good and bad slytherins/Disappointment and Responsibility

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 175162

Alla:
> Sirius though makes a choice contrary to his family's views, for 
> which I admire him a lot, but where do you think he can learn that?
> 
> Since I am not buying Carol's assertion that Sirius makes his choice 
> because James's cooler than Severus Snape, or at least not 
> completely.
> 
> Frankly, I think that this is again goes back to our choices 
> **show** who we are.
> 
> I think Sirius' choice showed what kind of person he is ( ALL 
> personal flaws and all that, but willing to stand up against the 
> dark), but was it indeed predetermined?

Ceridwen:
One thing that stood out for me in "The Prince's Tale", which I haven't 
seen mentioned (I haven't read everything from the opening of the list, 
though, so it may have been) is this part of the Hogwarts Express scene:

"Who wants to be in Slytherin?  I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"  
James asked the boy lounging on the seats opposite him, and with a 
jolt, Harry realized that it was Sirius.  Sirius did not smile.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin,"  he said.

"Blimey,"  said James, "and I thought you seemed all right!"

Sirius grinned.

"Maybe I'll break tradition.  Where are you heading, if you've got the 
choice?"

James lifted an invisible sword.

"'Gryffindor, where dwells the brave at heart.'  Like my dad."
~HBP, Scholastic hardcover, pg. 671.

In this scene, James exerts schoolboy pressure on Sirius: "I thought 
you seemed all right."  It seems that, if he'd known all the Blacks 
went to Slytherin, he wouldn't have wasted his time with Sirius.

Sirius grins back at him, which can be seen as showing he's harmless.  
He then asks where James is heading.  A few hours later, Sirius becomes 
the first Black he knows of to be Sorted into Gryffindor.  It seems to 
me that Sirius wants to be with James, who he also thought was all 
right.

This is the sort of pressure kids do.  I like it, why don't you?  I 
would do that, why won't you?  It implies that there's something wrong 
with the other kid if they don't comply.  Peer pressure, either overt 
as in bullying, or more subtle like this, can influence kids 
profoundly.  I think Sirius would have been in Slytherin if he hadn't 
met James and liked him.

Your mileage may vary.

Ceridwen.