CHAPDISC: 34, The Forest Again.

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 185068

> Alla:
> 
> How do you figure that? I mean I agree his werewolf problems shaped 
> his character too, but you are really arguing that him remembering 
> all too well the times when Order was outnumbered 20:1 does not 
> matter for analysing his behavior?

Pippin:
The war took all of Lupin's friends in a single day. Does anyone want
to argue that this had nothing to do with his subsequent reluctance to
get attached to anyone? Is it any wonder that he feels safer and
happier with the dead?

> 
> Kamion:
> > Sirius is fighting with demons still, but that is with the demons 
> > gained in AZkaban,  from after the war caused by his treatement by
the establisment,  then  caused by the war itself.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> And again how do you figure that? Sirius was on the front lines of 
> the war for three four years before he went to Azkaban.

Pippin:
More than that, Azkaban was not just a prison, it was a place where
the prisoners were made to relive the worst moments of their lives.
How many times did Sirius have to relive discovering that two of his
best friends were dead and another one had betrayed them all? Not to
mention whatever other horrors he witnessed. 


Alla:
I get it, really. However, when she says stuff like that, I cannot
help but say, oh really?

What Shelly said, I mean, any slightest sign in the epilogue that all
those war hurts are still with Harry and his friends? Because I
surely did not see them.

Pippin:
Perhaps you saw what you wanted to see?  How much of Harry's trauma
was visible when we first met him in PS/SS?  We expect a damaged
psyche to show itself in dramatic ways, especially in stories. But 
often it doesn't. 

How much of Sirius's trauma was visible in GoF, or when he took Harry
to King's Cross in OOP? To all appearances he didn't have a care,
frisking around and chasing pigeons, and wagging his tail at everyone.
But that didn't mean he'd  recovered.

Epilogue Harry absent-mindedly touches his scar because he's worried,
just like Snape unconsciously rubbing the dark mark. The scar hasn't
pained him for nineteen years, but  we're shown that Harry's fears are
still with him. Ginny has to reassure him. He has to be reminded that
all is well. 

Good point about Molly, btw. Of course it's usually the pot in the
Potterverse who gets to point out that the  kettle is black. After
all, it takes one to know one. Now that we know Molly is a superb
fighter too, perhaps her bad temper with Sirius is a little more
understandable. It could be she didn't think The Order was making the
best use of her talents either. When she went white to the lips and
agreed that Dumbledore could count on her, she probably didn't suppose
she was volunteering to cook and clean house.

There would be a hot war eventually, and then both she and Sirius
would be needed. It would be foolish to risk them on  missions to
which their talents  were not suited. I suppose Sirius was hoping to
get out and harass some DE's, as he did in the index card story.  But
the DE's in OOP are busy pretending to be law-abiding citizens, and if
the Order harassed them it would be playing right into Fudge's hands.
And if Sirius got caught, he wouldn't get a  sentence in Azkaban like
Sturgis Podmore. He'd have his soul sucked out.

Perhaps JKR, thinking of wizard chess, wondered how the powerful
pieces feel about having to hold their positions and wait for the
endgame, while lesser pieces get to skirmish and probe for the enemy's
weaknesses.

When Mundungus wakes up after the meeting in OOP, ch 5, he says "I
'gree with Sirius..." and raises his hand as though voting. So Sirius
did have a chance to participate in strategy meetings, and everyone
had a vote. 

As far as JKR's interviews, she did not know that people were going to
take her words out of context years after she said them and use them
as ammunition in debates that she does not even know about. An
interviewer wanted to know how JKR planned to keep her good characters
from becoming boring, and she said they weren't boring because
they were flawed. People always ignore that part when they complain
about the "epitome of goodness" interview. If a flawed person cannot
be "a highly representative example" of a good person, then I guess
there are no examples of good people in the world. 

There are not many authors of popular fiction who take the risk of
letting their heroes disappoint us. But in real life it would be
amazing to find a hero who didn't.

Pippin