Lack of Memorial for Sirius (was Re: JKR's dealing with emotions)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 147482

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "kiricat4001" <zarleycat at ...> 
wrote:
<SNIP> 
> OTOH, the issue I see with Harry (and that I had, although I 
didn't 
> realize it at the time) is that, other than DD's mention of how 
> Harry's handling Sirius's death, there is no other adult 
> acknowledgement to Harry that he has indeed suffered a great loss. 
> I'm not talking about grand pronouncements or over-the-top 
orations, 
> just a simple "Harry, I'm sure you still think a lot about 
Sirius.  
> I'm sorry he's gone. If you need me, I'm here" kind of thing from, 
> well, anyone.  Maybe Molly or Arthur. Maybe Lupin. Maybe even 
> McGonagall in a brief moment at the beginning of the school year.  
> 
><SNIP> And, that there was no memorial 
> service, which was a perfect opportunity for people to show their 
> support for Harry, also left me scratching my head. 
> 


Agreed.  This omission lies at the heart of the puzzling nature of 
HBP on this issue, and at the heart of what I, at least, find to be 
a very large failure on JKR's part when it comes to Harry's grief or 
lack thereof.  A memorial service for Sirius could have introduced 
these threads and tied them off neatly in a way that would have made 
Harry's "stiff-upper-lip" attitude more understandable and, as 
Kemper points out, much more satisfying for the reader.  It would 
have allowed the adults to approach Harry on this matter in a way 
that would have avoided making them look like stupid and insensitive 
morons, as they all too often come off to many of us, and as they 
come off in this instance.  The idea that Dumbledore, the supposedly 
kindly and wise, would not have thought of this, and indeed insisted 
on it, is to me utterly unbelievable and, as I said before, worthy 
of a guffaw of derision.  It would have even made good literary 
sense, as it would have provided a neat book-end effect, opening the 
book with one "funeral" and closing it with another.

This seems yet another example of the habit of adults in the WW to 
behave like absolute idiots, especially where Harry is concerned.  I 
sometimes really do think that magic must take up the genes that in 
muggles code for intelligence.


Lupinlore