Debatable ethical issues in OotP and HBP

[spotsgal]

No: HPFGUIDX 142404

Carol:
> To begin with, he talked James Potter into making Wormtail the 
> Secret Keeper.

Christina:

To begin with, as Nora said, I would blame James and Lily themselves
at least as much as I would blame Sirius.  And Sirius thought he was
doing the right thing- his idea to switch to Peter as the Secret
Keeper was done for all the right reasons.  It certainly didn't make
Sirius's situation any better; he was still the one that Voldemort
would most likely target first.  Without the ability to give him any
information, Sirius would most likely have been killed (in hindsight,
none of this mattered because Peter was the spy, but I don't see how
we can blame Sirius, James, or Lily for not realizing this).

Carol:
> After Godric's Hollow, he took matters into his own hands and went 
> after Wormtail rather than going to Dumbledore for help

Christina:

Yes.  You've just hit on the #1 thing that bothers me about Sirius.  I
disliked him for a long time before I swayed over to the other side
(I'm a big Sirius fan nowadays), but this still bothers me.  The first
thing that Sirius should have done after he realized what had happened
at Godric's Hollow was go to Dumbledore.  Then somebody should have
rounded up Lupin.  I understand that we can do strange and erratic
things in grief, and that Sirius has always been a leaper (rather than
a looker), but Sirius didn't only condemn himself to over a decade of
misery- he abandoned Lupin and (even worse) Harry.  I've always
believed that Sirius went to find Peter *planning* to kill him (he
tells Hagrid he won't be needing his motorbike anymore)- even if Peter
had been too slow to frame Sirius, Sirius would have ended up spending
time in Azkaban (and without Peter alive, who would believe his
Secret-Keeper Switch story, anyway?).

Carol:
> and laughed like a
> madman when Wormtail killed all the Muggles.

Christina:

Sirius knew he was doomed.  I doubt he could have done anything at
that moment that would have led to his release.  Even Dumbledore
testified that Sirius had been the Secret Keeper.


> Carol:
>
> The first sensible thing he does is to fly to some
> tropical paradise on Buckbeak, but he forgoes safety and flies to
> England to live on rats and hide in caves when he hears that
> Harry's scar hurts.
>
>Alla:
>
>So, rushing to help his godson, who needs him is wrong? Should have
>he ignored Harry's cry for help then? Would that made Sirius more
>sensible person? Why is it Sirius fault to rush to help the boy who
>needs him?

Christina:

Alla, we agree so rarely that I just had to point this one out :)

I think Sirius feels very guilty about abandoning Harry for all of
those years, and tried hard to uphold his godfatherly duties whenever
possible to make up for that.  What kind of man would he be if he had
sat back in the sun while Harry was in such distress?


> Carol:
> Yes, his is a tragically wasted life.
> But the responsibility for that wasted life, like the decision to go
> to the MoM, is primarily or entirely his own.

Christina:

I'm glad you brought this up, Carol, because it hits on something I've
never understood.  I'm not sure if you are implying that Sirius's
decision to go to the MoM was a bad one or not, but I've seen that
event used to support reckless!Sirius about a million times in the
fandom, and I've never understood why.  I *do* think that Sirius is a
leap-before-you-look kind of guy, but I think he made the right choice
in going to the MoM.  At that point in the story, the number of Death
Eaters skulking around was unknown, but the Order knew that there were
 a significant number (especially considering the breakout at
Azkaban).  Faced with the knowledge that six children had gone off to
engage in a conflict with goodness-knows-how-many Death Eaters, the
members of the Order who were immediately available went to help. 
Without Sirius, only four Order members would have been defending the
kids.  I would think that with the number of Death Eaters on the
loose, an extra set of hands would be seen as a huge advantage
(especially when those hands belonged to somebody with such a hunger
for battle).  Harry's and the other childrens' lives were in grave
danger- who cares if Sirius was caught if it meant saving Harry's
life?  With hindsight, we know that Sirius would not have died if he
had not been at the MoM, but I don't see any reason to believe that he
was targeted specifically during the battle.  Any of the Order members
could have died in the MoM- the fact that Sirius was the one who did
does not support the thought that he shouldn't have been there in the
first place.

Christina