For anyone interested we just recently released our very first piece of Harry Potter Theory
merchandise. It features an adaptation of our favourite ps1 gameskeeper and links to
the merch can be found just below the video.
Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, I’m going to
be discussing the mirror of erised, sirius black, and the betrayal of the Potters. More
specifically-I’m going to be discussing what alleged ‘notorious mass-murderer’
Sirius Black would see in the mirror.
We know Sirius Black primarily as Harry’s godfather, and one of the Marauders- a childhood
group comprised of Black, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, and James Potter.
Sirius started at Hogwarts in the year 1971- and met the boys that would form the ‘marauders’
in that same year. They were a group of Gryffindors hellbent on breaking the rules at the school,
and were notorious for their mischief making. However, despite getting up to all kinds of
trouble, they were all very magically talented. After graduating from the school, the four
boys even went on to join the Order of the Phoenix in an effort to oppose the regime
of Lord Voldemort.
Sirius hailed from the powerful wizarding family, The Blacks- and while many of his
family members placed an unreasonable amount of value on blood purity, Sirius did not share
this same belief. He was an easy going guy compared to them, and managed to avoid going
down a dark path - even if he was blamed for being evil anyway. Sirius was notoriously
known for his imprisonment in Azkaban prison- and spent a considerable amount of time there
for crimes that he actually didn’t commit.
In 1981, Peter Pettigrew backstabbed the Potters by revealing their location to Lord Voldemort.
He was their chosen ‘secret keeper’ and he betrayed everyone when he decided to relay
that information to Lord Voldemort. However, that wasn’t all he did that day- he also
framed his childhood friend Sirius Black for a heinous crime. You see, after betraying
the Potters, Sirius and Pettigrew had an altercation- an altercation in which Pettigrew murdered
12 muggles using a dark and powerful blasting curse- simultaneously destroying hundreds
of feet of sewer system and leaving a 40 foot crater in the ground. Someway, somehow, Sirius
Black was blamed, and was promptly sent to Azkaban. After being banished to Azkaban,
seemingly the whole world turned on Sirius, even the ghost-portrait of the fat lady, and
he was left there to rot for an astonishing 12 years. He was eventually able to escape
the island fortress by turning in to his animagus form, a black dog, and squeezing through the
bars. At this point in time he was able to re-establish a relationship with Harry, but
still tragically lost many years of his life to prison.
Sirius was a good man with good morals- and the fact that he was able to deviate from
the path that members of his family traditionally took speaks to that. He was a balanced, self-aware
man that even once made the wise statement:
“We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to
act on. That's who we really are."
So what, you may ask now, would the man who suffered tragedy after tragedy see in the
mirror of erised? Let’s dive in.
A brief recap on the mirror of erised: It’s a magical mirror that shows us the ‘deepest,
most desperate desires’ of our hearts. This is reflected in the mirror’s name, no pun
intended, as ‘Erised’ flipped around reads as ‘desire’.The mirror itself was made
sometime before the end of the nineteenth century, and is located in the room of requirement
in Hogwarts.
So what is Sirius’s greatest, deepest desire? What would he see?
I think that if Sirius were to look in to the mirror of Erised, he would see himself
with the Potters, the same night that he advised them to make Peter Pettigrew secret keeper.
Except, instead of recommending Pettigrew for the job, he would have been secret keeper
himself. James, Lily and Harry would all still be a family- safe and secure.
"Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it... I thought it was
the perfect plan... Voldemort would be sure to come after me, would never dream they'd
use a weak, talentless thing like you... It must have been the finest moment of your miserable
life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters."
You see, advising the Potters to make Pettigrew secret keeper was the biggest mistake he ever
made. It was the decision that lead to the murder of his best friends, and it was also
the decision that ultimately landed him in Azkaban. That single false recommendation
was the catalyst for an incredible amount of death, heartache, and suffering- and it
was likely the only thing that Sirius could ever think about- a constant sharp pain in
Sirius’s conscience. In a perfect world, given the opportunity, I think that Sirius
would have gone back in time to the day that he made that poor recommendation, and instead
would have assumed the role of secret keeper himself. The only good thing that came from
Pettigrew being secret keeper was that it ultimately lead to Voldemort’s destruction..for
a time. Though whether that could have been achieved with less suffering is untelling.
What do you guys think Sirius Black would have seen in the mirror of Erised? Let me
know in the comment section below.
Until next time
You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us?