Sirius Black, God father

[dmsreg]

No: HPFGUIDX 32550

Penny wrote:
> To summarize my own thoughts: the term "godparent" in the UK does 
not necessarily denote a religious spiritual guidance role in all 
cases.  It is a term, as I understand it, that can often be used 
interchangeably with "guardian" (as in legal guardian).  It's quite 
clear from PoA that Sirius is Harry's legal guardian per the Potters' 
wishes.  It is not clear that he also holds any sort of spiritual 
mentor role in the form of a godparent.  

> I think it's most likely that Black is his "godfather" in a 
strictly legal guardian/secular sense & that there is no godmother.
---

I would tend to disagree with this. Godfather is a very specific 
undertaking that an adult friend or relation makes at a baptism 
service that they will be accountable for the religious upbringing of 
a child until they come to confirmation, normally as a teenager. A 
Godmother (if there is one) is not necessarily related to any 
Godfathers or other Godmothers.

That said, the UK is now a pretty secular country but its traditions 
are tied in with the sort-of-protestant Church of England (or 
Scottish/Welsh equivalent); there are many people who take on the 
role of Godfather "because of tradition" but have no particular 
religious feeling. Since the Wizarding world celebrates Christmas and 
Easter, one would assume that membership of it does not preclude 
Christianity, so we can't really know how seriously (siriusly?) he 
took this undertaking.

The role of legal guardian is something rather different, in that 
Sirius clearly takes this responsibility and his friendship of the 
Potters very seriously, to the point of risking a horrible un-death 
to fulfil his obligations.

For Sirius to have legal Guardian status, effectively adopting Harry, 
James and Lily surely would have had to have signed something 
specific to that effect. Since Sirius says that his parents appointed 
him legal guardian if something should happen to them, can we assume 
that they went through whatever official process was necessary to 
make it bona fide? Since all the teachers knew that Sirius was 
Harry's Godfather, obviously someone other than himself and J&L knew 
about it.

Reg