Sirius as Gryffindor (Was: good and bad Slytherins)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 175436

Carol:
> I see no evidence that Sirius at age eleven was at odds with his
> family, whose values he would have been raised with--and he was 
> almost certainly educated at home. He has the same arrogant air as
> the rest of the family, and he never loses it. On the Hogwarts 
> Express, he doesn't seem to have any preference as to Houses
> (except that he'd like to be in the same House as James). The 
> decoration of his room and the adolescent rebellion comes *later.*
> He certainly did not have Gryffindor banners or posters of bikini-
> clad Muggle girls or a photo of the Marauders on his walls when he 
> left for Hogwarts!

Jen: Except JKR doesn't write her characters as springing fully-
formed with motives at 11 when she's taken time to develop a 
childhood story for them.  (And Sirius doesn't say he wants to be in 
the same house as James.) Sure the posters and pictures came later 
but again, to say his rebelliousness came out of a vacuum isn't 
consistent with how JKR creates her characters.  

I offered my own interpretation here, in case you're wondering what 
my canon is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/175250


Carol: 
> Sirius sees two boys, one clean and well-cared for and confident,
> primed to be in a House he (James) associates with courage, the
> other greasy-haired and sallow-complexioned, wanting to be in
> Slytherin, which he associates with brains. Perhaps Sirius, whose
> parents are Dark wizards who keep jars of blood and poisons and 
> serpent-shaped artifacts lying around, has a slightly better idea 
> than Severus what Slytherin can teach, but I see no evidence that
> he has rejected it, only surprise that James doesn't think 
> it's "all right." And then he says jauntily that *maybe* he'll 
> break tradition. Had he not met James, the only thing that might 
> have put him in Gryffindor (to this own surprise) would be that 
> reckless streak which matches so well with James's mischievousness.


Jen: We have no idea what's going on for Sirius in his own mind, 
beyond the words he says, and you're attributing tone and feeling not 
written in this blip of memory - 'surprise,' 'jauntiness'?  Few of 
the kids, even Ron with older siblings, seem to know how the sorting 
takes place or how the hat decides.  When Sirius says, 'maybe I'll 
break the tradition,' he's only expressing what sounds to me like a 
hope about not being sorted into Slytherin, nothing about which house 
he's considered or if he's even considered one or if he even believes 
he *will* have a choice in the end.  It's hard to imagine Sirius 
asking one of his family members if there's any chance he might not 
be sorted into Slytherin even if it was on his mind. 

As much as I'd like to read more into that scene and have more 
information on Sirius, the only thing I pick up on there is that the 
rift between Sirius/James and Snape started on day one in that train 
compartment, when James/Sirius act as they later will, like a couple 
of arrogant toerags, and Snape is sneering at James's choice of house 
(and maybe looking down on his intelligence, which I personally 
wouldn't blame him for doing if he is <g>).

Jen