Sirius' actions/Scene with likeable James LONG

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 156328

> zgirnius:
> IMO the text does not give us enough 'normal' Sirius for us to know 
> what normal is for Sirius. You concede as much, really, because the 
> only time you think he was 'normal' was in GoF.

Alla:

Well, that is certainly true. In GoF more or less normal, yes.

Zgirnius:
> 
> In school: He was a teenager, they are thoughtless; and anyway 
Snape 
> was a special case.

Alla:

Um, yes, but I did not say that he was insane in school. We just IMO
don't know enough about what happened between them and Snape, but I 
am not saying that he was not normal back there.

Zgirnius:
> As a young man: he was naturally upset over the deaths of the 
Potters.

Alla:

Yes, he was and you are contesting it? JKR said as much when she was 
talking about him laughing ( e.g. that he lost everything in one 
moment - paraphrase).

But again, I think he was pretty normal before this event occurred. 
Just what you said we don't see it, but I would say that the fact 
that it was highly charged event, IMO is clear.

Zgirnius:
> For nearly a year in PoA: He was not right in the head after 
Azkaban.
> In OotP: He was not right in the head, forced to live in his hated 
> childhood home.

Alla:

Yes, again and my question is the same, are you contesting it? I 
mean, yes, that is what occurred IMO.


Zgirnius:
> Did you really fall in love with this character based only on his 
> actions in GoF? Personally I fell for him when he was first 
> introduced to us in PoA, but recognized that, despite my liking of 
> him, he has definitely acted in ways I don't approve. (To join you 
in 
> emotional anaylsis fo the character <g>.)

Alla:

Based on his actions in GoF? Of course not only based on that, I fell 
in love with this character when he offered Harry a home for the 
first time in his life. I was amazed that this character was capable 
of loving somebody, that he was able to have the shred of sanity 
after twelve years in Azkaban, after Remus described the effects of 
the dementors. 
 
>  
> > Alla:
> > See above. I may settle on **half crasy**, but I am unable to 
agree
> > that through PoA Sirius was totally normal. Sorry!
> 
> zgirnius:
> See above...we've barely seen him 'totally normal'. (It would be 
> completely cool if we get to meet normal Sirius behinfd the Veil in 
> Book 7...)

Alla:

But that is not my point whether we see him completely normal or not, 
because we indeed don't. My point is that it is easy enough to see 
IMO that how he acts is **not** normal and that is because of the 
events that triggered it.
 
> > Alla:
> > 
> > Willing to cause Ron an injury? Didn't he say that there would be
> > only one murder tonight in Shack? Or am I movie contaminated here?
> 
> zgirnius:
> Ron's leg did not break by itself. I did not suggest he planned to 
> murder Ron. I was referring to the fact that he injured Ron.
>

Alla:

Um, but if this is an accident, how Sirius was **planning** to cause 
Ron an injury? Of course Ron's leg did not break by itself, it does 
not equal to me Sirius **willing to cause an injury**.


Joe:    
<snip>
>   We do have evidence that others liked them outside their pack. 
Hagrid, Rosmerta, McGonagall all speak fondly of them.
<snip>

Alla:

But they are all **biased** witnesses, you know? ;) Snape on the 
other hand is very neutral witness. ;)

Sherry:
< HUGE SNIP of the whole post>

 But I've only seen one small episode of 
> James being a bully.  James is no nice guy in that scene, 
> obviously, but then, for me, Snape is no nice guy in the entire 
> series.

Alla:

Me too, Sherry, me too. :)

> Kemper now:
<SNIP>
> So Joe, I posed a scenario on a different though similar thread.  
Here it is:
> 
>  What if at the end of Harry's written DADA O.W.L's, he and Ron
> rolled-up on and started provoking Draco while Hermione pretended 
she
> didn't know what was going on?  We already know what an arrogant 
prick
> Draco is, but would we think this scene of righteous bullying funny?
> 
> Would Harry be in the right here?  Or would we think a little less 
of
> him based on only a 5 minute incident?

Alla:

I can try and answer that. Funny, I certainly would not find it, but 
would I think of Harry less based on knowing everything that happened 
between him and Draco? Knowing that Draco for example did not 
hesitate to dress up as Dementor and trying to prank him on Quidditch 
match, etc, etc, etc?

Not really, I may think that Harry should have been a bigger man and 
not care less about Draco, but my opinion of him would not go down 
drastically.

I certainly did not think of Harry any less for talking to Dudley the 
way he did in OOP. I thought that after all the crap Dudley gave him 
for years, Harry was entitled to give Dudley just a tiny bit of that 
same treatment.

Of course the fact that Harry afterwards chose to save Dudley helped 
me not to think any less of him.

But of course it is hard for me to imagine that hypothetical as in 
Draco leaving Harry and Co alone, ever.

I have another hypothetical that I posted in the past.

Suppose we get to view Draco's memories in the Pensieve. Suppose he 
palced his memories about GoF train accident in the Pensieve, except 
he only put there **part** of that particular memory, starting with 
Gryffindors hexing him?

Wouldn't you think of Draco as blameless party if you were to see 
**only** that part of the memory?

JMO,

Alla