No sympathy for Kreacher

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 124488


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:

> Pippin:

<snip>

> Dumbledore allowed Harry to choose which House to belong to, 
> even though he might well have chosen Slytherin; he returned 
> Harry's cloak and the key to his Gringotts vault though Harry 
> might well have used them unwisely, and in this he behaves very 
> differently from Sirius, who will not free Kreacher or even treat 
> him with respect.

I always got the impression from the text that Sirius would have 
*liked* to free Kreacher and thus be rid of him, but could not 
because of security constraints.

"We can't set him free, he knows too much about the Order," said 
Sirius curtly. (OotP, American ed., p. 110)

I haven't hunted it down the recurrences of that class of modifiers 
in conjunction with Sirius, but that 'curtly' gives me the impression 
that there was a discussion and argument had about such, and Sirius 
lost to Dumbledore.

Not quite fair to completely fault him for not freeing Kreacher in 
that case, is it?  Sirius' fault is more in not treating Kreacher 
with more *suspicion* rather than respect.  Respecting people is not 
generally how you avoid being fooled by them, after all.

-Nora notes that fear and trust are mutually exclusive, as are fear 
and genuine respect