not being helpful to the Order, and being
locked up in his childhood home where he was obviously very, very
unhappy can't have been much better than Azkaban. He went from one
prison to another. Sirius longs for freedom and yes, he wishes he
could create a sort of "family" with Harry. With the hell his life had
become on Grimmauld Place, is it any wonder he wanted to live a bit
vicariously through Harry's exploits?

So, all in all, I think that what JKR does by showing us the two sides
of Sirius Black is to show that he had a good heart, was at his base a
good person, but that the horrors of his life had taken an extreme
toll on him. He was very flawed, but had a good heart and loved Harry.
I would have liked to have seen more of him in a different, less
confining situation.