Sirius and Snape parallels again

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 185024

> 
> Alla:
> 
> Of course he could but for the boy he loved. When the choice is made
 because of the safety of the loved one, I do not believe it is a real
 choice so to speak IMO.

Pippin:
 Sirius's choice to love and protect Harry is not a real choice? He'd
have been a happier person if he hadn't needed to stay because he
loved Harry, so if Dumbledore really cared about Sirius, he'd have
made him stop loving Harry?

That can't be  what you're trying to say, but logically, if Sirius has
to  make bad choices because he loves Harry, and we want him to make
good choices, we shouldn't want him to love Harry, right?


Alla:
> Snape also chose to come to Dumbledore to ask for Lily's protection, 
> he could have merrily continue on being a DE and I do not think 
> Dumbledore can be blamed one bit for Snape's previous choices. 
> However, man in the memory looks suicidal even to Harry. You think 
> that's how suicidal man should be treated whether he made all those 
> choices or not?

Pippin:
Snape was giving aid and comfort to a band of  murderers, and he
didn't see anything wrong with that as long as the person he cared
about was safe.  Is it wrong to tell  such a person that  decent
people can not even *want* to help him unless he changes his ways, but
if he does change them, they will do what they can?  

IMO, Dumbledore was telling Snape what Lily should have told him when
she slammed the door in his face instead: that she was revolted, but
she'd help if he was willing to change. He was not dealing with Snape
as a professional who is supposed to keep his personal feelings to
himself, but man-to-man.


> Alla:
> 
> I don't know, it feels more like he was trying to make Sirius dead
to  me, or at least to kill his soul whether he intended or not.

<snip> How about letting him doing something, **anything** for  the
Order, anything that requires doing something? Using Invisibility 
Cloak would to me be the first and the most obvious choice.
> 
> If Dumbledore had the little understanding of psychology of the 
> people he leads would have known that inaction is the absolutely 
> worst thing that can be done to Sirius, the worst blow to his psyche. 

Pippin:
How can Dumbledore be such a deft manipulator and have no knowledge of
Sirius's psyche? The problem, IMO, is not that Sirius had nothing
important to do, the problem was that Sirius defined "important" as
"life-threatening".  He didn't feel worthy unless he was braving
dangers, but he was like a compulsive gambler -- every risk he
survived tempted him to take a greater one. 

The cloak would have done him no good because he would have used it
recklessly, deliberately courting danger as he did when he
fought Bella. 

Sirius did not have to stay at GP -- he could have been hidden
elsewhere. My sense is he *chose* to be there, because it was as
close to the action as Dumbledore would allow him to be. 

I am not so sure Sirius was as healthy as he seemed to be in GoF. Many
disturbed people can pull it together for an hour or two. Sirius was
spending most of his time as a dog, begging handouts or hunting rats.
He wasn't trying hold down a job or get along with people day-to-day,
and I'm not so sure he could have.

Pippin
wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating