Why Harry couldn't live with Sirius (and a few other questions)

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 21633

Actually, I was asking that question about Harry at age 13, not at 15 
months.  I think you sum up the reasons why Dumbledore didn't give him 
to his godfather in the first place quite well.

Marianna wrote:

> 3. Sirius. One minute he wants the child and is
> apparently in a long argument with Hagrid, the next he
> gives away his motorbike and sys he won't need it
> again. Is it shock? it's hard imagine him carrying
> Harry to the Pettigrew confrontation. What would he do
> with him?

Now that you've posed this question, the whole situation seems even 
more tragic to me.  I think everything might have gone very 
differently if Hagrid had given Harry to Sirius (or if Sirius had 
gotten to the house before Hagrid and taken him).  

Scenario #1: Sirius gets to the house and discovers the worst has 
happened--but at least Harry, for some unfathomable reason, is alive. 
 Here is something, at least, that he can do for James and Lily.  In 
all seriousness, though no doubt in a state of shock, he asks Hagrid 
for Harry--"I'm his godfather."  Hagrid says sorry, no, I have my 
orders, and Sirius gives way to his other main impulse of the moment, 
which is revenge.  He tells Hagrid to keep the bike and he goes off 
looking for Peter.  In this scenario, he doesn't necessarily think 
he's losing custody of Harry permanently--he isn't thinking at all.  
He's just seizing hold of the only action he can take at the moment.  
He might not realize until Peter catches up with him that he has been 
well and truly set up.

Scenario #2: Alternatively, and possibly even more bitterly, Sirius 
isn't even going to try to kill Peter until he meets up with Hagrid 
and, hearing that he has orders from Dumbledore, realizes in that 
moment that everyone will think he's the traitor and that his chances 
of adopting Harry are nil unless he can capture Peter.

In either case, if he =had= gotten Harry, you're right, he couldn't 
have carried him to the confrontation with Peter--and that's the most 
tragic aspect, because if he'd had Harry, he probably would have seen 
no alternative but to go to Dumbledore and explain what happened.  Who 
knows what would have happened then, but at least it wouldn't be 
Sirius trying to duel Peter and losing spectacularly; Dumbledore might 
have been able to track Peter down and discover the truth. 

But it didn't happen that way, because Dumbledore, foreseeing that if 
Sirius got to Harry first he'd kill him (so he thinks), acted too 
fast.  He thought that he'd gotten Hagrid to the house just in the 
nick of time, but in fact if Sirius had gotten there first, the whole 
second half of the tragedy might never have happened.

Amy Z
new obsession rating: 65%

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 The Whomping Willow was a very violent tree that
 stood alone in the middle of the grounds.
                 -HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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