
CONCERNING RAGE & SEVERUS SNAPE
Once tripped, Sirius’ rage is not something that can be easily curbed. He had very specific triggers in his youth that would result in downright explosions of temper, and when this happened the best thing to do was simply get out of his way until he tired himself out.
As a teenager, Sirius was pretty much Tinkerbell – he only had enough room for one really powerful emotion at a time, because when he wasn’t playing at being the finest in the room, he was actually pretty numb inside as he fought to disassociate himself from what was going on at home, and the fun he was trying to have at school.
He had a very unhealthy coping mechanism for his anger in Severus; taking out his violent urges on a target that ultimately, could never harm him was catharsis to Sirius. He felt powerless at home – and the power he held over Severus was so extreme it left him giddy at times. He took true joy in tormenting Severus because even though he was poor and a halfblood, he fought back with the meanness of a snake and that kept Sirius from ever having to feel guilty about taking his frustrations out on him.
Often after an outpouring of rage and violent activity ( generally resulting in various levels of property damage – most often to things he owned himself, but occasionally to public school property like desks and portraits and rarely, if ever, to the belongings of someone else save his ‘targets’ ) Sirius would become quiet and shockingly reasonable.
Once the pent up emotions escaped, Sirius would often regain his clarity and be able to acknowledge where he went wrong. He might even make amends and promise to do better (meaning it wholeheartedly; he never made amends unless he meant them – if he wasn’t sorry, he would simply remain stubborn, but tired. )
This was a consistent cycle for him, one that his friends would become familiar with over the years. Sirius was always volatile, but with Remus and Peter’s influence, he became less and less violent during his time at Hogwarts. The one thing that never changed though, was Severus Snape.
Using Snape as an outlet when things got to be too much was habitual and easy for Sirius. The fact that Severus had been the initial connection between himself and James – their shared condescension on the train and their united dislike of him seemed, to Sirius view, one of the core aspects of their good friendship – meant that whenever he felt James might be drifting on him, it would be time to make sport of Severus again. To Sirius, it became a twisted form of bonding with James, as much as it was to feel a little more in control of something in his life.
When this eventually became something James was no longer interested in taking part of, Sirius got worse with Severus, as though blaming him for the fact James didn’t want to play anymore. Where James began to grow up, Sirius’ more volatile and abusive aspects started to become more clear – and in a desperate move to both be better and keep James, Sirius bolted from what he felt was the source of all things bad in him: his home.
Running away was as much about escaping his home life as it was about keeping James inhis life. He knew his behavior was off-putting to Peter, and that Remus wasn’t exactly his biggest fan. James felt like the only good thing he had, so he went drastic to hold on to it. This, ultimately, lead to him living with Remus – and in truth, helping him tame down in an honest manner.
Getting away from his toxic home environment did do wonders for Sirius, and being around Remus was an excellent external control for his more volatile energy. He found ways to keep busy and eventually started coping. Unfortunately, what progress he did manage to make was utterly obliterated by his time in Azkaban, and everything bad went and made itselfexponentially worse.
This is why Sirius flies at Severus every chance he gets. Everything is a mess in his brain, James is gone, Peter is a traitor, Remus believed he was actually capable of killing James and Lily and his godson is both a mess and in constant danger. It’s too much – it would have been too much when he was learning to hold more than one emotion at a time, but now, all that is gone. Going for Severus Snape’s throat is the only familiar thing he has, and the best part is Severus still bites back just as harshly.
A lot of people think Severus pushed Sirius into his madness, triggered him and taunted him but honestly? Fighting with Severus was one of the very, very few things keeping Sirius at all stable while in Grimmauld Place – and that, in and of itself, spells out a lot.