[HPforGrownups] OoP: Sirius as close as we're going to get to a gay character?

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 65460


 
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Kirstini (me):
It's funny, but I read this passage as suggesting (ever so subtly) 
that Sirius wasn't really interested in girls. I remember reading 
Abigail's pre-OoP theory that Bill Weasley was going to turn out to 
be the first "out" character in the series - obviously Ms Delacour 
has scorched that one a bit - and I thought it was a really 
interesting theory, but unlikely to happen in the Pottersverse, 
where JKR likes to keep things fairly safe. It would be fantastic, 
but I wonder if Sirius, not noticing girls (ever, not just in the 
Pensieve) and unswervingly devoted to James, and therefore certainly 
with the *potential* to be read as an encrypted homosexual character 
(funny, I rather thought we'd left that sort of phrase behind in 
McCarthy-era cinema)is as close as we're going to get. There is, of 
course, the defence wheeled out again and again, "not in a 
children's book". Why on earth not? 

<snippage>
What does anyone else think?

Now me (K)

First I should admit to a vested interest in this question as a devoted
Sirius/Remus shipper and admit my ability to read gay characters into
anything, but I think you might be on to something there. When they're
taunting Sev in the pensieve impression of playing to his friends whereas
James seemed to be playing to Lily and the other assembled people. Now this
obviously isn't conclusive.

Over on SBRL we were discussing the fact that she seemed (to us) to be
dropping subtle hints about us being right. I would have to go and look them
up to get all of them but we thought that one of the better ones was that
Harry got a Christmas present from Sirius and Remus *together* without
remarking on it at all, it seemed to us to be a very couple thing to do.
Also where they tend to mention the comings and goings of other people at
the Black house Remus is just sort of assumed to be there. In the discussion
over how much to tell Harry Remus acts towards Sirius in a very similar
fashion to the way Arthur acts to Molly.

K