Sirius' declaration of loyalty in the Shrieking Shack

[saraquel_omphale]

No: HPFGUIDX 139687

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
> Magda:
> > > What I am objecting to is the over-the-topness of a declaration
> > > like "you should have died for us like we would have died for 
> > > you".  If you're going to make that kind of statement about 
> > > anyone, you'd better have thought long and hard about that 
> > > person, seriously considered their weak points, their flaws, 
> > > their blind spots, everything about that person that might 
cause 
> > > them to let you down in the worst possible way at the worst 
> > > possible time.  Not just because you slept in the same dorm 
for 
> > > seven years, gave each other dumb nicknames and did pranks 
> > > together.  

Saraquel:
Complete snipping of excellent posts in a very interesting thread. 
But I also want to point something else out here, that doesn't seem 
to have been mentioned.  At the time Sirius is talking about a state 
of war existed.  Your friends were more than just those whom you had 
a personal bond with, your friends were anyone who was on your 
side.  You weren't just dying to save your personal friends, you 
were dying for the cause as well.  If the cause was lost, then you 
all your friends were lost.  Although I admit, that it appears that 
Sirius was talking in this context about the 4 Marauders, I think it 
is very important to put this in context.

The Order had seen many of their co-fighters slaughtered, dying in 
and for the cause.  In times of war the odds are pushed to the 
extremes along with emotions.  Everyone needs to feel that they can 
trust those around them with their lives, they need to feel that 
anyone would give their life to save others.  That is the role of a 
soldier - to be willing to sacrifice your life so that others may 
live theirs.  No wonder Sirius was so angry.  

At that time, everyone of the Order must have been expecting to die 
and wondering if it would be their turn today.  Knowing that there 
was a spy around must have torn them apart in a situation where 
trust and togetherness was paramount.  Sirius took that on board, he 
had thought it through, he was prepared to die, and, I suspect, 
prepared to die, not only for those people he really liked, but for 
anyone who adhered to the cause they were all fighting for. 

He suspected that Lupin was the spy, but he did not know for sure.  
I think that his need to believe that everyone around him was true 
would have battled with the suspicion of treachery. Sirius is the 
sort of person who has so much faith in himself and placed so much 
importance on the relationship he had with the other Marauders, that 
he would find it very difficult to suspect that they were the spies. 
If the crunch came, and there was any doubt, I think Sirius is the 
sort of person who would prefer to die mistaken in thinking loyalty 
was intact, than to risk, being in any way responsible for the death 
of someone who might turn out to have been innocent.

Saraquel