Lilly, James and Sirius

[James Redmont]

No: HPFGUIDX 74412

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, B Arrowsmith 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:

Godfather and Guardian are not the same thing. In the UK, Godfather 
is 
an honourary position, with little or no responsibility. A Guardian 
has 
defined legal duties and must be identified in appropriate legal 
documents. Otherwise the child generally goes to the next of kin - 
which is what happened to Harry. Remember, at this time Sirius had 
not 
had the confrontation with Pettigrew and could have claimed Harry if 
that had been the Potters wish. He did not. Nor, apparently, did he 
raise any objections to Dumbledores decision to send Harry to the 
Dursleys.


Me:

*sighs*  U.K. not so different than U.S. on this one.  While 
appointing a Godfather is usually (in practice) an honorary 
position, it is traditionally the people you want raising your kids 
if you die.  Now, if I had kids and something happened to me, I've 
got loads of family that would be chomping at the bit to get my 
kids.  But James and Lily didn't.  Their decision to name Sirius 
godfather was probably very important to them, since they would have 
assumed he would raise Harry if something (god forbid) should happen 
to them.  And Sirius *did* raise objections, as Hagrid tells us in 
PoA at the Three Broomsticks.

James Redmont