Harry and Sirius (was: Please pass the tissues )

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 69917

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, MadameSSnape at a... wrote:
> In a message dated 7/13/2003 9:00:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> rdas at f... writes:
> 
> > the truth is, Sirius had said a few things 
> > that could have easily confused Harry, made him want to live up 
to 
> > what Sirius would like him to be, which is more like James
> 
> It struck me, as I was reading, that even more than Snape, Sirius 
was seeing 
> Harry as James - trying to make Harry fit into James's shoes.  

Aside from that single angry remark made in the middle of an 
argument, when has Sirius ever tried to make Harry fit into James' 
shoes?

Several times 
> it's occurred to me - did Sirius really care about Harry, a kid he 
hardly knew? 

"Hardly knew"?  Sirius and Harry had an active correspondence in the 
summer between PoA and GoF, and throughout GoF.  They also had 
plenty of meaningful interaction during GoF, with Harry confiding 
all his personal problems to Sirius, and Sirius present to comfort 
Harry throughout Harry's narration of his experiences at the 
graveyard.  I have argued before that when Sirius asked Harry to 
live with him at the end of PoA, he was seeing Harry as a symbol of 
his redemption rather than a person in his own right, because at the 
time the two of them didn't know each other.  But by the end of GoF 
Sirius has had plenty of opportunity to see what kind of person 
Harry is.

It seems to me there's been a great scramble to retroactively 
redefine Sirius' character in order to make to make his death appear 
somehow deserved, or at least warranted.  All of a sudden, every 
caring, supportive and self-sacrificing thing Sirius has ever done 
gets shrugged off as unimportant, while every rash or ill-considered 
thing is magnified out of all proportion and presented as the only 
basis for judging him.  I'm sure Sirius often draws parallels 
between Harry and James; so does everyone else who knew James.  
Lupin's done it, Hagrid's done it, Dumbledore's done it, Snape 
hardly ever stops doing it.  It will always be a part of Harry's 
relationship with any adult who knew his parents.  But it's not the 
sum total of any of these relationships.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com