OoP - Staying Dead (was Jenny's Big Questions )

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 61619

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jenny_ravenclaw" 
<meboriqua at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Richelle Votaw" 
<rvotaw at i...> 
> wrote:
>  
> > S
> > P
> > O
> > I
> > L
> > E
> > R
> > S 
> > 
> > F
> > R
> > O
> > M 
> > 
> > O
> > O
> > P
> > 
> > C
> > O
> > M
> > I
> > N
> > G
> > 
> > U
> > P
> > 
 3. Why do you think JKR chose for Sirius to be the one to die?  
> Was she taking it too far for Harry?>
>  
> Richelle's response: 
> > A bit.  But, then how good of a role model was Sirius turning out 
to 
> be?  He wanted Harry to take more risks, he takes enough already in 
my 
> opinion.  He may have been, as Molly said, trying to use Harry as a 
> substitute for James.  

And I think Molly was threatened by Sirius' actual presence in 
Harry's life.  I think she saw Sirius as a rival for Harry's 
affections and was determined to illustrate why she was more 
qualified as caretaker.  And the fact that she could throw Sirius' 
imprisonment in his face as a reason why she had more claim to Harry 
did not speak well of her.


And for the record, I think he's really dead.  
> JKR said in the interviews last week the person was "definitely 
dead."  
> Of course, she didn't say he would stay dead, but she has in the 
past 
> said no one could be brought back from the dead, even with magic.  
So 
> who knows.>
> 
> I am so glad you said this, Richelle, because Sirius, in my 
opinion, 
> won't be back.  JKR definitely seems to stress the permanence of 
> death.  I like when Harry approached Nearly Headless Nick and he 
told 
> Harry that he was afraid to move on, which is why he is a ghost.  
> 
> As much as I found Sirius's death disturbing, if JKR chose to bring 
> him back, it would trivialize his death, as well as the death of 
> Harry's parents, Cedric, etc.  It just breaks my heart that Harry 
> never seems to stop suffering. 

I can understand that reasoning.  Really, I can.  (I'm not in 
denial...I'm not in denial...) But, as someone on another list I'm on 
said, this is the wizard world.  It doesn't always work the same way 
our world works.  Sirius may very well not come back as a living, 
breathing man, but it seems to me that a lot of time was spent 
drawing our attention to the veil. The whispers behind the curtain, 
that Harry and Luna, both touched by the deaths of people, could hear.

And Sirius conveniently fell through that veil.  Why couldn't he have 
just fallen on the floor, leaving an actual dead body behind to 
bury?  No, JKR sent him through the veil.  I'm convinced there's a 
reason for that.  

And, the ghost thing?  Certainly Nick seems to squash Ghost!Sirius.  
But, again, this is the wizard world.  Could there not be another 
form of spirit afterlife that is different than a ghost?  


> However, whether or not Sirius was a good legal guardian for Harry 
is 
> irrelevant.  Harry cared a great deal for Sirius and is quite 
> traumatized by his death.  Sirius to me is someone whose emotional 
> development was stunted from his long stay in Azkaban, cut off from 
> the world, as well as his life in hiding after his escape.  Sirius 
was 
> having trouble seeing things the way an adult should, but Harry 
seems 
> to know when Sirius takes things too far, like expecting Harry to 
risk 
> getting in trouble, because "James would have".  In the end, Sirius 
> lost his life trying to help protect Harry, and that is what 
mattered.  
> He cared for Harry as much as Harry cared for him.
> 

I would only add to that the impression I have that Sirius exchanged 
the prison cell in Azkaban for the somewhat bigger, but still 
stifling, claustrophobic prison of his hated former home.  Yes, 
Sirius had problems, but I don't doubt for a second that he truly 
loved Harry, and that Harry will continue to feel this loss.

Marianne