Harry and Sirius

[Diana]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, Richard <hp at p...> wrote:
Sherry Gomes wrote:
> ><...> Both Lupin and Dumbledore are
> >professors, teachers of Harry's not personally close enough.  
Suddenly, in Sirius, Harry has someone he can think of as all his.  
his thinking at the beginning of GOF the book, since the movie 
didn't bring this out, was that he wanted someone like a parent.  
Neither Lupin nor Dumbledore filled that role for him.

Richard replied: 
> Why not? Sorry, I don't buy the "he's a teacher, he's not all 
mine" argument. Neither from a lit-crit standpoint, nor from a 15 
year-old's. (I don't know why, but I feel compelled to admit that I 
know exactly what that 15 year-old felt like, I was there, in very 
similar personal - if less dramatic - circumstances.)
> Sorry, but the only reason why Sirius is in Harry's life in GoF is 
because Harry invites (or drags) him into it. Sirius writes to Harry 
only because Harry writes to him first. Would Lupin have reacted 
much differently? I suspect not.

Diana L. chimes in:
First off, I'm not surprised that the movie had Hermione suggest 
that Harry write to Sirius instead of Harry thinking of it himself 
as in the book.  Why?  Because it was an excellent way to say in 
shorthand that Harry is still adjusting to the idea that he has an 
adult wizard (who IS not Dumbledore or a teacher) that he can 
confide in like a parent.  The movie just did not have the time the 
book had to say the same thing - that Harry is still wrapping his 
mind around him having a father-figure.
To address Sherry's comments, Harry's possessive feelings about 
Sirius feel right to me as well - Harry hasn't had someone who cares 
only about him since he was a year old so I wouldn't blame him for 
enthusiastically embracing the idea when Sirius' innocence and 
relationship to him and his parents became known to him.  
As for your argument that Harry dismissing Lupin (I'll get to 
Dumbledore in a moment) as a father-figure for him isn't plausible, 
well, it takes two to form a close relationship and Lupin repeatedly 
distances himself from Harry in this regard.  Think about his scenes 
with Harry in the PoA movie (and in the book, I should add).  Lupin 
does not tell Harry that he was very close friends with his dad 
until well into the film, even though he knows that Harry would have 
LOVED to have known this earlier and heard anecdotes about his 
parents from him.  The movie has Lupin talking eloquently about Lily 
and James to Harry, but Lupin keeps himself emotionally distant from 
Harry in an effort not to forge a closer bond with him.  I would 
surmise that Lupin's speech to Harry as he packs to leave at the end 
gives us the reason why he remains distant from Harry - he's a 
werewolf and an outcast from most of the WW.  Lupin would not want  
Harry to come to rely on him as a parental figure when his 
association with Harry would and could be disastrous for Harry from 
many different perspectives.  Lupin has no home (Anyone think he has 
a permanent home?  Anyone?), no money, no job and he's feared and 
despised by most of the WW, so he has nothing to offer Harry in the 
way of stable fatherly figure.  Lupin gives Harry his friendship, 
but nothing more parental than that.  Sure, Sirius is a prisoner on 
the run, but he has money, a place to live and he's just biding his 
time until he's found innocent and can come out in the open, taking 
Harry in to live with him when that happens.  From the movie it is 
apparent to me that Lupin keeps himself emothionally distant from 
nearly everyone, and that's probably for his own emotional health as 
well as the health and well-being of other people.  
Harry dragged Sirius into his life? Do you really think so?  GoF as 
a movie does not let us know how many letters have been exchanged 
between Sirius and Harry over the summer, though we know from the 
books several letters have been exchanged.  I see no reason not to 
project that same scenario onto the movie.  Would Lupin have written 
Harry back if he'd written to him? Probably, but Lupin didn't invite 
that kind of close relationship with Harry in PoA, so Harry wouldn't 
think to write to him, would he?  Notice that he doesn't even 
consider writing to any of his *teachers*, even though he's known 
(and knows he can trust) McGonagall and Flitwick for several years 
now.  To Harry, Lupin's in the same category as his other 
professors, which is where Lupin placed himself on purpose.  Sirius, 
on the other hand, had already invited Harry to come live with him 
within an hour or two of Harry finding out he was innocent.  In GoF, 
Sirius risked capture (and, by extrapolation, his very soul) to talk 
to Harry in that fire just so he could warn Harry about Karkaroff.  
Sirius would love to be Harry's surrogate father and conveys that 
desire to Harry by the way he talks to him nearly from the very 
first time he meets him face to face.  
I should add that I really wanted Lupin to become Harry's father-
stand-in while reading PoA and GoF and OotP and HBP, but then 
realized that Lupin isn't going to encourage that kind of 
relationship for many reasons.  

Richard wrote:
> Dumbledore is the next best thing to a parent Harry's had for the 
last four years. He's been close, available and fairly open (as far 
as Harry knows).  He's in charge of the battle against Voldemort. 
Yes, he's busy, but Harry's having dreams about ol' Voldy and he 
doesn't think that Dumbledore *might* be interested? (As it happens, 
he is, as he later admits that Sirius told him all about it). 
Dumbledore is in the best position to help Harry; he's free, he's 
respected and he knows more than most about everything that's 
> been going since Voldy's downfall.  <snip)

> Rationally, whom does Harry contact? The one who doesn't know 
what's going on. Emotionally, who is he close to? Someone he first 
met a month earlier, who admittedly gave him his Firebolt as 14 
years-worth of birthday presents, who slashed the Fat Lady's 
portrait to pieces and caused the suspension of Quidditch, who isn't 
in a position to tell him a great deal about his dad other than in 
letters (not that Harry actually asks him anything about his 
> dad - and nor does Sirius volunteer anything - which is meant to 
be the reason for their closeness).
> Oh no, the old guy who's guided him through his adventures and 
kept him safe, who's allowed him to break more than a few rules, who 
gave him his dad's invisibility cloak and knew his dad very well, 
who bent the rules to get him on the Quidditch team and provided him 
with his first broom, and knows pretty much everything that's going 
on isn't a good substitute parent or advisor. No way.

Diana L. replies:
It will most likely change slightly in the sixth film, but it is 
obvious from previous films that Harry doesn't see Dumbledore as a 
father figure, but rather as an authority figure and, later, a 
mentor.  Mentor and father-figure aren't the same things as a father-
figure is regarded as someone who loves and supports you 
irregardless of your failings while a mentor is regarded as a guide 
and teacher who teaches you the correct path at the same time 
pointing out your mistakes so you can fix them.  A mentor also 
implies some emotional distance and objectivity.  If Harry ever 
thought of Dumbledore as a father-figure then why wouldn't he have 
told Dumbledore about every Voldemort dream he'd had right after 
he'd had them?  Why would Harry purposely not confide in DD in CoS 
when DD'd asked Harry if he had anything to tell him in his office 
after McGonagall had found him next to petrified Finch-Fletchly?  
Harry's fear and awe of DD plays into why he doesn't see him as a 
father-figure.  Harry sees DD as a powerful wizard with a lot of 
responsibilities on his shoulders and too many times sees his own 
troubles as being beneath DD's notice.  Dumbledore would most likely 
welcome a closer relationship with Harry, if Harry was so inclined, 
but Harry's not so DD doesn't push it.  It's not until HBP that DD 
begins to forge a closer emotional relationship to Harry - actially 
making DD's feelings of respect and love for Harry known to him.   

Diana L. (hoping what I've written makes sense since I'm about to 
fall asleep at my keyboard)