Why DID Sirius laugh? (was: Peter Pettigrew, questions)

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 101460

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
> Phil Boswell wrote:
> > Still not certain why Sirius would have just sat down and laughed,
> > however ...
> 
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan:
> Yes, PLEASE, will people weigh in on this one??  It's never made 
> sense to me either.  Was it just that Sirius was laughing in an 
> ironic sort of, "I can't BELIEVE this is happening to me?" kind of 
> way?  It was always described as sort of maniacal, though....
> 
> It seems to me that the report of Sirius laughing after the blown-
up 
> street always weighed heavily against him, and even when we did 
> discover his innocence, it's not one of those things which 
instantly 
> made sense in light of the new facts.  Why WAS he laughing?
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan


Marianne:

I can come up with three ideas.  One, it was the sort of distraught 
reaction some people have when under severe stress.

Two, as time has gone by and people have become farther removed from 
the event, what may have been a noise of surprise and dismay from 
Sirius has somehow been transformed in the telling of the story into 
hysterical laughter.

And, for the third thought, the person who mentioned this laughter 
was Fudge, who was conveniently first at the scene of the blown-apart 
street. I can be talked into believing that Fudge is a secret DE, or 
DE sympathizer, and at the time was in on a plot to frame Sirius.  So 
of course it would suit him to portray Sirius in as poor a light as 
possible.  Why not say that he, Fugde, got to this horrible, bloody 
scene and had to confront a man so devoid of feeling, do desperately 
evil, that the only effect this carnage had on him was to make him 
laugh?

Marianne