Sirius the Jerk

[Cai Hui]

No: HPFGUIDX 62138

I can't keep up with all the discussions, as usual, but I really want to
comment on this:

"Kewpie" <dkewpie at pacbell.net> wrote:

> This whole part did not convinced me at all, felt that he was more 
> ashamed by the fact he was confronted by his godson, rather than 
> truely feeling any bit of remorse for hurting an actual human being, 
> scarring them for life. For me, that "He deserves it" line in PoA 
> really changed its context for me post Book 5 and really show what a 
> cruel immature git Sirius still can be after all these years.

That's a bit too much, but I have to say that "he deserves it" line is the
reason that I've never liked him too much. Sirius is a good man, but
he doesn't learn from his mistakes. What strikes me most in OOP is
how he repeated the same mistake of underestimating and overlooking
people whom he considered inferior to him. He thought weak and
talentless Peter wouldn't be capable of betrayal and it costed him his
best friend's life. This time he misjudged Kreacher.

> And I'm 
> very disappointed to find that Lupin such a coward.

But it's very consistent with what we've learned from PoA! Lupin has
always been afraid of losing the friendship/respect of the few people who
were nice to him. It was this fear that kept him from telling Dumbledore
about Sirius being an Animagus in PoA, even though he knew he should.
And it was the same fear of rejection that prevented him from stopping
his two best friends even though he clearly thought they were wrong. He
failed to stand up to his friends (in that instance at least) like Neville did
in PS, but of course, few people know loneliness like he does. Lupin
acknowledges his weakness openly. In PoA he told the trio that he hadn't
changed--he was too cowardly to confess to Dumbledore, and this time
he also criticized him. This kind of open self-criticism is one of the
(thousands of) reasons that I love him so much.

> In a way, I found 
> the 15 years old Sirius and James was way over-the-stop more 
> disgusting and disturbing than Dudley, Draco and Snape combined.

And why is that, I wonder? Is it because you expected too much
from Sirius and James? They're not perfect people, you know.

Hui