Why did Harry get such a liking of Sirius to start with ?

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 75052

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "kiricat2001" <Zarleycat at a...> 
wrote:
> 
> Del:
> > Except that they have a correspondance precisely because Harry 
> > chooses to. He's the one who chooses to turn to Sirius instead of 
> > *anyone else*. 
> 
> Me:
> But, Sirius has already told Harry to contact him if he needs to do 
> so in the note Harry receives on the train home.  "If ever you need 
> me, let me know. Your owl will find me."  Or words to that effect. 
> Sirius already had opened that door.
> 
> Del:
> Again, I don't see why. If I had to choose between my 
> > best friends, the Headmaster who's always listened to me and who 
is 
> > so wise, that old friend of my parents' who was such a good 
teacher 
> > and a good help last year, and the old friend of my parents' who 
> just 
> > spent 12 years in prison and is on the run again and showed signs 
> of 
> > not being completely right in his head, I don't think I would 
> choose 
> > the last one...
> 
> Me:
> At the beginning of GoF, Harry doesn't want to write to his friends 
> about his scar hurting because he knows they won't have the 
answers.  
> He considers writing to Dumbledore, but can't find a way to phrase 
> the letter without, he thinks, sounding like an idiot. He never 
> thinks of Lupin, IIRC.  Maybe he can't get past the teacher-student 
> relationship, maybe he figures that Lupin has enough problems of 
his 
> own, who knows? Maybe JKR is simply manipulating the characters to 
> build evidence of a bond between Harry and Sirius for future plot 
> purposes.  
> 

There's a simple solution here (I think). Harry writes to Sirius 
because Sirius is his *godfather.* He is looking for someone who is 
an adult (so Ron and Hermione are out), and for someone who he can 
expect to feel as involved in his affairs as a parent would. This is 
what Sirius offers - total invovlement and commitment. He is not only 
formally in loco parentis, he is truly committed to fulfiling this 
obligation.
I think this understanding goes a long way to explaining Harry's 
attachement to Sirius. Sure, if Sirius was totally unpleasant and 
horrible then Harry wouldn't have become attached. But Sirius isn't 
like that - even in PoA the reader (and therefore Harry) can discern 
that underneath the matted hair and yellowing teeth is a fine human 
being. For an orphan like Harry to finally have somebody on whom to 
lean, from whom to receive unconditional support, probably seems like 
a miracle. Of course Sirius immediately became an important figure in 
his life. He is a replacement Dad. To me, it seems completely natural.


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