Sirius reservations

[mochajava13]

No: HPFGUIDX 79860

>>>> Kneasy:
The overwhelming 
majority (close to 100%, but some list names defied analysis) of the 
mourners were female. Presumably adult female. They obviously find 
him 
sympathetic; but they are not the market the book is aimed at. Could 
it be that they have allowed sympathy to out-weigh JKR's plot 
requirements?

To most male fans Sirius is not a sympathetic or credible character, 
not in the same way that Snape or DD or Arthur Weasley is. If they 
try 
to put themselves in his position it doesn't work. His behaviour 
doesn't tie in with male expectations or projections. Not only that, 
as 
soon as he appears, so do holes all over the plot.>>>>


Sarah:
Sirius reminds me of my uncle, which is possibly his role in the 
story.  When my uncle turned 50, he decided he was finally old 
enough to admit that he snuck out during his teens to go and pull 
pranks throughout the neighborhood.  Including coning-off a cul-de-
sac with orange traffic cones taken from somewhere else.  He was 
known to take his sons and their friends out to tee-pee some trees 
while my cousins were in their teens.  Sirius also reminds me of the 
uncle of a friend of mine.  The person who initiates a teen male 
into the rites of mischief, mayham, and later, women.  The bachelor 
uncle who never quite grows up and teaches a boy the ways of being a 
naughty male, to the amusement of the more serious father (here, 
seems to be Lupin or Dumbledore) and the exasperation of the mother 
(Molly Weasley).


>>>> Kneasy:
> Swim back to the mainland? In that physical condition? The Lexicon 
 places Azkaban  in the middle of the North Sea, not Hogwarts lake. 
It's at least 100 miles from shore.  "I journeyed north" (to 
Hogwarts). OK He might have landed on the 
 Scottish coast south of Hogwarts. Note there  is no mention of his 
side trip to Privet Drive (another 500+ miles, there and back). 
Sirius as the 'Grim" is described as 'hulking'. Not thin, skeletal, 
worn or starved. And no, not enough time has elapsed for him to feed 
himself up again.>>>>
 
Sarah:
As to some of the plot holes, I don't remember Harry describing the 
Grim as particulary chubby.  Just hulking and menacing.  Which a 
skinny dog with very long hair can look.  (Look at cats: some that 
seem quite chubby are really just furballs that look like skinny 
sticks when wet.)  The Grim never seemed to be a plot hole to me.  


Plus, we don't have any real textual evidence as to where Azkaban 
is.  Even if it's in the North Sea, it could be off of England, not 
Scotland.  Really, anywhere along the eastern coastline.  The North 
Sea is quite large, after all.  I always assumed that since he had 
to journey north to get to Hogwarts in Scotland, that Azkaban was in 
the southern part of the North Sea.  And I envisioned it to be 
something like Alcatraz for wizards, which is actually only a few 
miles from the coast of San Francisco.  Maybe a few miles more from 
the coast than Alcatraz is, but no more than 10 to 20 miles off the 
shore.  I assume that Sirius could see the coast from Azkaban, or 
else how would he know which way to swim to the mainland?  I always 
assumed that Azkaban was in between the eastern coast of England and 
the western coast of the Netherland (around where The Hague is).  
Closer to the Channel than to the Artic Ocean.  Or alternatively, 
the tide could have sent Sirius south while he was swimming to 
shore, causing Sirius to land on the southern shore of England, 
below Surrey.  

>>>> Kneasy:
> His account of his escape from Azkaban is more than a bit 
threadbare. "So one night when they opened my door to bring food, I 
slipped past them as a dog....it's so much harder for them to sense 
animal emotions that they were confused...."   Is there any 
evidence, apart from this passage, that Dementors are 
confused by animal emotions?  >>>>>

Sarah:
I thought they were just confused by dog-Sirius escaping, and their 
inability to find dog-Sirius.  The dementors weren't confused by 
Crookshanks becaue they weren't searching for Crookshanks.  Come on, 
the Dementors were probably confused that they couldn't sense a 
human in the process of escaping, and tried to latch onto a dog 
emotion.  They sensed Sirius in his dog form before, and thought he 
was going insane.  They weren't concentrating on trying to find him, 
just checking that he was still there.  They noticed his emotions 
were less human, and chalked it up to insanity.  The confusion came 
in when Sirius' emotions were less human, presumably from insanity, 
but he was sane enough to leave.  And confusion as to how to follow 
a being whose emotions they couldn't quite latch onto.   They might 
have noticed something slipping past them, but unable to really 
sense it.





>>>> Kneasy:
It is just possible that before the confrontation with Pettigrew or 
> while awaiting trial, Sirius heard that Harry had been placed with 
the  Dursleys. But why go there? First, foremost and apparently 
exclusively he wanted revenge. It wasn't Harry he moaned about in 
his sleep at nights, it was Pettigrew. Scabbers was the obsession. 
Why didn't he try and find the Weasleys? They are an apparently well 
known family and that's where Scabbers was. If he was going to be 
heading anywhere before Hogwarts it was the Piggery.>>>
> 


Sarah:
Go to the Burrow?  Why would he do that, when the newspaper article 
said that the Weasley's were in Egypt?  We don't know when the 
Weasley's got back from Egypt, aside from knowing that they got  
back in time to go to Diagon Alley for school supplies.  And we know 
from Hagrid that he told Sirius that he was taking baby Harry to the 
Dursley's.  Hagrid told Sirius this at the Potters destroyed home, 
when Sirius tried to take baby-Harry.  Plus, Sirius only went after 
Scabbers/Pettigrew because Scabbers/Pettigrew was in a position to 
harm Harry.  He wasn't obsessed with revenge; he only became 
obsessed with Scabbers/Pettigrew after he found out that 
Scabbers/Pettigrew was the pet of a young wizard at Hogwarts.
 
>>>> Kneasy: 
> As an ex-pupil of Hogwarts, why did Sirius think the Fat Lady 
would admit him without the password?
>>>

Sarah:
Harry tries to get in without a password at the beginning of OoP 
until Neville shows up.  He knew he wouldn't be able to, but he 
tried anyways.

>>>> Kneasy: 
>Since when have Animagi been able to communicate with other animals 
as  Sirius said he did with Crookshanks? Even as a dog, can he talk 
cat? Hermione is the closest to Crookshanks and she doesn't have 
this level of understanding or communication. How come Sirius does?

Sarah:
Ah, the mystery of cats, especially Crookshanks.  Cats seem to have 
an uncanny ability to "read" people.  One of my ex-roommates cats 
always knew when I was upset, and would come over with this look, 
rub against my leg, and try to get petted.  Like what Crookshanks 
does with Harry quite a bit in OoP: Crookshanks seems to go to Harry 
a lot for a petting in OoP.  Plus, Sirius himself says that 
Crookshanks is extremely intelligent and doesn't think that 
Crookshanks is a normal cat.  Neither do I, especially since 
Mundungus Fletcher's description is EXACTLY like Crookshanks.  
(Alas, Crookshanks and Mundungus are in the same room at the same 
time.)  They're both ginger haired and bandy-legged.  Something's up 
with Crookshanks; very bizzare.  (My pet theory about Crookshanks is 
that he's either an animagus related to Mundungus or some kind of 
half-human offspring.  Can a human that's been transfigured into an 
animal reproduce with that animal?  Like ferret-Malfoy, could he 
have mated with a female ferret while a ferret?  Kind of gross, but 
they would be an animal at the time.)



>>>> Kneasy:> 
"I've been living in the forest ever since.." Nearly an entire 
school year. With no problems from Acromantula, Centaurs, Werewolves 
or other friendly forest folk. Hagrid never noticed either, despite 
being the forest expert. >>>

Sarah: 
Yes, but all the creatures in the forest seem to leave other 
creatures alone.  (Except the centaurs with Grawp.)  We don't know 
if acromantulas or centaurs would bother a dog; they don't seem to 
bother the unicorns or thestrals that live in the forest.  And 
Hagrid might have noticed dog-Sirius, but why would he care?  
Crookshanks apparently roamed around the forest then, and Hagrid 
never commented/noticed either.  And werewolves are only dangerous 
to humans, not dogs, and only show up once a month.  Plus, who knows 
what Sirius ate in the forest then.  What does Grawp eat?  



>>>> Kneasy:
> After the Shrieking Shack fracas the Dementors mass and close in. 
There is Harry, Sirius and Hermione. Sirius passes out, so does 
Hermione. The  Dementors ignore them and go for Harry. Why not 
Sirius? Isn't he the one they are implacably hunting? Why Harry? 
It's almost a repeat  of the  Quidditch match incident. Ignore 
everyone  else, we like the smell of Potter!
>>>>


Sarah:
Harry was physically in the way of the other two, and full of 
emotion at the time.  Why not take Harry out?  He was in the way, 
and Dementors don't exactly attempt to kiss only the person they 
were sent after.  The Dementors in Little Whinging try to kiss 
Dudley, too, but were only sent after Harry.  Since they are blind, 
they might not know who is who, and just try to kiss whoever is 
there.  How exactly do they determine who is who?  They seem to 
sense people based on emotions; maybe Harry and Sirius seem very 
similar to them.  


Sarah