Sirius confusing Harry and James

[jeffl1965]

No: HPFGUIDX 78285

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "KathyK" <zanelupin at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tara" <killerwhaletank at h...> 
> wrote:
> >> 
> 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.  
> 
   Agreed. To spend all that time locked up, and to see your godson 
is nearly a twin of your best friend, whom you were thinking about 
constantly , must've been quite a shock!!


> 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.  
> 

    Yes, this is apparent. Sirius felt like he was back in school 
again, with James at his side, ready to cause mischief. I'd guess 
that maybe James had calmed down a bit, it looks like it might've 
been a case of him acting domestic around Lily, but still getting 
rowdy with the boys. Since they would've been what, 20 or so? That's 
to be expected. James hadn't totally settled down yet.

> 
> 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:
> 
   <snipped>
   Excellent observations, and quite realistic, imho. I think had 
Sirius *not* taken his promise to James and Lily about protecting 
Harry and being a good godfather would've been disasterous for them 
both.  I'd imagine that had Harry wrote to him asking about something 
and after his questions were answered if he started with the " Are 
you shaving yet?" " Are you still a virgin?" would've really freaked 
Harry and the others. It would've shown his obsession with Harry's 
resemblance to James and made him appear to be nutters. That would've 
ended the relationship earlier.

> > 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?
> 
   Ah, but you did make sense, at least to my dull brain you did, if 
that makes you feel better. ;)


  Jeff