Peter, Sirius, or Lupin

[Kathryn Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 131822

Kathy writes:

     I hardly know who to answer.  Everyone has very good points and it 
is all quite believable.  I actually have no personal investment in who 
is the spy. I am just wildly curious and Rowling is extremely sneaky. I 
don't "love Snape" and I don't "hate" Sirius. I do suspect Rowling.

     In the first book, she made Snape the obvious bad acter.  It, of 
course, turned out that it was timid little Quirrel. In the second book, 
the obvious rotter was Malfoy, but of course it turned out to be shy 
little Ginny. In POA nobody looks more like the man of the hour than 
Sirius. He "loves" Harry, Harry has a family again and everything is 
wonderful.  Snape blows a gasket and looks like a complete idiot as well 
as telling the world that he is a DE. Should we not suspect this? In 
Goblet of Fire, I loved Moody.  I thought he was great, and what 
happened?  Turned out he wasn't Moody at all. I was led down the garden 
path again.

     JKR sneaks little subtle clues into the books, such as Quirrel 
being in town at the time of the break-in at Gringotts, and fainting 
over a troll when we were told that he had a special affinity for them. 
In CoS we read that Ginny had some kind of a problem that she wanted to 
talk about, but it was done so casually, I paid little attention. In PoA 
we are very skilfully led to fear what Sirius is going to do and then we 
are told that, no, we have it all wrong, it is Peter. All the clues 
about Scabbers are kind of cat centred, but why should we pay attention 
to a cat chasing a rat? In GoF which people are trying to help Harry 
win? Moody, Bagman, and Sirius. Friends don't count. Rowling just uses 
them to disguise the bad ones.

     I'm a slow learner, perhaps, but, looking at the books, I think 
some things may happen.  Harry's whole perception of the world was 
changed when he found out that he was a wizard. His support was 
Dumbledore and his friends, and then Sirius.   His only place of safety 
outside of Hogwarts is the Dursleys. Rowling has started to distance 
Harry from his friends, she snuffed Sirius, and I would bet that 
Voldemort is going to do something crappy to the Dursleys now that he 
can overcome the protective magic. Harry no longer trusts Dumbledore. 
Harry has found out that his father is not what he believed him to be. 
What would it do to Harry to find out that Sirius wasn't what he 
believed him to be? Peter is set up to help Harry in some way as owing a 
life debt, and Snape is the only one who has answered Harry's most 
pressing questions. Rowling said that this book was going to get darker 
for Harry, that she would not want to be Harry because of what he was 
going to have to go through, and that a lot of people would not like 
this book.

     I never had any questions about Sirius either but I found that over 
time I had to go back and look at descriptions and conversations.  Not 
so much as what was said or done but HOW it was said or done. To me this 
whole thread on Sirius is not so much about Sirius as it is about JKR. 
She said that she killed Sirius for a reason.  What is it about 
disappearing Sirius that will further the plot.  I believe that 
something about Sirius will return in this book because in one interview 
she said that she had made a mistake. I think that mistake was talking 
about Sirius in the present tense instead of the past. What is it about 
Sirius that could either make it worse for Harry, which is what I 
suspect, or better for Harry in the next book?  Why did she spend two 
and a half books on Sirius and then drop him through the veil?

     If I ever need a lawyer for something, I want one of you guys:-)

House is "leviosa" proof but water is rising in the basement:-)

KJ