22) Your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores
Sirius’s comment to Harry that one of the things he admired about Moody was his refusal to use lethal force unless it was absolutely necessary, and how it sits in striking contrast to Remus telling Harry that the time for disarming has passed, in war you need to be prepared to go for the kill.
The two reactions reveal how differently Sirius and Remus experienced the First Wizarding War, how their positions in the wizarding social hierarchy (pureblood vs. werewolf) shaped the roles they played for the Order, and how those experiences may have contributed to the fracture in their trust.
So I absolutely agree that everyone seems to ignore Sirius's comment to Harry about how he admires Moody for refusing to use lethal force unless it was absolutely necessary (and I love you for bringing it up). It's something I pull out frequently to discuss the fact that a lot of people think Sirius would be okay with using dark magic because of his family, but I am not so sure. Personally, I believe that the reason why he's attracted (no, I don't mean romantically, not this time XD) to James is because of his absolute disdain for dark magic. In canon, we see Sirius both highlight James and Moody as people who take a distance from dark magic (to the extent possible).
Like you, I've always been struck by how Remus has a different take and calls Harry out for not using lethal force in Deathly Hallows. love the idea of examining this through the wizarding social hierarchy and their different experience of the First Wizarding War, and it isn't something I've given enough thought to. However, I have given thought to why Sirius and Remus have different views, separately from your points.
I think, in addition to what you highlighted, one of the reasons why Sirius has such admiration for Moody and James and their stand on lethal force and dark magic comes from the fact that he grew up in a world where he was forced to reckon quite early with the fact that:
“(...)the world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters,” said Sirius with a wry smile.
I don't think it's by chance that we learn this from Sirius. He will have been surrounded by people who were attracted to dark magic but did not believe in what Voldemort fought for; people who believed in what Voldemort fought for, but thought he went too far; people who believed in Voldemort, but did not want to join out of fear; and people who would join Voldemort either because they believed in him or because they were scared of what he would do if they didn't join.
Some of these people would, on the side, possess good qualities that I'm sure Sirius will have witnessed, whether that is caring for a relative or some other show of what we would consider goodness. Furthermore, these people would believe that they were right, that they had the truth on their side. He would have been forced to listen to people talk about muggles and muggle-borns with disdain, but also with the conviction that they were doing something good in getting rid of them. All of this would necessarily strip him of the belief that humans are good judges of whether they themselves are on the right side of history.
That is quite frightening as a realisation, especially at a young age! So he has to invent guardrails that keep him from crossing over to that side — that stop him from becoming like them. Don't use dog magic. Don't kill unless you have to. Don't become the person you're fighting. People like Barty Crouch Sr, who ends up becoming just as ruthless as the Death Eaters and uses the same dark magic as the Death Eaters, would be exactly the sort of person Sirius would hold in disregard (and possibly fear becoming).
I think this feeds into why Sirius isn't actually able to kill Peter, as much as he intends to do. He sets out to kill him in '81 and again in '93/'94, but I think he's thwarted more by split-second hesitancies than Peter getting one over on him or Harry stopping him alone.
When Sirius says he will be a murderer if Kreacher keeps up his mutterings in OotP, it suggests, to me, that Sirius hasn't actually killed anybody, and that he very much is a lot of bark with very little bite.
I am so glad I found your blog! On your last ask I saw that you linked your ao3 account and imagine my surprise when I found out you're my favorite Prongsfoot writer!
I just think you're amazingly talented. Your most recent Prongsfoot fic is my favorite Prongsfoot fic of all time!
And imagine how much I squealed when I found out you were planning to upload more fanfic! Thank you so much! I am so so excited for anything you post!
Have a good day!
ah thank you so much <3
i'm so sorry that this is from ages ago, i'm catching up on asks but this still means so so much when i feel like there's a very high standard of j/s fic
hi!!! i absolutely love all your prongsfoot analysis and prongsfoot is like. my number one dynamic in all of media for all of time ever! but recently i was rereading the shrieking shack scene in prisoner of azkaban and i was trying really really very hard to ignore the ridiculous w*lfstar noises in my brain (unfortunately you have to filter a LOT of w*lfstar content to even GET to prongsfoot content) but i kept getting pestered by thoughts about why it was described 'remus and sirius were standing shoulder to shoulder' and their hug and remus calling him an old friend and ughhh i just wanted to know your thoughts? bc i really dont know why sirius would hug remus after he let him rot in azkaban for 12 years? do you just think that was ooc writing? bc sirius. DOES seem kind of ooc in that scene? when snape was threatening him why does he 'croak' out a defence 'youve got to believe me just look at the rat' that seems .. SOOOO ooc for sirius? (was he simply just terrified to go back to azkaban?) when has he ever 'croaked' out in fear from snape? idk it was just really depressing bc it seems the writer (no surprises there) doesnt even understand sirius :( (but if canon sirius isnt really sirius and neither is fanon where do we go???). it was just disillusioning i guess bc ive always thought of canon sirius as really so much better than fanon sirius (who isnt even sirius to me) and i went back to poa specifically FOR canon sirius and was just a little :(((( about the fact sirius seems to forgive remus so readily? (trying desperately to ignore the w*lfstar indoctrination) id always remembered canon sirius as like someone who could properly hold a GRUDGE. anyway really ive just come back to my roots (your blog) hoping maybe you could provide some much needed insight/perspective on the whole thing and defend a prongsfoot reading of that scene? the only explanation i could come up with for remus and sirius' closeness in that scene (holding back a retch as i type that) that followed a prongsfoot trajectory was that remus when confronted with the fact peter killed james immediately was flooded with thoughts of james becoming an animagus for him being the only person to truly be a friend to him etc so it was out of some sense of? loyalty? he teamed up with sirius? and sirius overlooked everything remus did to him (leaving him in azkaban for TWELVE YEARS!!!!) because james was more important and teaming up with remus to kill peter was much more important than some petty grudge? anyway would really love your thoughts if you have the time!!! (no pressure to reply by the way i know this ask is ridiculously long!!)
Hello, thank you so much, I completely relate and thank you for this ask because it brings up so many interesting things.
Firstly, Sirius in the Shrieking Shack and actually Sirius as he appears on every page of the series is Sirius. I don't think that Sirius can be out of character in canon in the same way that fanon Sirius is ooc, because Sirius' character in canon is Sirius' character. But that doesn't mean that Sirius always acts consistently or according to logic or other characters'/the readers' ideal pattern of behaviour because even as a fictional character, he can't be expected to act perfectly, rationally, logically in every situation. That would be ooc for Sirius and it also wouldn't be interesting.
That said, I think that a lot of the situations that we see Sirius in in canon are exceptional circumstances that can't be applied to his everyday behaviour. The Shrieking Shack scene is probably the most significant example in my opinion, because at least in Grimmauld Place we get flashes of a more contented Sirius. Sirius in the shack has probably not interacted with any other humans for 13 years at this point. He's never been out in the world without James. He hasn't seen Harry since he was a child. After thinking that he's the only living person who will ever know that he didn't betray his best friend and family, he has a chance to prove it but more significantly to Sirius: get revenge. So Sirius at this point in the book is desperate, hasn't spent much time as a human, is able to express emotions without fear of them being exploited and losing his sanity, so all of his emotions are big, unregulated, interacting with each other, inconsistent, unfiltered etc.
Similarly, Remus has led an incredibly lonely life for 12 years. Not as bleak as Sirius, but isolated after getting used to the company and support of friends he valued incredibly highly. Even after getting what we can gather is his most secure job in all of that time, probably in his life, he's still spending that year hiding his condition and being taunted for it by Snape while beholden to Snape for the Wolfsbane potion. I think the overwhelming feeling for both Sirius and Remus that creates this really warm response to each other is relief AND possibility of something beyond the bleakness that they've known and had somewhat accepted individually, of justice even.
Relief that their bleak sad lives aren't as bleak and sad as it seemed they would be for the rest of their lives. For Remus, that his entire sense of friendship wasn't shattered by Sirius betraying James but that there is now someone to share in the loss of James and in anger at Peter. For Sirius, that someone knows that he didn't betray James. I think that a lot of this emotion is very in the moment and that underlying it is a sad sense of Sirius and Remus not quite trusting or understanding each other at a time when the group's friendship was supposedly at its strongest, but it's what they have.
As a reader it's much easier to see a broad scope and pick holes than a character who is embedded in a situation might and it's important to separate a character from ourselves as a reader. While it's easy for us to look at Remus and go "How could you ever think that Sirius would betray James?", for Sirius, at this point in the narrative, it's not a pressing issue among avenging James' death and trying to prove his innocence but also express his guilt to his godson. Remus believing him to be the traitor is easy for Sirius to write off at this moment in time because Sirius also suspected Remus when Remus was innocent and it's about picking your battles and chalking things off. I'll happily read about Sirius in OotP having had time to process things and be like, "Actually, how could Remus think that?" but again, a lot of Sirius and Remus' friendship as we see it in the books is about letting things go that they might not have when they were younger because their other friends are dead and a Death Eater. I talked a bit about Sirius & Remus' friendship and convenience here. Basically I think they both let a lot go that might be jarring about each other because 1. there's a war on and 2. a mildly mismatched friend is better than the isolation that both of them have gone through since James died. Again, I don't see this ever going further than a convenient and comfortable friendship but I think it would be obtuse to say that there is no friendship there. I just think it gets wildly overegged to be seen as a romantic relationship but that doesn't mean that their interactions don't exist, or somehow solidify Wolfstar, it's just that they're being read extremely and imo with a lack of good evidence. Remus and Sirius interacting =/= Wolfstar but unfortunately fandom does struggle with that nuance, or just decides to ignore it.
So in a lot of ways I agree with and I see the tragedy in the way that Sirius and Remus' lives intersect. But similarities and displays of emotion don't equal romance. Even this really strong reaction from the two of them I think is heightened by the situation at hand. We never again in the series see them hug, call each other 'old friend' etc. This is a one-off reunion scene that is fuelled by relief and adrenaline and yeah, like a thirst for violence which I think shows just how much James meant to them individually. Similarly Sirius' voice croaking isn't so much because of who he's speaking to (Remus) but who he's speaking about (James), imo.
As for the rest of Sirius' behaviour, I think it's because he's aware of Harry. There are moments where he's very much not tempering his behaviour because of Harry, but I don't think that's something that Sirius really does anyway. It's something that others encourage him to do but I don't think it's something that Sirius sees as necessary in his relationship with Harry.
It's definitely an instinct to want to reject any suggestion of good feeling between Sirius and Remus, because the absolute slightest scrap is taken as an admission of love and devotion. Sirius and Remus are friends and they like each other, those are facts, but I don't think that there's any real suggestion of closeness. They are united in the shack scene over love and wanting vengeance for James, they're united in the post-SWM scene for love and affection and defence of James (but even here, Remus' perception of James is much more idealised whereas Sirius' closeness to James and his understanding of James' tendency to be a bit arrogant and a bit of a dick is part of what Sirius loved about him).
This is just my interpretation of the scene, but I feel like the circumstances of the characters involved are so often overlooked and the context of loneliness, desperation and new information are incredibly relevant to the way that Sirius and Remus act here. It's not the norm, this is one of the pivotal moments in both of their lives.
Also, in this scene the author is trying to elongate the reveal and to heighten Harry (+ Ron + Hermione)'s shock that their teacher is in league with an escaped murderer, but standing next to each other doesn't mean romantic feeling, it doesn't mean anything except that they're standing next to each other. The 'shoulder to shoulder' part I would say is more to show that they're united against Peter rather than, again, romantic closeness - which doesn't make sense within the context of this scene or in fact any interaction we see between Sirius and Remus in the entire series.
omg i just saw your post about writing fic!!!! im really excited!!!! i love love love your prongsfoot writing!!!! if youre comfortable sharing, which fic are you working on right now? :)
thank you that's so nice of you :)
to be honest i've haven't been in a fandom headspace for the past like year, so i haven't worked on anything in that long or longer. sometimes the interest comes back, i have a new year fic i do want to finish, like it's 500 words off or something, but it's been that way for at least two years so who really knows.
but thank you it still means a lot that you've enjoyed my writing <3
the thing is right, i find it soooo hard writing sirius as interested in anyone but james because i think even in a world where james and sirius don't gave anything romantic going on, james is his standard for closeness and intimacy. i think a big difference between sirius and james is that james clearly does seek the ideal romantic model for a relationship where i think sirius just doesn't prioritise it, i think sirius would never be in a romantic relationship that didn't just happen naturally. i just can't see him ever seeking it and i don't think he'd ever settle or compromise for it (which is why wolfstar has always been a non-starter for me i guess)
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ANSWERING MY ASK ABOUT YOUR FICS!! omg im literally sooo excited to read everything you're going to post! i read screw loose recently. then i had to go back and re-read it. and then i think about it all the time. in my mind you got the james and sirius characterisation like. Perfectly. there are lines in that fic that i think about all the time and which have shifted MY perception about their characterisation i love that one scene where james and sirius just start ignoring a guy that was trying to chat up james and sirius says james could be both the sweetest and meanest person he knew THAT IS SOOOOO GOOD I LOVE THAT JAMES CHARACTERISATION OKAY!! i also love sirius being a MASSIVE ASSHOLE and telling that guy james slept with he had a girlfriend HSDKJFHAKJ and the subtle powerplay of him leaving the plate on the ground when that guy washes his plate off. also i just love the sirius characterisation in it bc hes sooo annoyed at that poor guy even though he hasnt done anything him saying he slathered his omelette in sauce like an idiot EVEN THOUGH THATS LITERALLY NORMAL IS SOOO PERFECT i just like. CANNOT WAIT for more of your stuff. like its really really hard to find well characterised mwpp era fics ESPECIALLY prongsfoot and theyre my otp so i really appreciate all the work you put in!! literally im like. so excited about your upcoming work sorry i already said that but yeah ksdhfkj ALSO ALSO I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION i read your regulus/lily fic about them being in hiding during the war and omg?? again the characterisation is PERFECT!! okay sorry for ranting but yes!!!!! thank you!!!!
thank you so much for this detailed message! <3
i actually find sirius somewhat hard to write so i'm glad he rang true. i think part of it is leaning into his abruptness and his quieter side so that i can contrast that more public side of him with the comfort around james. like the plate, i was trying to go for sirius' assurance in his friendship with james but the anxiety (for both of them) lying in the uncertainty of something beyond friendship, it's that small gap that works as the biggest chasm between them.
and thank you! living in the red was so hard to write, with regulily i kind of feel like it's a hard sell because of their ideological differences in canon but i think that's where the possibility and creativity lies. also they just go so well with j/s so i can always write j/s in the background which is fun in itself. the christmas scene in that is one of my fave j/s things i've written i think.
also sorry im here again i just wanted to say that screw loose is one of my top 5 favourite prongsfoot fics! i just literally love the idea of mechanic!sirius its like. THE job i see for him and i also just loveee your descriptions of james' driving like him driving so bad bc at heart hes a spoilt rich boy is like <333 !!! OKAY SORRY FOR RANTING I JUST REALLY LOVE YOUR WRITING!!
hello sorry i'm almost a year late in responding to this but thank you soooooo much that's crazy!
mechanic sirius only came to me for screw loose, if you can believe that, because it just makes so much sense. just tinkering around but with precision and knowledge, hands and mind equally satisfied, etc etc. boy racer james is also incredibly important to me, he's a show off idiot and sirius is like "stop you're going to kill us" and james is like "yeah but you liked how my hair bounced when we came round that corner, right?"
hey!! my friend recommended your blog to me and i just wanted to say i think it’s so cool how you advocate for people to not completely demolish one character (like james vs snape) because i really think it’s cool to exist with liking them both and each of their flaws and it’s really difficult to find that in this fandom nowadays!! we should be friends i really love your blog🥰🩷
thank you to you and your friend! sorry this is months late (: but nuance is what it's all about!!! give me the grey area anyday, real life is never as black and white as fandom can make out
also james AND snape are deliberately written as grey characters, harry goes through lowkey parallel moments of realisation with them both, so reading them as black and white isn't so much just a boring, limited take but literally a wrong one lmao
hey!!!! i was re-reading some of your fics since youre one of my favourite prongsfoot writers EVER and i was suddenly reminded of when you mentioned you were working on a couple of fics! in particular i was intrigued by your cabin fic where lily's dream house is kind of interrupted by prongsfoot happening and your hogs head fic where a 36 year old sirius meets a 21 year old james!!!! i just wanted to tell you i absolutely ADORE your writing and look forward to anything youre going to post!!!!! your take on prongsfoot is just!!! AGH!!! AMAZING!!
ah thank you so much for sending this! that's so nice of you to say, and amazing that you've reread some of my fics. <33
i haven't spent much time writing at aaaall this year because i was finishing studying and then i've just had various life things that took up a lot of time and mental space since then (not bad, just busy) but hog's head fic is at the top of the list and i've been thinking about it a lot lately. last time i read through it i don't think it's actually that far off, it will need a few more scenes and some editing but nothing very complex? lily godric's hollow fic is also one i like thinking about but haven't got into gear with yet, like at all, and that one i think is a bit more complex in the way i'd like to write it and requires a bit more attention to canon and logistics which are on my weaker side of writing. i'm hoping to finally finish a new year's eve fic as well that i started in 2022, which really doesn't need that much work at all, so that's likely to be the next thing i post (she says)
i finally cleaned my desk and found the usb drive with all my fic on though so i can feasibly and actively work on it now
but thank you so so so so so much, this means a lot especially when i've been so mia <3
i saw you and your male friend across the bar and noticed you're extremely weird about each other in various platonic and/or romantic ways Mind if i obsereve
media literacy would automatically go up 100% if people knew how to consume stories without self-inserting themselves into the characters' shoes. "if i were him..." you're NOT. you may relate to his story, his past, his traits, his quirks, his identity but the moment you start treating the story accepting what you feel/think as what the character feels/thinks, you're misunderstanding the story.
#the point of 'walking in a characters shoes' is to get a NEW point of view you were unfamiliar with #not to shoehorn the blorbo into your worldview as if they were YOU (x)
