ceredwensirius

I do believe his family did a number on his head, though I reject the idea of him crazy as a young man. I don't think his family was crazy, there might be some mental disabilities, but they weren't, as a whole, a bunch of sociopaths. That I reject out of hand. What I believe that fragility we perceive is, has to do with not getting enough love as a child, and having what love he did get be conditional. He could lose that love so easily by being the wrong sort of son. That's why he created a new family that did love him unconditionally, and there is nothing he wouldn't do to preserve it.

Exactly. In my universe his mother is a little bat-shit crazy, but that functions more as a "horrible family secret" (like having an alcoholic or drug addict in the family) then a reason he might be crazy. He doesn't seem crazy at all.

That said, you are totally on point with the idea of him needing/wanting to be loved and fearing losing that love. Honestly, you don't often see that sort of near-fanatical loyalty from children who come from loving homes (especially large, loving families.) Shit, my SIL's barely socialize outside of each other and all their friends are friends with all of the sisters. No, Sirius' fragility (and loyalty/devotion) totally stem from feeling unloved at home. Frankly, he exhibits some of the classical characteristics of adult and teenaged alcoholics, but that just comes from childhood issues, I think, not from being the actual child of an alcoholic.

And, yes, that IS a very dog-like characteristic. As I mentioned in my comment on rs_small_gifts, I very much see Sirius as having doglike characteristics. Perhaps much more than Remus was wolflike. After all, your Animagus form comes from within you, reflecting your personality. Remus was a wolf because he was bitten, not because of what was on his genetic code/personal experiences. In fact, I tend to think that a lot of what shaped him was the experience of being a werewolf, not being a wolf, itself.