Sirius confusing Harry and James

[KathyK]

No: HPFGUIDX 75784

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tara" <killerwhaletank at h...> 
wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I was just wondering what you thought about Sirius seeming to 
confuse Harry
> for James in book 5.  To be honest, if JKR hadn't explicitly had 
other
> characters mention it, I never would have picked up on that, and 
even though
> it was stated in the book, the idea felt a little bit forced to 
me.  I
> thought Sirius often behaved irrationally in book 5 (it was 
understandable,
> but still irrational) but I never really thought of him seeing 
Harry as
> James.  I think one of the reasons why I found it hard to swallow 
was
> because Sirius has been around for three books now, but in the 
first two
> this issue never came up, and then in this book it sort of felt to 
me like
> an afterthought.
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> Tara

Everyone knows Harry looks like James.  It would be impossible for 
those that knew James to look at Harry and not see his father.  At 
least, when they first meet him.  It must be especially difficult for 
Sirius not to see his best friend when he looks at his godson.  Even 
though James died many years ago, to Sirius it is probably still 
freshest because of his time in Azkaban.  He had the dementors there 
to constantly remind him of how he cost his best friend his life.  
Azkaban also lost Sirius a large chunk of his own life.  He has not 
had the same time and space to adjust to what happened as, say James' 
other good friend, Lupin.  

I can see in OoP Sirius confusing Harry with his father.  A 
combination of the way Harry looks and wishful thinking causes him to 
mix the two up a bit.  He especially shows he does this when he was 
disappointed that Harry felt Sirius shouldn't risk meeting Harry in 
Hogsmeade and Sirius says, "You're less like your father than I 
thought" (305, US) and was quite disappointed by this.  So he was 
obviously hoping for his best friend and got Harry instead.  However, 
I think Sirius was also extremely disappointed that he wouldn't be 
getting out of the house and isn't able to do anything for Harry.  

While Sirius did confuse Harry with James a little bit, I did not see 
him doing it to the extent that the characters in OOP seemed to 
believe he did.  That particular comment to Harry was harsh and 
demonstrated that Sirius did mix them up, but as I said, I think it 
was a combination of wanting James and wanting to get out and be 
useful.

As for this trait of Sirius' not showing up in the first two books, I 
don't think it was an issue for two reasons mainly:

1.  Sirius is never as prevalent in PoA and GoF as he is in OoP.  
Sirius was a considered an evil mass murderer through most of PoA.  
When he does meet Harry, he does compare him to James, telling him he 
flies as well as his father.  But their meeting was quite short and 
Sirius was off on the run, becoming a supporting character in Harry's 
life.  I don't have GoF on my mind as clearly, but Sirius is only 
there for bits and pieces of Harry's life through letters, a chat at 
the fire, in Hogsmeade, and then briefly in Dumbledore's office and 
in the Hospital wing.  Events dictated that the two did not get to 
interact much or talk about anything other than the triwizard 
tournament and Voldemort.  Sirius played the concerned godfather only 
throughout GoF.  He did not interact as much with Harry or other 
characters in the previous two books as he did in OoP.  

2.  OoP was the first time Harry and Sirius got to spend any sort of 
real time together, and were able to get to know one another better.  
And we readers were able to get to know Sirius better.  It was more 
likely that Sirius would compare Harry to James in person rather than 
through letters or conversations about Death Eaters.

Not to be repetetive, but I hope I made a little sense.  If not, 
well, I wrote a quite a bit.  There's bound to be something useful in 
there.  Right?  *crickets chirp in the silence*  Right?

KathyK (feeling a little wacky)