ChoosingGoodnes/Snape/Albus/DragonMeat/Sex/Draco an Only Child /DE children

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 127092


SSSusan wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/126714 :
<< I think Nora's right in this. Look at Harry. He could easily have
become a selfish, whining, angry bully based on his "inside"
experience. But in fact he ended up quite different indeed from the
example set within his family. And, since this appears to have
developed in Harry prior to his entering Hogwarts -- without a whole
lot of other "outside" examples for influence -- it's seems at least
possible that Sirius experienced something similar. >>

Catlady: 
> Harry had other influences than his home life -- television and 
> school surely prominent among them. I think his school would have 
> tried to introduce the students to certain moral virtues, whether 
> by preaching about the Good Samaritan or assigning reading books 
> about exemplary children.


SSSusan:
I don't think I disagree with you much at all, really.  I was 
responding to elfundeb, who had been arguing that Sirius grew up in 
a family where "Mudblood" was used frequently in its pejorative 
sense, and that he likely wouldn't have had an opportunity to have 
learned otherwise -- to have been exposed to other views -- as a 
child.  I didn't agree that that upbringing makes Sirius' behavior a 
*given*,  just as I don't believe living with the Dursleys makes 
Harry's behavior a given.  

OTOH it may be that you are simply pointing out that Harry had two 
potential influences -- school & TV -- which Sirius did not have.  
This is so.  But I would think that Sirius would have had books, at 
least, to offer up different viewpoints.  Or contact with fellow 
burned-off-the-tapestry cousins or other relatives who might've 
given him a glimpse of another way of viewing muggle-borns?

Siriusly Snapey Susan