"I'm not proud of it"

[ladyramkin2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 106749

I would like to nominate this as one of the most meaningless phrases 
in the English language.  When Sirius uses it to Harry about the 
Pensieve incident, I felt like yelling "No, you damned well shouldn't 
be.  What's to be proud of in behaving like an arrogant bully?" In my 
experience people who use this phrase normally add a silent "But I'm 
not ashamed either".  "I'm not proud of it" simply isn'tsufficient 
excuse. I am not convinced that Sirius really thought that he and 
James were arrogant little berks.  As HunterGreen points out, he is 
still calling Snape by the silly nickname Snivellus and neither he 
nor Lupin seem to appreciate how deeply hurt Harry is.  But I was 
proud of Harry for snapping back "I'm fifteen!" when Lupin offered 
the lame excuse that James was only fifteen.

Sylvia