Sirius and Draco; was James and Snape.

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 113942

Nora:
> 
> 
> JKR has however, perhaps, worked herself into a bit of a 
quandry with families and how they're written in the books.  Traits 
run in  families (Weasleys and Malfoys, etc., to take the more 
obvious  examples), but one is not supposed to be *determined* 
by family in this world either, given the importance of choice.
> 

Ah, but that's not what Dumbledore said. 
He said that Harry's choice to ask the Hat not to put him in 
Slytherin made Harry *very different* from Tom Riddle. Different, 
that is, than what one might have predicted from Harry's abilities 
and his circumstances, and different from what Harry might have 
become if he had chosen otherwise.  

Dumbledore did not say, however, that our choices determine 
what we are--he said they *show* what we are, far more than our 
abilities. Our traits can be determined by other things than our 
choices, but our choices affect what is determined for us, and it 
is by those choices that we should be judged.

Draco and Sirius were both rebellious and that might be a Black 
family trait.  But Draco's  rebellion was against his father's 
sneaking ways-- unlike Lucius, Draco was openly anti-Potter and 
pro-Voldemort. Sirius rebelled against his family's philosophy 
but embraced a certain Slytherin sneakiness -- his life was full of 
secret plots. Regulus remained faithful to his family but rebelled 
against Voldemort--and did it openly enough to get himself 
killed. Their choice of how to express their rebelliousness 
shows us more than the rebelliousness itself.

Pippin