Sirius' death (was: Dept of Mysteries Veil Room)

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 115210


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Magda Grantwich 
<mgrantwich at y...> wrote:

<snip>
 
> Harry loved the idea of having a godfather who was his and there 
> for him alone.  Sirius loved the idea of having a godson and 
> fulfilling the role he thought he'd lost 15 years earlier.  But 
> they weren't together long enough or often enough for them to have 
> a relationship in the present time.

I think these points are all very well made, but I think trying to 
analyze this relationship from our point of knowledge also has some 
problems.  We're trying to work through it rationally, and get down 
to an idea of 'what was actually there'--when in this case, I think 
we may have to go with some sort of idea of incommensurability.  
That is to say, our own perceptions of the relationship are less 
important than Harry's.  It may be logical to say "There is no 
reason for him to have loved Black that much", but I still think we 
have the indications and actions that Harry really *did* love him, 
despite the lack of more obvious indications of the relationship.  
Dumbledore seems to take that tack in his end-of-book speech, and I 
am still wary of discounting Dumbledore when he seems to be 
delivering us What The Author Wants Us To Know.

It has been presented to us, through that authorial mouthpiece, that 
losing Black was a uniquely damaging loss for Harry, of a unique 
figure.  In that light, our own feelings about the 
suitability/whatever of the relationship are less interesting and 
important than Harry's, I think.

-Nora gets ready to go see a lecture on...music theory