Sirius' death (was: Dept of Mysteries Veil Room)

[elfundeb2]

No: HPFGUIDX 115256


Carol:
> > And Sirius at his best is not much of a role model for the boy 
> > destined to be the one who destroys Voldemort. He's arrogant and 
> > reckless, qualities that Dumbledore can't allow Harry to develop.
> 
Nora:

> He's certainly not the only character in the books who is 
arrogant, 
> but I'll let everyone fill in that blank for himself.  And no 
matter 
> what any of us think about him, Harry loved him deeply, and he 
loved 
> Harry; and I think he had a lot to offer, in both that capacity 
and 
> in others.  (I'm a little frustrated because now we're never going 
to 
> get some personal exposition of some events that only Black would 
> really have the interesting perspective on, if you know what I 
> mean.)  If we're going to wipe out everyone who could be a bad 
role 
> model for the kid, the Order is toast.

Admittedly, I've never been a Sirius fan, and I've always thought he 
was a dangerous influence on Harry because he *seemed* rational but 
in fact his opinions were heavily coloured by his past experience.  
Sirius represented to Harry not just someone who cared deeply about 
him (in fact and not just in Harry's perception), but also a 
connection to his family.  He was a great comfort to Harry and I 
will not denigrate that.

Thematically, however, Sirius represents a POV that I think Harry 
will move beyond, and therefore he needed to be removed as an 
influence.  The Sorting Hat exhorts the students from different 
houses to unite or else "crumble from within." Sirius represents 
an "us vs. them" mentality, in which those who are labelled as 
enemies are not allowed to have shades of grey.  The Sorting Hat's 
philosophy would be anathem to Sirius, who labelled those he 
associated with his family and the Dark Arts -- Kreacher, Snape, and 
undoubtedly more than I am missing -- as enemies, and justified the 
abuse and bullying on that basis.  Despite the handshake Dumbledore 
wangles out of them at the end of GoF, I cannot envision any true 
alliance between Snape and Dumbledore; 

Harry's views at this point seem generally allied with Sirius'.  
While he is horrified at the vision of James' bullying behavior, he 
notes approvingly that the Twins engage in the same behavior if 
they "truly loathed" the victim or if the victim "really deserved 
it."  In order to achieve the unity the Sorting Hat warns is 
necessary to protect Hogwarts from "external, deadly foes," Harry 
needs to move beyond Sirius' views.  In OOP the two main 
representatives of the our-team-vs.-their team POV (Sirius and the 
Twins) were effectively removed from the equation, Sirius by his 
death and the Twins by their grand exit from school.  This will 
allow Harry the figurative space he'll need to become a standard-
bearer for unity.  

Debbie