An ironic Sirius quote

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 96049

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "JoAnna" <pt4ever at y...> wrote:
> I ran across the following earlier today -
> 
> "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he
> treats his inferiors, not his equals." -Sirius Black, Chapter 27,
> "Padfoot Returns," page 525 (American Edition).
> 
> It's interesting that Sirius Black says the above regarding Barty
> Crouch Sr.'s treatment of Winky the house-elf, given how Sirius 
treats
> Kreacher the house-elf in "Order of the Phoenix."  It also says a 
good
> deal about the kind of people that Harry and Hermione are, given 
their
> kindess towards house-elves.
> 
> If we look at Sirius' treatment of Kreacher in OotP and judge him by
> Sirius' own standard, Sirius would not seem to be a very nice person
> at all.  No doubt that's why Dumbledore had told him that Kreacher
> must be treated with respect (and it also shows that Dumbledore,
> unlike Sirius, practices what he preaches).
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> - JoAnna

Geoff:
I tend to agree with what has been said by a number of posters on 
this thread.

Kreacher is obviously willing to foment trouble by drawing 
comparisons between Sirius and his mother and to insult and criticise 
other people within the house. Sirius' responses are largely to 
counter the elf's remarks. There is little evidence of behaviour 
worse than this.

On the other hand, Crouch seems to take a sadistic delight in heaping 
humiliation and gratuitous verbal and emotional abuse on Winky after 
the Dark Mark incident, reducing her to terror and hysteria without 
showing any restraint or compassion at all. No thought is given to 
what she will do and how she will do it; she is effectively told in 
the tradition of the old Victorian melodramas "Go and never darken my 
doorsteps again". Sirius may be treating Kreacher with disdain but 
the elf is getting the comeback which he probably deserves and Sirius 
is perhaps reflecting the general Wizarding World feeling about house-
elves - whether that is ethically correct or not.

Nope, on reflection, I would say that Sirius' good points outweigh 
his bad ones.