Harry and Sirius AND Progression of Endings

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 69948

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "susanbones2003" <rdas at f...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "marinafrants" 
<rusalka at i...> 
> wrote:
> >
> > 
> > It seems to me there's been a great scramble to retroactively 
> > redefine Sirius' character in order to make to make his death 
> appear 
> > somehow deserved, or at least warranted.  All of a sudden, every 
> > caring, supportive and self-sacrificing thing Sirius has ever 
done 
> > gets shrugged off as unimportant, while every rash or ill-
> considered 
> > thing is magnified out of all proportion and presented as the 
only 
> > basis for judging him.  I'm sure Sirius often draws parallels 
> > between Harry and James; so does everyone else who knew James.  
> > Lupin's done it, Hagrid's done it, Dumbledore's done it, Snape 
> > hardly ever stops doing it.  It will always be a part of Harry's 
> > relationship with any adult who knew his parents.  But it's not 
the 
> > sum total of any of these relationships.
> > 
> > Marina
> > rusalka at i...
> 
> I said in my earlier post that I thought Sirius' change in 
character 
> in OOP was abrupt. I never said he deserved to die because of the 
> changes he exhibited. It's very complicated and subtle, the link 
> between the changes in him and his death. How he changed made it 
much 
> easier to imagine him taking deadly risks. But some of this is red 
> herring material planted not just by JKR's narration but also by 
> Dumbledore's retelling of events. Harry responds(rightly)in anger 
at 
> the thought that something Sirius did/didn't do made his death 
> possible or even inevitable. I certainly don't have all the 
answers 
> but I know it's possible to find things that Sirius did troubling 
and 
> still love and mourn him.
> Jennifer

Annemehr:
There are several good, strong reasons for Sirius to have had an 
abrupt change in behavior.  Underlying anything else is the fact 
that he can't possibly have got over spending thirteen years in 
Azkaban.  Next, he had focused all of Harry's fourth year at 
Hogwarts trying to help protect Harry from whatever the unknown 
threat was, only to have failed spectacularly in the end (and it 
makes no difference to him that there *was* nothing he could have 
done).  Finally, Sirius finds himself imprisoned again in that 
hateful house and feeling completely powerless to help anyone.  The 
depression and sullenness he exhibits are completely understandable, 
IMO.

What I *don't* understand, however, is his wishing to egg Harry on 
into recklessness all of a sudden.  Granted, in GoF, Harry was the 
target whereas in OoP the whole country is under threat; yet surely 
Sirius knows that Harry is still in a more particular danger than 
anyone else?  It makes me wonder if Sirius' mind wasn't actually 
being gradually destroyed by the pain and the pressure, so that he 
actually did begin to confuse Harry's role with James'.  He was not, 
IMO, actually insane but he was certainly having trouble.  I wonder, 
too, if Kreacher (the hugely overlooked) had anything to do with 
it.  I believe there is something significant in his activities in 
that house that were never really looked into (but then, I believe 
there is more in the Chamber of Secrets than Basilisk bones, but 
noone seems to want to look into that, either, do they?).

Whatever happened to Sirius, it was a tragedy, and I am *not* laying 
any blame at his feet.

Annemehr
who can't understand anyone wanting Sirius, Harry, Molly or anyone 
else to act like the wisest of angels under the weight of pain and 
worry they've just been put under.  Working out how to deal with all 
this takes *time*!