Sirius revisited--what if?

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 104342

> SSSusan:
> Now *this* I agree with.  I have come to the conclusion that some 
of 
> the Sirius Bashers are right on many counts, but I do think if 
> Sirius had lived, and once the war had ended, he might've turned 
out 
> to be a very decent kind of guy.  I did enjoy him at times--I have 
> no doubt he could be loads of fun to be around--and I appreciated 
> his *desire* to be helpful to Harry.  He was surly and dark cooped 
> up in GP and not especially helpful to Harry when goading him to 
do 
> dangerous things.  But if he'd been able to be out & about, doing 
> useful things, unburdened by Voldy's return and the prospect of a 
> war, cleared fully & publically, I think he'd have been less 
likely 
> to be so surly, reckless & rash, and more likely to have grown out 
> of SOME of his rashness.

Jen: The central tragedy in the series for me is the lost generation 
of men & women who gave up a normal life to be part of the Order 
(and I include Snape here, too). A few managed to have careers for a 
short time, find partners, even have a child, but they all paid 
dearly in the end. They died, were driven insane, disappeared, or 
worst of all, lived with constant reminders of their losses. It gets 
depressing when I think about it for long.

Personally, I think JKR created these tragic figures in part to 
underscore how horrible the First War was. We only get glimpses of 
the war, and sometime I'm not convinced of Voldemort as a villian. 
But when I think of the tragedy of the Marauder generation and the 
potential for Harry's generation to face the same consequences if 
Voldemort isn't defeated, *then* I have a better picture of what 
Voldemort is capable of.

Jen, who couldn't believe SSSusan's loyalty to Sirius was wavering 
today and is glad to see everything is right with the world again ;).