Ron's and Sirius' Laughing, strange Curse

[templar1112002]

No: HPFGUIDX 119947


Please allow me some ponderings here.

I was re-reading a part of PoA last night, trying to remember what 
the book really said as opposed to what the movie tells us, when I 
was struck by Fudge's words while at The Three Broomsticks, when 
Harry learns about Sirius being his godfather.
Fudge recalled the explosion when Peter supposedly died: 

"...'I tell yeh, if I'd got ter Black before little Pettigrew did, I 
wouldn't've messed around with wands -I'd've ripped him limb -from -
limb,' Hagrid growled.
'You don't know what you're talking about, Hagrid,' said Fudge 
sharply.  'Nobody but trained Hit Wizards from the Magical Law 
Inforcement Squad would have stood a cance against Black once he was 
cornered.  I was Junior Minister in the Department of Magical 
Catastrophes at the time, and I was one of the first on the scene 
after Black murdered all those people. I -I will never forget it. I 
still dream about it sometimes. A crater in the middle of the 
street, so deep it had cracked the sewer below. Bodies everywhere. 
Muggles screaming. And Black standing there laughing, with what was 
left of Pettigrew in front of him... a heap of bloodstained robes 
and a few-a few fragments-'..." PoA page 208 p/b SE.


1) After we witnessed Hagrid's fight with the Aurors in OoTP, if 
there was any doubt as to Fudge's knowledge of anything whatsoever, 
more specifically 'half-breeds' and 'squibs', that statement above 
clears it up.  We now know that Hagrid could've very well ripped 
Sirius apart without using wands.

2) It has always puzzled me why Sirius had been caught *laughing*... 
On one hand, even when I first read that part, I thought that if he 
was one of VM's strongest Death Eaters, he was a very stupid one for 
having been caught laughing in the middle of the explosion scene.
OTOH, even after I learned that he was not a Death Eater, I still 
thought that he was stupid, for having stayed there and laughing, to 
top it all.

But then, I thought of the MoM fight in OoTP, when Ron got hit with 
that strange curse that made him laugh and act goofy in such a 
dangerous situation... Perhaps that was the same curse that got 
Sirius to act like a madman back then, it would be a 
more 'acceptable' explanation of his reckless behaviour, IMO.  Plus, 
even though Peter was not at the MoM, it could very well be a curse 
that only DEs use.  I wonder if Harry is ever going to ask about 
those hexes/curses that the Ron and Hermione got hit with at the 
MoM...

What do you think?  Has this been discussed before?

Marcela