Spoiler: Sirius the 'Jerk'

[D.J.]

No: HPFGUIDX 63259

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "edisbevan" <A.E.B.Bevan at o...> 
wrote:
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> .> Sirius had a lot of insights and blindnesses... 
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> In GoF he says (paraphrase follows) 'look at how someone treats 
his 
> inferiors not his superiors that gives the measure of a man...'
> This in support of Hermiones comments on Crouch senior's treatment 
of 
> Winky...
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> Now in OOTP Sirius is measured by that test on the treatment 
of 'his' 
> house-elf and fails it.  And this choice rebounds on him...


I don't agree that Sirius failed the test.  He didn't despise 
Kreacher because he was an elf; he despised him because he was a 
Dark elf.

To be quite honest, I felt that Dumbledore's defense of Kreacher was 
both unconvincing and outrageously presumptuous.  Let's set aside, 
first of all, the extreme unlikelihood that Dumbledore knew what 
Kreacher was like better than Sirius did.  (It's not like Dumbledore 
would've been a regular presence in the Black household.)  Let's 
also set aside the incredible (and uncharacteristic) ungraciiousness 
of Dumbledore in choosing that particular moment to offer Harry his 
opinion.  What annoys me is this: after not showing the reader one 
redeeming quality in Kreacher in 870 pages (except, I suppose, 
loyalty to Dark wizards) JKR tells us through Dumbledore that a 
Kreacher could've been saved by a little kindness!  Whatever was 
redeemable about Kreacher, I missed as thoroughly as Sirius did; 
which, in light of the outcome, makes Dumbledore's comments feel 
like a slap in the face. 

This descent into sanctimony mars what is otherwise a fabulous novel.

D.J.