While GoF's chapters about the Muggle torture, Cedric's death, the return of Voldemort, and the Death Eater reunion are all chilling and definitively mark the adult nature of the books, this chapter of PoA is the real marker for me. The twisted mindfuck in CoS comes close - at the end of the book, I felt horrible for Ginny Weasley, who seems to have survived possession with a remarkably clear mind, but that's a different discussion - but really, this whole scene is darker than anything JKR has written.
I think Sirius would have died for Peter (see my comment above), but only while Peter was still loyal and a friend. It would have taken greater peril, maybe, than it would have taken for him to die for James, but he still would have done it if the situation merited it. In other words, if Voldemort had approached Sirius instead of Peter, Sirius would never have turned traitor. Peter may be a very clever wizard (more so than people give him credit for, I think), but ultimately he has little honor in him. I think he might have made a better Slytherin based on what we've seen of him so far - but I also thinkt that the Sorting Hat is never wrong, and that Peter will prove that he's a Gryffindor by some incredible act of bravery and defiance yet. He does owe Harry his life, as Dumbledore points out. Sirius, on the other hand, can be rather blind to his own needs and situation, albeit selfishly at times. Sirius also has no sympathy for Voldemort's cause, and truly believed that the world would be better without him - Peter saw it as inevitable that Voldemort would win, and on some level that acceptance equals an acceptance of Voldemort's prejudices. Power overrules morality for Peter.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-05-24 11:07 pm (UTC)I think Sirius would have died for Peter (see my comment above), but only while Peter was still loyal and a friend. It would have taken greater peril, maybe, than it would have taken for him to die for James, but he still would have done it if the situation merited it. In other words, if Voldemort had approached Sirius instead of Peter, Sirius would never have turned traitor. Peter may be a very clever wizard (more so than people give him credit for, I think), but ultimately he has little honor in him. I think he might have made a better Slytherin based on what we've seen of him so far - but I also thinkt that the Sorting Hat is never wrong, and that Peter will prove that he's a Gryffindor by some incredible act of bravery and defiance yet. He does owe Harry his life, as Dumbledore points out. Sirius, on the other hand, can be rather blind to his own needs and situation, albeit selfishly at times. Sirius also has no sympathy for Voldemort's cause, and truly believed that the world would be better without him - Peter saw it as inevitable that Voldemort would win, and on some level that acceptance equals an acceptance of Voldemort's prejudices. Power overrules morality for Peter.
Remus = Brutus? Hmm. Interesting.