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

[vivida89]

No: HPFGUIDX 179199


> zgirnius:

> There is of course, a crucial difference. Sirius was in the MoM to 
> rescue children from their would-be murderers; Bella was engaged by 
> Molly in a duel after she attacked Molly's underage daughter. But at 
> the level of personality and style, I think those two characters are 
> similar and it makes sense that they died for the same reason - for 
> not taking their opponents seriously enough. The mistake was in 
> character for both.

Vivida89:

I never thought about it that way before. Now that you mention it, I
see the similarities between them. But do you think Sirius was ever
aware of what he "was"? Do you think he ever got the fact that he was,
in the end, much more like his family than he wanted to be?

It seems to me like the more he wanted to outrun his family, the much
more similar he was to them...


> zgirnius:
> Actually, Harry knows Snape for seven years, compared to two for 
> Sirius. In six of those seven years, he sees Snape on a daily basis, 
> which is only true of Sirius that one summer at the start of OotP. He 
> also has the rather odd but strongly felt friendship with young Snape 
> that he develops in HBP (until he learns who his 'friend' really is.)
> So Harry actually did have a lot to do with Snape. 

Vivida89:

This may be right (well it is) but you have to see the difference in
which way they had to do something with each other. Would you prefer
to name a child for a man who you hated for wrong reasons whole seven
years or rather a man that was your father's best friend and that
tries to help you whenever it works? 

And I think, the friendship you mentioned -- it might have been there
and he surely lost respect for his father. You just have to look at
how upworked he was when he even had to speak to Sirius and Lupin
about that. But his hatred swelled up again when Snape killed DD...
anyway, this hatred was just "stupid" because he didn't know about the
background.

This strikes me as weird again; don't you think that Dumbledore took
far too much risks? It seems that he doesn't care whether Harry hates
Snape or not, whether Harry knows about the real circumstances or not.
For all that Snape did, DD certainly asked a great deal of him. And
what's the gratitude? Correcting Harry to call him not Snape, but
"Professor Snape"; oh wow,...

But in the end it's all the same -- we don't know whether James jr was
called James Sirius and it also doesn't matter. That's the great thing
about books, you can make up your own imagination. 
The way I maybe prefer a funny couple in HP, the way I just believe
that James jr is called James Sirius.

> 
> zgirnius:


> But Sirius got his final farewell in the Forest; I don't think 
> Rowling intended his omission in the Epliogue as a slight, she simply 
> wanted that scene to be the last work on Sirius. (And as you say, it 
> is a very *nice* last word.) Telling us Al's middle name was Severus 
> told us something new in a way telling us James's was Sirius, would 
> not have. We know that Harry loves Sirius with all of his flaws - why 
> else was Sirius in the Forest? On the other hand, a choice to name a 
> son after Snape tells us Harry's view of the man has changed.
>

Vivida89:

I agree with you. Harry's opinion of Snape has indeed changed through
all that he got to know - how could it not have? I think Harry still
had to work it through, had to rethink a hundred times because it wasn
t all that easy for him. 

If you think about it, you just need time to understand WHAT actually
happened, especially when you spent whole seven years believing this
man was a spy for the Dark Lord. 

But I think that Sirius had taught Harry something here -- or maybe
that Harry learned from Sirius' mistakes. Thus would be that you can
forgive people, and ease your hatred and not be guided completely by
it. Sirius always had this issue with imulsive reactions -- he
completely hated one person, so this person had to be treat way xyz. 

Harry doing this with Snape in the epilogue shows us that he's grown
up... something the others, Sirius, James and Lily never had. Which is
quite a pity, because how different would they have become... and
Sirius first of all. I believe that if he had grown up in a very
different surrounding (e.g. not his parent's house) and if he had been
taught values and beliefs, he might have become so very different.

Vivida89