Sirius and those bikini posters

[sunnyskywalker]

For a long time, I saw Sirius’s posters of Muggle women in bathing suits as a typical teen thing, with irritating his parents by sticking the posters on permanently (permanently for wizards with no imagination, anyway) as a bonus. But I wasn’t giving him enough credit. The girlie posters are direct threat the to entire value system and prestige of

Comments

[chantaldormand]

My interpretation of the bikini posters were always one part of middle finger to his family (which considering your interpretation gets even more vulgar) and one part Sirius being in closet. Because he might be rebellious and reckless, but he also craves positive attention from his peers.
And from what we see in HP verse there are no positive examples of LGBT characters for Sirius to look up to.

[sunnyskywalker]

Oh yes, that could definitely be a factor. We never see him interested in actual girls--in fact he's specifically noted as uninterested in that one memory. And you're right that we don't see anything to suggest he'd have role models. Given the pressure kids in families fanatical about their blood status probably face to marry and have lots of pureblood babies, there could be a culture of, "Well, do whomever you want on the side, discreetly, but it doesn't count and you can't have a public, legally-acknowledged primary relationship with anyone who isn't on this list of acceptable spouses we have selected for you

[chantaldormand]

I also think some of Teenage!Sirius behaviour towards Severus partially comes from him projecting his situation onto poor Severus. Teenage Snape wasn't described as particularly masculine, so him hanging out with pureblood Slytherins probably conjured very unsavoury images in Sirius head.
I imagine it contributed to Sirius' decision to act like he was batshit insane and try to feed Snape to Remus. Endangering his supposed friend in such way sounds too personal for simple dislike and wanting to get society rid of another dark wizard :/

I have no doubts that pureblood part of WW society works this way. They are way too stuck in the past to work this way. Unless wizards have way to create... let's call it "caldron babies". Then either elites turn up their noses as it being unnatural (and probably grumbling about stolen magic) or... purebloods keep birth rates low on purpose.
Which would be neither unusual nor that surprising. Less children means each of your kids keeps more of their inherence. Money and potentially inheritable

[sunnyskywalker]

Sirius is devoted to James in much the way Sev is to Lily, I think. Which, yes, says very bad things about life in Grimmauld Place. Possibly another reason Sirius can't stand Severus--he wants very much to think that he isn't desperately clinging to his first-ever friend and basing his identity around pleasing that person. No, he's totally cool and valued. Which he will prove by trying to smash his ugly reflection to bits.

Another motive behind the prank might have been pleasing James, who came out of that incident looking like a hero to Dumbledore and Lily, which eventually got him picked for Head Boy and convinced Lily to date him. It all worked out so that Moony could run joyously free and James got everything he wanted? What a lucky coincidence! But Sirius is a true friend and brave enough to take the risks no one else will, see? This proves it! He's the best friend

[with_rainfall]

Yeah, that’s a very good point. And if Sirius had access to Muggle girlie pictures, was he somehow watching music videos on the sly? A bit hard in the 80s, I grant you, without access to a TV. But maybe he had Muggleborn friends who’d let him watch MTV over the holidays or something?

For all the hoohah about electronics not working in the magical world, there’s plenty of opportunities for an older Sirius to sneak out to Muggle London during the school year and catch a few concerts, for example.

Or maybe he was going to whatever the wizarding equivalent of rock concerts was. Thinking about the wizarding population vs its economy makes my head hurt. But if there’s wizarding radio, surely there must be at least one band who’s nicked a lot of ideas from Muggles and started their own. Or maybe a group of wizards who divide their time between the Muggle & wizarding worlds.

Maybe the Hobgoblins? Doesn’t sound like a terribly appealing singer/band, but who knows.

[sunnyskywalker]

Sad question, but did he have more than three friends? Hm, James might have been friendly with some of the other kids on the Quidditch team. Maybe one of them had Muggle relatives and invited school friends and friends-of-friends over on the holidays to show off the exotic Muggle world. Though I can't see subjecting a Muggle family to a roomful of wizarding pranksters being an experience anyone would want to repeat. Maybe he just paid someone to buy the posters for him.

Concerts sound like a definite possibility. At the very least, pubs with a live band for the evening.

If Sirius went to a Hobgoblins concert and he and James talked their way backstage, Doris Purkiss could have seen them together and got mixed up about who was who, if they looked somewhat alike. (Hey, no one ever proved Sirius wasn't having dinner with Doris that Halloween and playing along with the idea that he was Stubby. He must have been so bored--no party, not even a visit to James in the cards! So if his weirdo neighbor invited him over, why not

[with_rainfall]

Hard to know whether Rowling meant us to believe the Marauders were popular (whatever that even means at Hogwarts) or whether everyone just found them obnoxious. I suspect the latter. I also don’t know that he would’ve had many Muggle friends, which lends support to your ‘Sirius clinging on to James’ theory

[sunnyskywalker]

I could see the people they weren't targeting being happy to go along with laughing at unpopular people getting hexed and partying in the Gryffindor common room when the Marauders brought back candy and alcohol from one of their excursions. But actual friendship, like deliberately hanging out when you aren't stuck in the same building all day, every day? Maybe not. (It can't have helped their social lives that the Marauders joined the Order and were probably encouraged not to spend too much time with anyone who might be Imperiused or a willing Voldemort follower--i.e., everyone

[jana_ch]

The Marauders were in school in the Seventies, not the Eighties, so no MTV.

[with_rainfall]

Ah - thank you, of course. I don’t know why I had the 80s in my head.