Sirius without trial - a perspective

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 158836

Reposting because I think I may have unintentionally leaned too far 
to one side:

> >Sherry wrote: <Snip a bunch>
> > Really? If that's the case, if Sirius' motive wasn't to save
Harry,
> > then why did he let Harry talk him out of killing Pettigrew when
he
> > had the chance?
>
>
> CH3ed butting in:
> I don't think Carol or anyone else is saying that saving Harry 
isn't
> one of Sirius' motives, tho. I think she is saying it isn't the 
ONLY
> motive... or maybe not the primary one.
>
> CH3ed ... is glad not to be a popular author.

Magpie:
But I think what Sherry is saying is that given his actions love for
Harry is indeed Sirius' primary motivation, as proved by the fact he
doesn't kill Peter. So in her view revenge can certainly be a factor,
but the main one is that Sirius loves Harry and escapes from prison
upon seeing Peter free not primarily because he's so overcome with
rage over making Peter pay, but because it spurs him to think Peter
might act against Harry, who is all Sirius has left.

As a character, I'd say Sirius is the more motivated by Harry. Yes,
he hasn't seen him in years but since he's been sitting in a cell I
don't find it difficult to think he's still focused on the infant he
knew as the child of his best friend. Harry would be part of Harry's
last happy memories. He's not Harry's father, but for instance, there
are people who give up their children for adoption and still love 
them-
-not the same way you can love someone you know, but they never stop
thinking about them or loving them in their own way. In fact, I think
JKR even nods to this in the "Sirius thinks Harry is James"
suggestions later. I don't think Sirius really thinks Harry is James
literally, but I think it might be a by-product of the way Sirius has
always loved Harry partly through imagination and projection, filling
in so many blanks with james.

The first time we see Sirius he is with Harry, not the Weasleys 
(where Peter is). I think things like the Grim watching the 
Quidditch game or looking up at Harry from outside with Crookshanks 
are intended to call to mind a loyal dog watching the boy he loves 
and wanting to be closer to him. The need to protect Harry is also 
the thing that gets Sirius out of Grimmauld Place later, I think 
partly because JKR tends to write characters that are satisfyingly 
consistent once you know what buttons to press. If Sirius were so 
motivated by revenge I think we'd have to see signs of it in GoF and 
OotP when Peter is again on the loose. Ironically, Snape's the own 
furious over his "prey" slipping through his fingers in PoA, iirc. 
Sirius doesn't take off after Peter but wants to offer Harry a place 
to live.

So for me, not only would Sirius choose other things over revenge, 
but the revenge he wants isn't just over acts to himself. He seems 
more like he wants to act in the way he didn't act before rather 
than to make Peter pay for what he did to him. But of course that's 
just the way he comes across to me.

ETA: I thought I might have made Sirius come off too "soft" here and 
lost the fact that he is also a crazed escaped convict locked in a 
deadly rage against his former friend who killed his best friend and 
got Sirius put in jail.:-)  So I did want to say that I do think 
there's probably a factor of Sirius getting close to the edge--which 
I think is more what Carol is suggesting, that there's a real danger 
that Sirius would choose revenge over something more positive, and 
very well might have done that if he hadn't been affected by Harry 
the person after he met him.  That can, imo, mirror Harry's own 
choice not to kill Sirius.  Had he tried to kill Sirius as he 
thought he wanted to, he would have gone down a dark path, and 
Sirius would be at least as tempted as Harry to go that way.  Even 
if he does love Harry he isn't part of his life and I can easily 
imagine him having accepted that he will simply kill Peter and 
that's it, without really having any realistic plans of having a 
true bond with Harry as he is now.

-m