Sirius confusing Harry and James

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 78255

> Tara wrote:
> 
> > I was just wondering what you thought about Sirius seeming to 
> > confuse Harry for James in book 5.  
> <Snip>

> Jeff wrote:
>   Ah, I'm glad that I saw this!! I was about to mention this as 
well. 
> Both Snape and Sirius made this mistake, but as polar opposites. 
> Snape hates Harry because he sees James in him, and Sirius *loves* 
> Harry because of this,and yes, he wants his best friend back. >  
<snip>

Laura:

If I may be so immodest as to quote myself from a tbay post earlier 
today:
if you look at 
it from his POV, you can see where he had good reasons to think that 
Harry really was like James. Think about it: whenever Sirius 
encounters Harry, Harry shows bravery, audacity, leadership, 
intelligence and resourcefulness (in the Shack and during the 
Tournament in particular). Harry, like James, is absolutely loyal to 
his best friends and he detests the dark arts and everything about 
them. If Sirius and Harry had had the chance to live together under 
normal circumstances, in which neither one of them was under 
emotional pressure, Sirius would have come to see that Harry was his 
own person. As it is, it seems natural and reasonable enough for 
Sirius to identify in Harry qualities that he valued in his best 
friend-we're always looking for our friends in their children. 

What do you think?  As for Snape, he had decided that Harry was James 
redux before ever meeting him, and nothing Harry could have done 
would have changed his mind.