Why did Sirius change? was Re: Sirius and Dumbledore

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 79798

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "curly_of_oster" 
<lkadlec at p...> wrote:
>> In  my opinion, it seemed that staying in that house was doing 
bad  things to Sirius' mental state.  I'm not saying he was a 
'mental  case,' but I do think one reasonable explanation for the 
change from  the rational, caring person who advised Harry to be 
careful and  spoke reasonably about Snape to the sullen and 
sometimes petulant  person who encouraged risk-taking could 
be (at least in part) the  ill-effects of confinement to his hated 
childhood home (complete  with it's own Dementor substitute).  
<<

I've been mulling over the puzzle of Sirius's inconsistent behavior 
and it dawned on my that I know someone exactly like Sirius. 
He's one of my dearest friends, in fact. Since we've become 
friends, he's always been calm and gentle with me, but he  flies 
into a frenzy if he detects an enemy. He is utterly reckless in a 
fight. He doesn't give a fig for his appearance. He'd rather live 
rough than be cooped up in a house all day. He mopes around 
like a drama queen if he knows I'm going out of town. You won't 
find his name on a pedigree chart, and of course, his mother 
was a real bitch. <g> Yeah, I'm talking about my dog.

Dogs don't get upset about abstract dangers (unless they pick 
the anxiety up from you). The threat in GoF was formless,  so 
Sirius (and Dumbledore) didn't have to deal with  the doggy 
instinct to charge anything that threatened. In OOP, as in PoA, the 
situation was different. 

If I'm right, then it wouldn't have mattered where Sirius was 
hidden. Once Voldemort registered as an intruder in his territory 
and a threat to the pack, Sirius's doglike instincts  would have 
made him want to get out there and fight.

Pippin