Reblogging this old piece cause it is actually supported by canon too, and also adding some further links to posts supporting this cause the original doesn’t work anymore

the Grim

inspired by this post about how Sirius is intimidating AF cause I 100% agree

dominus

@black-occamy I absolutely agree, people (including the canon characters) like to ignore Peter's truly amazing skills. The PoA book quotes above are all biased somehow, but I think Peter's frame job could only work as well as it did because Sirius must have had a reputation or at least some weird dark vibes about him that even people who actually knew him didn't really question that he's capable of such actions. I mean the explosion crater that Peter left behind was a traumatic sight for sure, but considering how Voldy was on the top of his game then, I don't think it's so bad to bring twenty aurors to catch the suspect, unless it's reasonable to assume that he could do worse things too. Also I think Sirius laughed like a maniac partly because he just then realized how much he underestimated Peter.

I also think that Sirius truly wanted to kill Peter, maybe not with the Killing Curse, but Peter at least was convinced that it's his life on the line at that moment. Sirius even spells it out clearly in PoA.

Also, @theprogressofspring has written a couple of amazing meta posts about Peter quite a long time ago, but their points are still so valid! I highly recommend to check them out, if you haven't already!

I looked up some quotes in PoA, and it's actually hilarious how afraid everyone is of Sirius, like he's just mentioned and everyone basically shits their pants. I know it's part of the Ministry propaganda, but still. Here are some examples:

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are scared of him, because if he's clever enough to escape from the inescapable prison, who knows what else he's capable of.

It is reinforced by Fudge himself, he seems especially scared of him (I know it's at least partly because he's losing popularity as MM because of Sirius' escape from Azkaban). He even says that Sirius can do things that the freaking dementors are a better option!

Or look at this part of Fudge's monologue about when Sirius was captured, I mean TWENTY Aurors were sent to take him in, and that was probably decided before he supposedly killed all those people. It's probably still just the propaganda, but McGonagall also says that [Peter] should have left it to the Ministry, so there must be some truth to Fudge's statement of "Nobody but trained Hit Wizards from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad would have stood a chance against Black once he was cornered."

Also, the "of course, Black was quicker" comment, or this one where Fudge immediately jumps to the conclusion that Sirius caused Snape's injury and that it's a miracle none of them died.

The guy must have had a reputation or sth, no wonder his animagus form is literally the omen of death.

Dear @dufferpuffer and @black-occamy, thank you for your additions! Please let me chip in with some actual quotes from the third book regarding Sirius's stay in Azkaban:

The text clearly says that Sirius seemed normal, he could communicate with Fudge clearly and rationally, he looked like he was only bored. When asked about his escape later in the books, he explains that while he was heavily guarded, he was not affected by the dementors that much, because the fact that he is innocent was not a happy thought in itself, but a neutral one, so he only turned into a dog on particularly bad days, "when it became too much".

As the quote goes on, we see that obsessions don't qualify as a happy thought either, therefore dementors can't take it away. He got obsessed with going after Peter after all these years after Fudge's visit when he saw the newspaper, yet Fudge describes him as quite normal, so I think it's safe to assume that while being in Azkaban must have been very depressing (that's the whole point of it), at least for Sirius, it must have been boring as well. (If obsessions cannot be taken by the dementors, I wonder if for example, Bellatrix could keep at least parts of her own sanity, by being super obsessed with Voldemort? But that's a completely different discourse.)

We don't really get detailed descriptions of Azkaban cells in the books (at least I cannot recall any), but considering that it was built sometime in the 15th century originally as a fortress (which by the way makes no sense whatsoever, but that's beside the point), by a wizard who used it to keep and torture sailors there, we can make the assumption that it was indeed used mostly as a prison, so the cells and bars were already there, no modification had to be made on it to fulfill the new assigned purpose. We know that in the 1700s, the MM then tried to get rid of dementors, but died before he could do anything about it, and nothing else really happened until Kingsley became MM in 1998. It's arguable if the place was left pretty much untouched for half a millennia it would be still standing and functioning just fine, especially that dementors are "born" from decay. Considering that Hogwarts is an even older building, yet they have modified it in a way to keep up with "modern" requirements, I don't think it's too far fetched to think that there is some sort of bed and a sink in each cell. I also don't think that it was as bad as you described in your addition, because I think spending 12 years there would have made an even worse impact on Sirius? Living without any sunlight is extremely bad for a human on the long run (as described in e.g. this article), not to mention the issue of no clear water (described in e.g. this article) or lack of basic hygene (described here). While it is stated that wizards are immune to most muggle diseases, I still think it’s hardly unlikely that he would survive for such a long time in such conditions. I’m not saying that Azkaban was comfortable, but i think the real bad part of it is the isolation by itself (it can fuck you up really, this article sums it up pretty nicely) and the dementors who make it even worse, the physical conditions and aspect of the place is minor.

Either way, it is truly impressive on Sirius’ end to survive more than a decade in a place like Azkaban without completely losing his mind! He really had to have something to combat the effects of solitary confinement, neutral things to think about, that’s why i drew a book for him, originally i intended it to be the History of Magic, but it can be a more abstract, theoretical subject like Arithmancy or Ancient Runes, something that can provide him with some mental stimulation (like Hussain or Edith in the article linked above).

TLDR, I’m glad that you shared your thoughts and that you like my fanart! I hope that I didn’t sound too obnoxious with my waaaaaayyy too long rant, my intention was definitely not to hurt any of you in any way! I’d encourage any of you to please share your thoughts!

i was thinking about life in Azkaban, like how does it work? Who prepares meals? Basic hygene requirements are ensured how? Is it like a regular muggle prison just with dementors as guards? Are there any human staff working there? Every cell is for 1 person only or some are for multiple people? Are witches and wizards separated? Can inmates have stuff like a book? I have so many questions, like if it’s just a bunch of cells with dementors only as staff, being there for someone who could remain more or less sane, it must have been extra boring?…

ANYWAYS thats how i got the idea for this pic, and also because Sirius is canonically very good with all sort of animals, i thought why not give him a crow friend that he helped one day when the poor bird ended up in his cell during a very intense storm or sth… and as crows are very smart and have a good memory, maybe it kept going back to Sirius with various garbage as gifts (eg muggle chocolate cover papers or some berries, whatever). It is absolutely plausible that Buckbeak trusted Sirius right away without demanding a bow first, because crows also like to gossip and they might have told stories about him to other birds/animals so he is like the definition of a persona grata for them (bonus points for being a dog sometimes so he can actually talk to them too)

I looked up some quotes in PoA, and it's actually hilarious how afraid everyone is of Sirius, like he's just mentioned and everyone basically shits their pants. I know it's part of the Ministry propaganda, but still. Here are some examples:

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are scared of him, because if he's clever enough to escape from the inescapable prison, who knows what else he's capable of.

It is reinforced by Fudge himself, he seems especially scared of him (I know it's at least partly because he's losing popularity as MM because of Sirius' escape from Azkaban). He even says that Sirius can do things that the freaking dementors are a better option!

Or look at this part of Fudge's monologue about when Sirius was captured, I mean TWENTY Aurors were sent to take him in, and that was probably decided before he supposedly killed all those people. It's probably still just the propaganda, but McGonagall also says that [Peter] should have left it to the Ministry, so there must be some truth to Fudge's statement of "Nobody but trained Hit Wizards from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad would have stood a chance against Black once he was cornered."

Also, the "of course, Black was quicker" comment, or this one where Fudge immediately jumps to the conclusion that Sirius caused Snape's injury and that it's a miracle none of them died.

The guy must have had a reputation or sth, no wonder his animagus form is literally the omen of death.

I tried to look up some quotes from PoA for sth, and the whole book is a goldmine, really. I mean:

Wishful thinking, Remus? Wonder what he thought about when he cast the Patronus spell😏

i was thinking about life in Azkaban, like how does it work? Who prepares meals? Basic hygene requirements are ensured how? Is it like a regular muggle prison just with dementors as guards? Are there any human staff working there? Every cell is for 1 person only or some are for multiple people? Are witches and wizards separated? Can inmates have stuff like a book? I have so many questions, like if it’s just a bunch of cells with dementors only as staff, being there for someone who could remain more or less sane, it must have been extra boring?…

ANYWAYS thats how i got the idea for this pic, and also because Sirius is canonically very good with all sort of animals, i thought why not give him a crow friend that he helped one day when the poor bird ended up in his cell during a very intense storm or sth… and as crows are very smart and have a good memory, maybe it kept going back to Sirius with various garbage as gifts (eg muggle chocolate cover papers or some berries, whatever). It is absolutely plausible that Buckbeak trusted Sirius right away without demanding a bow first, because crows also like to gossip and they might have told stories about him to other birds/animals so he is like the definition of a persona grata for them (bonus points for being a dog sometimes so he can actually talk to them too)

Hot mugshot guy

after sketching the mugshots, i remembered this guy’s story (i sorta used him as a reference too), and it sounds like an AU for Sirius… except, what if it’s not completely an AU? i have the headcanon now that new mugshots were taken of prisoners of azkaban yearly, and Sirius kinda gathered a little fanclub among the ministry workers or whoever have access and need to archive these prison files, cause he is just so hot… maybe he even won the witch weekly hottest single wizard title too, completely unaware of this whole phenomenon around himself until he started to get actual fanmail maybe?? And MM Fudge found him so unnerving not only because he seemed bored only and quite sane, but because he kept his goodlooks too, so the MM ordered to guard him with more dementors and also shut down his little fanclub in the ministry too (no more feloncrushfriday!) and modified the mugshot procedure so a new one had to be taken every 5 years only, at least of Sirius… fastforward to ootp, when Kingsley could pretend to investigate Sirius’ escape and stuff by making his whole department read through and follow up every single detail of all the fanmail Sirius received, which is probably a remarkable amount of letters… (and he maybe develops a little crush on Sirius too in the meantime?…) someone please write this! 🥺

warmup sketches of Sirius ‘mugshots’

digital retouch of this old sketch to prove that i can draw young boys with a baby face, i just prefer not to

mermay is still on! I coloured one of the sketches of this batch, enjoy! The idea behind it is that he is a little too fascinated by curly hair, as underwater hair just flows and noone really can have true curls, so his attraction just multiplies when he sees IRL curly hair above water! @lovelymasks

Wizard MET Gala, theme: Heritage — an AU where all of them are alive and attending fancy events in fancy outfits

i’ve been to a wedding last weekend, and got inspired to re-touch this and this old design and also added more characters. this was so much fun, i might do more!

bad boy vibes

thank you @plecotusauritus @arliedraws and @bullets-from-another-dimension for your thoughts that finally gave me the perfect excuse to post this drawing with no background

well this happens when mermay and thirsty prongsfoot friday is on the same day, i blame @lovelymasks, it all started with her merman Sirius snippet, then continued with her excessive research about merfolk genitals, which culmulated in 5 (five!) drawings all in one day! I’ll probably finish the sketches, but i also want to design the others too as mermen, we will see, there’s still 3 weeks left from mermay😅

Another mermay reblog until further notice!

mermay seemed like a good opportunity to revisit the pirate AU i made for last year’s @siriusblackfest Enjoy!

Thanks for the tag @breathing-and-stuff!

Last song: From The Shadows by Cjbeards. I usually only listen to my Spotify Discover Weekly list, so I really listen to quite a wide variety of music... The last one I intentionally searched and selected to listen to was Tárgyalás A Nők Vezérigazgatójával by Krúbi.

Currently watching: Dead Boy Detectives

Three ships: i'm gonna list some from 3 fandoms instead: wolfstar, prongsfoot; lamen; pynch.

Favourite colour: Dark green, burgundy red, but I like yellow and purple too.

Currently consuming: Lunch leftover pizza for dinner.

First ship: wolfstar? The very first ship I had was probably Tigger and Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh xD

Relationship status: in a relationship

Last movie: in cinema: Dune Part 2, otherwise The Gentlemen.

Currently working on: finishing my last entry to the prongsfoot reverse bang and sth new for mermay.