Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts

[jenjar2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 93090

Jenjar:
> > But, if Sirius mood was being 
> > altered by some draught that Kreacher was slipping him without 
> > Sirius' knowledge, that would explain his less than wise decisions 
> > and sometimes seemingly out of character actions. 

Potioncat:
> I've read this idea before and dismissed it. But, I'm re-reading GoF 
> now and am very surprised at how different Sirius is. (Most everyone 
> else on this list noticed this much quicker than I have.) So now 
> the  poisoning idea sounds reasonable to me.  My question would be: 
> If JKR was having a character poisoned, why would she kill him in 
> some other way before the poisoning was discovered?  As I was typing 
> that sentence, I swear, a voice in the back of  my head said: To set 
> us up for someone being poisoned in the next book! 


Interesting points potioncat.  First let me clarify, I don't think 
the draught or poison Kreacher may have given Sirius would have 
killed him.  As Harry's textbook states, confusing and bufuddlement 
draughts were used to produce hot-headedness and recklessness.  

If this is what happened JKR could have had many, many reasons for 
doing it.  There are 2 possibilities that stick out to me:

1) If Sirius had been more himself and not unusually hot-headed or 
reckless, he might not have died.  

2) As things are now, Dumbledore is blaming himself for Sirus' death -
 he thinks he misjudged Sirius' ability to handle being caged up, 
which led to Sirius' reckless actions.  How will his guilty feelings 
affect his future decisions and actions? 

jenjar who hopes Sirius still has a role to play in books 6 and 7.