OOP: (Sirius) A person is more than the worst thing they have done

[Richard Thorp]

No: HPFGUIDX 64858

Hyc> Message: 16
Hyc>    Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 21:06:07 -0700
Hyc>    From: "Wendy St John" <hebrideanblack at earthlink.net>
Hyc> Subject: RE: Re: OOP: (Sirius) A person is more than the worst thing they have done

The thing that strikes me about this whole argument is that all of the
boys were *15*. I certainly wasn't the same person that I am now that
I was when I was 15. I treated my friends differently, and I treated
other people differently... It seems to me that the boys went through
the same sort of 'changing' period that I think Harry will enter into
in the last 2 books (as part of which, Snape will end up liking Harry,
or at least not hating him... Which I thought (during OoP, until the
pensieve moment) was because of Umbrage and what she'd think of a
sudden change in Snapes manner towards Harry (easily documentable if
she was keeping Malfoy as close as she seemed to be)). Woo I kind of
went off on one there. But yeah, I think that the Marauders went
through a period where they all grew more adult... If everyone thinks
highly of James (which I think can't just be respect for the dead and
his defiance of VM) he must have gone through some major changes - and
it stands to reason the others did, too

Hyc> " 'How thick are you, Wormtail?' said James impatiently. 'You run round
Hyc> with a werewolf once a month - ' "

Hyc> "James was still playing with the Snitch . . . . Wormtail was watching him
Hyc> with his mouth open. Every time James made a particularly difficult catch,
Hyc> Wormtail gasped and applauded. After five minutes of this, Harry wondered
Hyc> why James didn't tell Wormtail to get a grip on himself, but James seemed
Hyc> to be enjoying the attention."

Hyc> " 'Put that away, will you?' said Sirius finally . . . 'Before Wormtail
Hyc> wets himself from excitement.' "

This isn't out of the ordinary at all, especially for 15 year olds...
Anyone showing a bit too much interest in what someone else is doing
(in this case the snitch catching - which probably made all the
Marauders think 'Wow, he's good' (if they hadn't before :), but Peter
is the vocal, and probably most immature of them). Hell if it were
real teenagers, there'd be at least two profanities in each of those
sentances :) But more seriously I think that JKR has hit teenage
behaviour and thought patterns on the nail in OoP, for which I have a
lot of respect for her.

Hyc> Why be friends with him when they seemed to entirely disrespect him?

Peter seems like the sort of boy that no-one likes to be friends with
(in the same kind of way as Nevillie, except that the dynamic between
Nevillie and the Trio is a lot better than that between Pettigrew/Rest
of the Marauders), and thus he clings to whats available, even if it
isn't particularly fun for him.. I know I've ended up in similar
situations :)

Don't get me wrong, I don't think we need to fear Nevillie going over
to the dark side though, as he has had such bad experiences with them
already.

-Rich
msn: obbles at hotmail.com