A Case of Sirius Neglect? (was Re: Sirius - who is right?)

[darkkitten2]

No: HPFGUIDX 74491

Marina wrote:

> > > It does kind of make me wonder about the wizarding world's 
> (and  Dumbledore's in particular) understanding of psychology.  
> When  Harry returns from the graveyard in GoF, Dumbledore 
> acted as  someone familiar with the concept of trauma.  <snip> 
> Yet his attitude toward Sirius makes me wonder if he simply 
> made Harry talk  because he wanted the information right away, 
> and not from any  concern for Harry's mental state.  Because in 
> OOP, Dumbledore  behaves as if he thinks there's nothing 
> wrong with Sirius that a bit of willpower and common sense 
> couldn't cure.  <<

I've been similarly puzzled. The portrayal of St. Mungo's and the ward
where Lockhart and Neville's parents are kept seems to indicate that
the wizarding world is more than a little uncomfortable with mental
illness, and that developing magic to treat it is not really one of the
Ministry's priorities.

It is hard to square the Dumbledore of GoF and the Dumbledore of OotP
with one another. The scene at the end of GoF is a great example for
this thread, because not only does Dumbledore seem to be looking after
Harry's mental well-being, he's looking after Sirius's:

`"Your parents?" said Dumbledore quietly.
"Yes," said Harry.
Sirius's grip on Harry's shoulder was now so tight it was painful.'
(GoF 698 Amer. Ed.)

And later on the same page:

"At this point, Harry found he could not continue. He looked around
at Sirius and saw that he had his face in his hands."

When they are finished, Dumbledore asks Sirius if he would like to stay
with Harry during the night, and Sirius nods and transforms. This really
seems like an insightful thing to do: it offers comfort to both Harry and
Sirius.

It doesn't match up with his comments about Sirius in OotP. It's strange.

Pippin wrote:

> IIRC, we never see Dumbledore and Sirius interact in OOP, so 
> how can we draw conclusions about how Dumbledore behaved 
> toward Sirius?

I don't remember them interacting directly either, though I could be
wrong. I based mine on what Dumbledore says about Sirius to Harry
after Sirius's death, and on what we know about Sirius's situation
at Grimmauld Place from Harry.

Phyllis says:

> > It strikes me that, with respect to both Harry and Sirius, 
> Dumbledore makes it clear that their survival is more important 
> to him  (Dumbledore) than their mental health. <

and Pippin answers:

> Well, yes. It's possible to recover from emotional wounds, if not 
> as well or as quickly as Dumbledore hoped.  It's not possible to 
> recover from being *dead.*  

*nods* Comfort and happiness do have to take a backseat to
survival, and Harry's survival is the Order's top priority. Sirius
would be the first to agree that his own life is a very minor concern
in comparision. 

However, though Sirius's life isn't essential to the Order's mission,
an unstable Sirius could put the whole thing in jeopardy quite
easily. It's not only for Sirius's own safety that he's told to stay
inside. What Harry saw in his dream (Sirius being captured by
Voldemort) could have happened if Sirius ignored the restrictions
and left anyway, which would make Sirius responsible for endangering
everyone including Harry. (I'm pretty sure I saw someone else argue 
this not too long ago, I would cite you if I could recall who you
were!) So to be coldly pragmatic about it, Sirius's stability is perhaps
more important than his life.

But the Order has time to do more than worry about sheer survival;
there are long dinner discussions, sessions spent cleaning the scary
Black house of its magical denizens, and in general quite a bit of 
waiting. This is the time that could be spent trying to look after
one another, IMO.

Pippin again:
 
> Again, how do we know this? The only time Harry and 
> Dumbledore discuss Sirius is at the end of OOP. Harry has just 
> been through a horrible loss. Both he and Dumbledore have 
> both been up all night. The  purpose of their conversation 
> is for Harry to understand that he need not blame himself for 
> Sirius's death, not for Dumbledore to justify himself or explain 
> what he tried to do to help Sirius. Whatever it was, wasn't 
> enough, but that doesn't mean nothing was ever done for him.

Yes, some things were done to help Sirius, it's just that helping
Sirius was a really big job!

Another possibility: Sirius didn't get enough help because
there was some confusion as to whose responsibility he was.
Almost no one he was close to is still alive; the only two people
left who count him as "family" are Harry and possibly Lupin. So
no one automatically qualified for Sirius-minding duty. IMO,
that meant he was Dumbledore's problem, and Dumbledore
should have delegated it to someone. But I can see the issue
being kind of hazy, especially in the face of Sirius himself
snarling "leave me alone, I can handle it, I know what i'm doing"
etc.

IMO the logical person to go sort Sirius out at the end of PoA is
Lupin. He's unemployed and appears to have nothing better to
do, he says quite clearly that he is now Sirius's friend, he's patient
enough to put up with the snarling, and he has a large supply of
chocolate. Why he doesn't is a mystery, and I can't find it in me 
to blame Lupin. There's no reason in what we've seen of his 
character so far that he wouldn't offer. Instead I blame JKR. I keep
getting this image of Lupin waving madly in a corner somewhere...
"I SAID I'd do it, but she forgot to put me IN book 4!"

And at the end of GoF JKR finally does do exactly this, when
Dumbledore tells Sirius to go "lie low at Lupin's". One book late,
yeah, but I'll take it. This was why I was really optimistic about
Sirius at the beginning of OotP. It seemed like he was finally set up
to make some progress, which made his death all the more frustrating
and dissonant for me.

darkkitten