Sirius - who is right?

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 73470

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Wanda Sherratt" 
<wsherratt3338 at r...> wrote:
> There are lots of opposing opinions on Sirius among readers, but 
I'm 
> intrested in the one that occurs at the end of OotP.  Harry states 
> that Sirius was hurt by Snape continually twitting him on being 
> stuck at HQ, and Dumbledore immediately replies that that was not 
> true; that Sirius was too mature to be hurt by something so 
> insignificant.  Now, just who is right here?  One must be wrong.

I have to go with Harry's opinion on this one.  I think Dumbledore 
was being wilfully blind, throughout the book, to the damage being 
done to Sirius by his confinement, and his easy dismissal of Sirius' 
reaction infuriated me when I first read that chapter, and continues 
to infuriate me on every re-read.

> At the beginning of the book, 
> Sirius is telling Harry that his month with the Dursleys was 
better 
> than Sirius's time at GP: "Personally, I'd have welcomed a 
Dementor 
> attack.  A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the 
> monotony nicely.  You think you've had it bad, at least you've 
been 
> able to get out and about, stretch your legs, get into a few 
> fights...I've been stuck inside for a month."  Once again, boredom 
> is his biggest complaint.  

I don't think it's his biggest complaint at all.  It's just the only 
complaint he's willing to dump on Harry.  To me, Sirius' words sound 
like somebody trying to make light of a much bigger problem.  The 
mental disintegration Sirius undergoes during the course of OOP 
cannon be explained away by boredom.  I'm sure he *was* bored.  But 
he was also feeling useless and trapped, separated from the person 
he cared most about, surrounded by unwanted and unavoidable 
reminders of a miserable past.  When he tried to leave, people 
yelled at him for being reckless.  When he didn't leave, people 
sneered at him for being a coward.  Short of throwing him back into 
Azkaban, I can't think of anything more cruel Dumbledore could've 
done to him.


I think Dumbledore knows that most of 
> Sirius's conflict with Snape didn't come out of anything more 
> serious than that; he was *bored*, and welcomed his chances to 
pick 
> a fight with Snape.  It was a welcome diversion.  I don't think he 
> really was hurt by anything Snape said; how could he be?  Snape is 
> nothing as far as Sirius is concerned, just like Kreacher.  One 
> doesn't get upset by the taunts of a nobody.

Just because you despise somebody doesn't mean you're immune to 
their insults.  Especially when the object of your contempt is out 
there doing all the things that you want to do, and feel you should 
be doing, but can't.  Snape is out there being a valued member of 
the Order, contributing to the fight, getting trust and respect from 
Dumbledore, teaching important things to Harry, while all Sirius can 
do is impotently sit and wait.  So yes, I think Sirius was every bit 
as hurt and enraged by Snape's accusations as he appeared to be.  
Sirius is not a very good actor.  He wears his emotions on his 
sleeve and doesn't put up a front.  Unlike Snape, he'd make a 
horrible spy.  I'm quite sure that the emotions we see him express 
are, in fact, the emotions he's really feeling.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com