Sirius as Father Figure (was:Re: How Sirius' death suits Dumbledore?...)

[festuco]

No: HPFGUIDX 130710

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03"
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
> >>Alla:

> Betsy Hp:
> It's strange to be because Sirius chose to go back to his house.  
> He "offered it to Dumbledore". (OotP scholastic hardback p.79)  And 
> he's only been there, what a month?  Maybe?  On the outside?  And 
> with an entire gaggle of Weasleys there to help chase the Black 
> ghosts away.  Seems like an awfully quick slide to me.  Especially 
> when he seemed so eager and enthusiastic at the end of GoF, a mere 
> month or so ago.

Gerry

To me this is completely logical. He is now about two years out of
Azkaban. One year of trying to look after Harry, a couple of months of
delicious freedom in a warm, sunny, climate and then back in another
kind of prison, where he also feel completely useless. He is still a
fugitive, still on the run. And now also with a lot of time on his
hand to brood, in an environment that is 'perfect' for it. 

Betty
> I mean, wow!  Sirius really knows how to hit Harry, and he seems to 
> have no qualms about doing so.  All because Harry didn't want to 
> risk Sirius coming to Hogsmeade?  Talk about a lame reason to be so 
> cruel.  It's illogical behavior and beyond mere depression, IMO.

Gerry
Well, twelve years in Azkaban do strange things to a person. I also
think that Sirius never really got how truly dangerous and evil
Umbridge is. He clearly understands the danger of Voldemort, and was
very anxcious that Harry did not take unnessesary risks in GoF because
of the DE at Hogwarts. But Umbridge... I think he takes a schoolboy
attitude to her. Just a teacher with a chip on her shoulder, fun to
get around her... He is very wrong ofcourse. 

When LV is concerned he does take everyting very seriously. He is very
upset when he hears that Snape has cancelled the lessons. 


> And I would say by chalking up Sirius' strange behavior (the 
> cruelty, the lack of help and/or sympathy when Harry tells him he's 
> afraid he's going mad, the pointless digging at Snape) to either his 
> being drugged or his being an alcoholic is actually speaking *up* 
> for Sirius.  Because if Sirius becomes so very cruel and hot-headed 
> merely by staying in a house he hates, a house he *volunteered* to 
> the Order, it doesn't say much for his strength of character.  But 
> if he's suffering from a disease, or even more excusably he's being 
> maliciously drugged, well... doesn't that give Sirius an out?  It 
> turns him from a rather pathetic little man, kicking at children 
> because he's bored and unhappy, into a tragic figure, drugged into a 
> mindset not his own.  IMO, anyway.

Gerry

I don't think he is alcoholic or being drugged. I think his story is
tragic enough as it is. As far as his lack of help when Harry is
afraid to go mad is concerned: I think this touches very closely to
the information Sirius promised Dumbledore not to give, and that
Sirius simply did not know how to comfort Harry without saying too much. 

Gerry