Sirius Black's role in DH -- why? SPOILERS

Carol justcarol67 at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 18 00:41:26 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 179167

Marianne wrote:

> <snip>
I wondered why Remus and Sirius 
> were suddenly portrayed as much younger than they were at the time 
> of their deaths. I could understand if they appeared as healthy men 
> in their late 30s, as they would have had Sirius not suffered the 
> ravages of Azkaban and Remus not suffered from the strains of being 
> a werewolf, but it seemed to me that JKR was regressing (maybe 
> that's not quite the right word) them back to the times that they 
> were happiest, which would have been before everything went so 
> drastically wrong. Or maybe she just wanted them to look similar in 
> age to James and Lily.  Whatever, it just struck me as strange. <snip>
> 
Carol responds:

Neither of them was all that old when he died. Black was about 36;
Lupin (like snape) was 38. I thought they looked younger in the
afterlife than Harry had ever seen them simply because the causes of
their suffering had fallen away: Black was no longer suffering the
ravages of Azkaban (or even the depression he suffered from living
uselessly in his mother's house); Lupin would no longer be turning
into a werewolf every month. Essentially, they look as they would have
looked had one not been a prisoner for twelve years and the other not
bitten by a werewolf. (We notice that Dumbledore looks as he did
before his hand was destroyed by the cursed Ring Horcrux. I imagine
when George Weasley enters the afterlife, he'll have his ear back.)

Alternatively, they may be as young as you imagine them (the same age
as Lily and James at death). If so, maybe a dead person can choose to
appear a certain age in the afterlife. Either way, they've left behind
the burdens that plagued them in RL. I'm surprised that James and DD
still wore glasses when Harry (who could have chosen to join them) no
longer needed his. (I think his missing glasses symbolized cleansed
perception, though, and maybe that was inapplicable in the case of the
other two.)

Carol, doubting that Mad-eye Moody, who lost his magical eye soon
after he lost his life, is limping around behind the Veil on a
claw-footed wooden leg and wearing an eye patch (unless he has chosen
to do so)





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