[HPforGrownups] Re: Sirius as Gryffindor (Was: good and bad Slytherins)

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 175429

Carol, not attacking Sirius, just stating that his choice to be in
Gryffindor (if it *was* a choice) and his contempt for the equally young
Severus had nothing to do with principle and everything to do with
personality and choice of friends




Sherry:

At age 11, I already had developed principles and I don't doubt that Sirius
could have had a few as well.  I knew that racism, bigotry, and other forms
of discrimination were wrong.  One side of my family made racist comments
when I visited them, but I knew in myself it was wrong and never joined in.
I was devastated by studying the Holocaust in fourth grade, age nine.  This
was in the 60's, and at age 11, I was telling my 13-month younger brother
that if the Vietnam war was still on when he was 18, I'd help him escape to
Canada!  I actually listened to speeches given by Martin Luther King Jr and
Bobby Kennedy!  And my dad was definitely conservative.

Sure, that's all different, than the HP world, but I bring it all up to say
that at age 11, I had already developed a social conscience, one that has
stayed with me all my life.  I don't have any problem believing that Sirius
couldn't have developed the same thing--sorry, no, not a social conscience,
don't blast me on that one gang--but at least he could have been able to
develop some thoughts and beliefs different from his family's and wanted
something different, believed something different than their pure blood
ideology.  

Sherry