"I'm not proud of it"

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 106771

Sylvia:
> 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.


Jen: I'm convinced Sirius realized he & James were berks, but when 
it comes to Snape, I don't believe Sirius is really apologetic about 
any of his behavior. And that makes me wonder why. Maybe it's in-
character for Sirius to be that way, and we'll get no more 
explanation than that. 

Like Sylvia, I read "I'm not pround of it" as having a "but" behind 
it, but instead of "I'm not ashamed either", there would be a litany 
of Snape's transgressions. Like many people I'm curious how the 
whole saga of animosity between the Marauders and Snape built up to 
begin with, and I fully expect to see some heinous behavior on 
Snape's part as backstory, to understand why that silent 'but' was 
there. I think Sirius, for all his faults, didn't tell Harry 
*everything* about his grudge against Snape.

Jen Reese