Cedric and Pettigrew (was Re: Faking Sirius' Death?)

[suehpfan]

No: HPFGUIDX 91762

Snip about PP and Sirius
> Sirius, IMO, has always had serious problems with emotional and
> possibly mental instability, manifested in his teens by his lazy,
> arrogant desire to be entertained by James's abuse of Severus and
> especially by the so-called Prank and again in PoA and OoP by the
> risks he takes and the value he places on risk-taking, which he
> mistakes for courage. That he would leave the scene of Godric's 
Hollow
> determined to murder Peter without telling anyone doesn't surprise 
me
> at all, nor does his insane laughter as the aurors take him away or
> his failure to defend himself when Crouch pronounced him guilty
> without the benefit of a trial.
> 
> Carol

I don't share your view of Sirius.  I will give you that he certainly 
was arrogant and obnoxious, but I think it is a leap to call him 
mentally unstable.  It would be just as easy to shuffle through the 
books and say the same about Snape (er, Professor Snape).  We have 
the information from the pensive about Sirius, but we still do not 
know all of the circumstances surrounding the "prank" or the 
precurser to what happened after OWL's, no excuse for their behavior, 
it just might be interesting to find out what their last exchange had 
entailed.  We are only given isolated incidents, from a chapter 
called "Snapes Worst Memory".  We have no idea what might appear 
in "Sirius' Worst Memory".

I would also add that the "prank" IIRC was limited to Sirius telling 
Snape how to prod the knot at the bottom of the tree and follow Lupin 
if he wanted to know what the Marauders were up to.  It was Snape who 
made the decision to go there and he therefore shares some 
culpability for the result.  He did, after all, know it was against 
school rules to go near the Whomping Willow.  I would see it as more 
maniacal if Sirius had physically lead him to a place where Severus 
believed he was safe, said "stay here, I'll come back for you later. 
Oh, you don't need your wand I'll take it for you." and then stepped 
aside for the rampaging werewolf to attack.

As for telling Hagrid about Peter, it was stupid that he didn't.  I 
can see how compelled he would have been to find Peter and bring him 
to justice.  There is no canon to support the idea that Sirius went 
to kill PP the day he disappeared.  Sirius only went to find him and 
confront him.  He clearly underestimated Peter, first by making him 
Secret Keeper and then again by thinking he could take Peter by 
himself.  IMO, his laughter while being arrested was of the 
incredulous sort.  "How could I have been so stupid.  Of course, he 
has been playing us for fools for years.  And we never doubted him."

In losing Lilly and James (and Peter too, to a certain extent) Sirius 
had lost his entire family.  He had already lost his first family 
because he did not share their beleifs and now he had lost everyone 
else.  Not only that, but he felt totally responsible, it was he who 
had suggested PP as Secret Keeper in the first place.  If the trial 
took place within only a few days, what would he care if he went to 
Azkaban, what would he care about anything?

During his days at Hogwarts, he was a kid.  Many athletic, smart, 
good looking boys are also risk takers (many boys who aren't all of 
the above are risk takers too).  The problem with Sirius now is that 
he basically came into manhood in prison.  These people were young 
when all of this happened.  Sirius has had very little opportunity to 
discover for himself who he is and what he really wants in life and 
even less to actually make any of it happen.  It is no wonder he 
lives vicariously through Harry.

It is at the end of GoF, after all, that Dumbledore says "I trust you 
both."  to Severus and Sirius.  It was time to set aside old 
differences. If we can make the leap with Severus, why not Sirius?

Sue, who hopes beyond hope that when the whole story is wrapped up 
Harry will discover that at least a few of the adults he trusted 
diserved it.  Especially Sirius Black.