Ringdear of the Marauders: Sirius or James? (was Kreacher the Murderer)

[Brenda M.]

No: HPFGUIDX 104743

First, apologies to Valky, I rearranged your post 104531 to make this 
post more coherent -- please forgive me!

> > >>> Valky wrote in Message # 104531:
> So Sirius is very very 
> intelligent, the kind of person who would notice if someone was 
> plotting against him. And of all people who would know that best 
but 
> one who raised him and cared for him through his life, ie Kreacher.
> I think that Kreacher chose a 'befuddlement' draught because it 
gave 
> him precisely the result he needed. 
> One it would push Sirius over the edge to endanger his life
> and Two because by befuddling Sirius he was giving himself the best 
> chance of success against Sirius' keen observation and intelligence.


Bren now:

Absolutely. Sirius is incredibly sharp, both street AND book smart. 
He does have an unfortunate habit of acting out of impulsive & 
momentary needs, but even then he remains quick.

And I imagine Sirius will be very keen on anything fish going around, 
especially a plot against himself. The lad had been living in his 
worst nightmares for 12 years, I say he still remains very paranoid 
to this day. And Kreacher's timing was perfect, with Sirius stuck in 
that grim-old place. I suspect you'd need whole bunch of unusual 
ingredients for Befuddlement Draught though, wonder how Kreacher got 
his hands on that without Sirius knowing?!?!


> I have gathered my Sirius blueprints together in my thoughts and 
> this is one aspect of his character that really sticks out. He is 
> remarkably quick off the mark! 
> When I imagine all the Marauders together and consider their roles 
> in their group I am certain that Sirius was extraordinarily 
> intelligent, in fact somewhat in Hermione's league I think. 
> 
> Ok enough straying back to the point. {By the way. I see James as 
having been highly gifted but a bit of a 
> dunderhead a bit like Ron, and Lupin as someone who's stand out 
> feature is his inner strength like Harry.
> Of course they are their own people essentially and the analogies 
> are just to help draw the picture. 


Bren now:

Hmm. This reminds me of something that I found very curious for a 
very long time. I wholeheartedly agree with Alla when she said "I was 
not at the smallest bit interested in James till OOP, I just did not 
care." in Message 104679. Neither did I. James seemed too goody-goody 
in the beginning, in fact the only not-so-perfect part was his messy 
hair (which is genetic, apparently). It was in PoA, when McGonagall 
said "Hogwarts has never had a pair of trouble-makers like them" 
(paraphrased) that I started liking James more. And OoP was 
definitely interesting.

It struck me odd though, when I was reading all the posts re: Animagi 
and what it means. How Stag is the alpha-male dear and Dog is a 
faithful, dead loyal (literally) and best-friend. But why though? 
What makes James more 'alpha-male' than Sirius?

James: brilliant, talented, brave, athletic, wealthy, pure-blooded, 
bully, popular...
... but mid-height, average-looking, somewhat mild (as far as we 
know, relatively speaking)

Sirius OTOH: ALSO brilliant, talented, brave, wealthy, pure-blooded, 
*bully*, *popular* (pretty sure he was athletic too, just not a 
sports TEAM player)...
... but tall, "very good-looking" (probably had a line up of girls), 
aggressive, hot-bloode/impulsive, rebellious, owned COOL motorcycle 
(and the list goes on)...

So how is it that JAmes is thought to be the leader of the Marauders? 
By default of reckless teenage Alpha-male standards, shouldn't Sirius 
be the "Man of Men", James the "best friend of the coolest guy", 
Lupin the "model student" and Peter well, Wormtail?

My guess is that Sirius WAS the Man of Men, with James the main man 
in double acts, and so on. But after JAmes' death and HArry's 
unfortunate upbringing, which is widely blamed on Sirius as the 
betrayer, there was a shift in "evaluating" the Marauders. James, who 
most people sympathesize with, became the Alpha-male, and Sirius 
being put aside to the second.

Bren, who had fun using the word "Alpha" but not "Beta" in one 
paragraph! But they await me in my lecture notes, sigh...