Sirius Black

"Sirius was a brave, clever, and energetic man, and such men are not usually content to sit at home in hiding while they believe others to be in danger."

- Albus Dumbledore

Family Dynamics
Sirius Black was the last heir of the House of Black, a once-notable pure-blood wizarding family. His parents, Orion and Walburga Black, were both Blacks by birth and second cousins. Sirius had a younger brother, Regulus, who lived 1961–1979.

He is named after his ancestor Sirius Black Sr. "Sirius" is a traditional Black family name, recurring in at least three generations and following a family tradition of naming children after stars, constellations and galaxies. The names Cygnus, Arcturus, and Regulus have also occurred at least twice each. Notably, however, only one Sirius (the subject's great-grandfather) left a line of descent, which ended with the youngest Sirius.

The Black family believed strongly in pure-blood elitism. They refused to consort with Muggles (even Squib family members, such as Sirius’s great uncle Marius were shunned) and insisted that their members only marry within respectable pure-blood classes. They also held the Dark Arts in reverence. Sirius rejected these values, leading to conflict with his family. He even put permanent-sticking charms on Gryffindor banners, as well as pictures of muggle girls and motorcycles on the walls of his room to annoy his parents. When his cousins Bellatrix and Narcissa made desirable pure-blood marriages, to Rodolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy respectively, Sirius held them in contempt. His favourite cousin, Andromeda, was disowned by the family as a “blood traitor” when she married Ted Tonks, a Muggleborn. Sirius would later share this designation.

By the end of his life, Sirius had established other friendships: Harry, whom he loved as a son, Harry’s friends Hermione and Ron, his distant cousins in the Weasley family, and his first cousin once removed, Nymphadora Tonks.

Early life
Sirius's early life proved unhappy; by adolescence he had come to hate most of his relatives, in particular his mother and his cousin Bellatrix. Whereas all other members of the Black family were sorted into Slytherin house, Sirius was placed in Gryffindor, showing that his views had already diverged from those of the rest of the family before he came to school.

By contrast, he greatly enjoyed life at Hogwarts, where he was inseparable from his best friend, James Potter, Harry Potter's father, as well as with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Remus Lupin, they later discovered, was a werewolf. To support Lupin, Sirius, James, and another friend, Peter Pettigrew, secretly (and illegally) became Animagi, which allowed them to safely accompany Remus during his transformations and keep him under control. The four friends roamed Hogwarts' grounds during the full moon. After mastering animagery, Sirius's form took the shape of a huge black dog, from which his nickname “Padfoot” was derived. The four friends called their gang "Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs after their four animagi

Although he later considered himself "an idiot" during this time, he, along with James, was immensely popular: teachers respected his intelligence, though not his behavior; students liked his biting humour (which to a certain extent he shared with James, and later, Harry). He was very popular among girls. Many teachers regarded him and James as troublemakers or practical jokers; Hagrid compared them to the Weasley twins.

His popularity was not universal, however. Early on, a mutual hatred sprang up between James and Severus Snape. Sirius actively supported James, leading to Snape bestowing an equal and life-long loathing upon Sirius. Sirius hated Snape as "this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts."

Sirius and James often went out of their way to bully Snape. While watching one of Snape’s memories in the Pensieve, Harry saw Sirius and James physically bully him only because they were bored. Sirius attempted to justify this by insisting Snape had a mean streak and was not the innocent victim the memory depicted him to be.

Late in his Hogwarts career, the feud between Snape and Sirius reached its climax when Sirius played a potentially lethal practical joke on Snape. He informed Snape how to enter a tunnel under the Whomping Willow that would lead to the Shrieking Shack where, unbeknownst to Snape, Lupin was confined during his transformations. Snape went there during a full moon, and James was forced to rescue him. Sirius excused his own actions, explaining that he had simply told Snape what he wanted to know about the tunnel, whilst omitting crucial information. He simultaneously claimed it "served Snape right". The resentment Snape felt for Sirius was never healed.

At age 16, Sirius finally broke with his family and took refuge with James and his parents. His outraged mother blasted his name off the family tree. Sirius’s Uncle Alphard, Walburga's brother, sympathised with his young nephew and left him a large inheritance, causing Walburga to also blast Alphard's name off. Sirius was left financially independent by his Uncle’s generous bequest.

After leaving school, Sirius fought against Voldemort, eventually joining The Order of the Phoenix. He remained friends with James Potter and attended James' wedding to Lily as Best Man. When their son Harry was born, James and Lily named Sirius godfather, thus designating him as Harry's guardian in the event of their deaths. He also gave Harry his first broom at the age of one as a birthday present, as stated by Lily in a letter.

Imprisonment
After joining The Order of the Phoenix, Sirius found himself roiling with mistrust and stress due to the great terror that was Lord Voldemort. It took its toll – by October 1981, he no longer trusted his old friend Remus Lupin, suspecting he was a spy and excluding him from important information. However, he trusted Peter Pettigrew implicitly, a decision he would grow to regret for the rest of his life.



In 1981, the Potters were aware that Harry, along with the son of Frank and Alice Longbottom (two other Order members) had become Lord Voldemort's specific targets. Albus Dumbledore advised the Potters to go into hiding using the Fidelius Charm, which Dumbledore hoped would conceal them from doom. James and Lily wanted Sirius to be their Secret Keeper, however, believing Voldemort would suspect him, they decided to choose a “weak, talentless thing” - Peter Pettigrew. Sirius and the Potters reassigned Pettigrew to this role. No one else, not even Lupin or Dumbledore, knew this.

On Halloween night 1981, Sirius went to Pettigrew’s hiding place and found him missing. He would later discover that Pettigrew betrayed James and Lily by revealing their secret whereabouts to Voldemort. Sirius frantically sped to James and Lily's home, discovering the house destroyed and his friends dead. Only baby Harry was still alive. Sirius tracked down Pettigrew, determined to kill him in vengeance. However, Pettigrew outwitted Black: Confronted by Sirius on a city street, he created a huge explosion which faked his own death (leaving a severed finger behind as evidence) and killed 12 Muggles in the process. Sirius was arrested by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and was sentenced without trial to Azkaban for the murder of Petigrew, the Potters, the 12 Muggles, and for being in the service of Lord Voldemort. He would spend the next 12 years in solitary confinement at the mercy of the Azkaban guards, the Dementors.

Driven to the brink of madness, he retained his sanity by focusing on his innocence – a thought not cheerful enough to be detected by the Dementors, but which gave him small comfort. However, his brooding over his friends' deaths and Pettigrew's betrayal became an obsession.

Escape from Azkaban
Sirius Black was the first known person to ever escape from the wizard prison of Azkaban.

In 1993, Sirius discovered that Pettigrew was still alive and in hiding in his animagus form as a pet rat named Scabbers. He learned this after seeing him in animagus form, with the Weasleys, in a picture on the front of a newspaper. Filled with the desire for revenge, Sirius transformed into his animagus form. The dementors' inability to perceive unsophisticated canine minds, along with his severe weight loss from malnutrition, allowed him to slip through the cell's bars.

Sirius took refuge around Hogsmeade. Sirius was often mistaken for the Grim, as Harry caught glimpses of him from time to time. He made the aquaintance of Hermione Granger's cat Crookshanks, who had recognised that Sirius wasn't actually a dog, and who had also recognised what Peter was. Half-crazed and desperate, he snuck into Hogwarts and, on one occasion, slashed the Fat Lady's portrait when she refused him entrance to Gryffindor Tower. Later, was able to enter the Gryffindor common room with a list of passwords stolen from Neville Longbottom, and shred Ron Weasley’s bed curtains in his search for Scabbers. Harry, not knowing the truth, believed Sirius had betrayed his parents and was trying to kill him.



Through a series of events and explanations, Harry meets and confronts Sirius, and subsequently prevents him from murdering Pettigrew. Harry believed it would be better to force Pettigrew to face justice, but he escaped even that and fled back to the service of Voldemort.

Sirius was briefly re-captured by the Dementors at Hogwarts, and was sentenced to the Dementor’s Kiss, a fate worse than death; the Kiss will suck out a person's soul, yet still leave them alive as an empty shell of living death. Miraculously, Harry and Hermione helped him escape. Black was once again a wanted man, although alive and with his soul intact.

Events Surrounding the Triwizard Tournament
Sirius fled Europe beyond the Ministry of Magic's jurisdiction. He communicated with Harry by owl very seldomly to retain the secrecy of his location. Harry grew to greatly rely on Sirius' advice in time of need.

When Harry was mysteriously entered in the Triwizard Tournament, Sirius returned to England when Harry gave him notice that his scar had been hurting. This came to be known as a signal of Lord Voldemort’s presence or power. Sirius hid out near Hogsmeade and provided mostly moral support to Harry during this time.

The Second Order of the Phoenix
"I ran away from home...I'd had enough...[Why did I] leave?...Because I hated the whole lot of them...I don't like being back here...I never thought I'd be stuck in this house again."

With Lord Voldemort restored to his physical form, Dumbledore reactivated the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius donated his ancient family home at of 12, Grimmauld Place in London as Order Headquarters. Unfortunately because he was still wanted by the authorities, Sirius could never safely leave the house and became quite bitter over his perceived "uselessness." When he briefly left the house to see Harry to the Hogwarts Express, Draco Malfoy nastily complemented Harry on his "pet dog," which suggested Sirius' cover was blown.

Harry and Sirius stayed in touch during Harry's school year via owls and the Floo Network, though Sirius' presence was nearly discovered by Dolores Umbridge during her dictatorial managing of Hogwarts that year.

Sirius acted as a father and older brother figure to Harry throughout the his hardships with Umbridge, encouraging him to oppose her reforms and strongly approving of Harry's secret Defensive tutorial group for students, Dumbledore's Army. He also willingly answered all Harry's questions about the Order and Voldemort, though most of Harry's mentors felt it was inappropriate.

Department of Mysteries Battle and Death
Voldemort used the power of Legilimency to implant a false vision into Harry's mind that Sirius was captive at the Department of Mysteries. Harry was thus convinced that Sirius is being tortured, and, along with Ron, Hermione and three other students (Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood), he few to London via Thestral. The students made their way through the deserted Ministry of Magic and gained access to the Department of Mysteries, only to be ambushed by Death Eaters.



Ironically, it was Severus Snape who ultimately saved their lives. Tragically, however, during a frenzied duel with his hated cousin Bellatrix, Sirius was struck with a curse which sent him into a mysterious veiled archway. He was killed. It would be years before Harry could fully come to terms with the loss of his godfather. Sirius made his final appearance to Harry in a ghost-like figure during Harry's brave march to face Lord Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts. Sirius supported Harry's walk into anticipated death, assuring him that dying is "quicker and easier than falling asleep." He also promises Harry that he would remain a part of him.

Post Mortem
Following the presentation of evidence as to the guilt of Peter Pettigrew for the murder of James and Lily Potter, Sirius was posthumously exonerated.

Sirius is not known to have had any children. As Phineas Nigellus, Sirius's dead relative in portrait form, stated, the ancient Black family ended with Sirius's death. Had Regulus lived, he would have been the heir; however, he predeceased Sirius. By right of primogeniture, then, his heir was either Bellatrix Lestrange (his eldest cousin, but legally invalidated by her murder of Sirius), Andromeda Tonks (his second-eldest cousin), or Draco Malfoy, the next senior male of the Black family through his mother, Narcissa Malfoy (née Black); however, their rights were superseded by Sirius’s will, which designated Harry as heir to all his worldly possessions. Thus, by the will, Harry inherited 12 Grimmauld Place, the hippogriff Buckbeak, the house elf Kreacher, and the remaining Black fortune. Having no great love for 12 Grimmauld Place, the house that held so many painful memories for Sirius, Harry chose to give it to the Order of the Phoenix for their continued use as Headquarters.

Kreacher, forced to serve Harry by Sirius's will, was sent to work as a Hogwarts House-elf in the school kitchens (an imposition which did nothing to improve Kreacher's hatred of Harry). Buckbeak passed back into Rubeus Hagrid's care under the assumed name Witherwings.

Sirius had given Hagrid an enchanted, flying motorbike 16 years prior at Godric's Hollow, after Sirius discovered the Potters had been killed. After begging Hagrid to give him baby Harry - a request Hagrid refused because he had orders to take young Harry to Little Whinging - Sirius gave Hagrid the bike before setting off to hunt down Peter Pettigrew. The bike was in Hagrid's posession until it was needed to bring Harry from Number 4, Privet Drive to Order Headquarters on Harry's 17th birthday. During the transport, Hagrid and Harry were ambushed by Death Eaters. The bike crashed during the chase. Arthur Weasley collected the debris and later repaired the bike.

Etymology
"Sirius Black" is a pun on his animagus form of a black dog, as the star Sirius is of the Dog constellation. Black hounds also appear on the Black family crest. Additionally, the "black dog" is a metaphor used by Wiston Churchill for the symptoms suffered under depression. Sirius certainly suffered from depression much of his life.

Trivia

 * The names Sirius and Regulus are also names of two main characters in the videogame Bomberman 64.
 * In the film version of the Department of Mysteries battle, Sirius mistakenly refers to Harry as James, a slip of the tongue that does not occur in the book.
 * Also, in the film version of the Department of Mysteries battle, Sirius is hit with an Avada Kedavra curse by Bellatrix Lestrange and survives six seconds before falling into the veil. However, in the book, he was killed while getting blasted through the veil.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Sirius Black