Harry and Sirius and Pain (was Re: Harry and Boggarts)

[sevenhundredandthirteen]

No: HPFGUIDX 122874


Magda wrote:

Of course they LIKED being together. But
they weren't together often enough to really KNOW each other for WHO
they were (Harry, Sirius) rather than for WHAT they were (my best
friend James' son, my dad's best friend). They thought they had
time, once Harry was out of Hogwarts, once Voldemort was defeated,
once a few years had passed, to develop a real relationship rather
than the patchwork occasional interactions they had in GOF and OOTP.

Laurasia:

I agree.

IMO, Sirius and Harry responded to what the other represented because
they reassure each other that all the pain they have suffered was not
pointless.

Sirius spent 12 years under the rule of the Dementors in Azkaban;
alone, desperate, unhappy and innocent. All for the loyalty of his
friends. Harry represents a purpose to all of that. Harry is proof
that all that suffering was not just for nothing. That he really was
hanging onto something.

Comparatively, Harry spent 12 years under the control of the Dursleys
in Privet Drive; alone, mistreated, unhappy and innocent. And he
didn't understand why. He just wanted a family.

To Harry, Sirius represents that there was a point to enduring the
Dursleys' abuse; proof that there is a real parent-figure at the end
of the tunnel.

The reason why Harry and Sirius latch onto what the other one
represents is because they both need reassurance that they can cope
with their past and continuing pain.

I think that both if them keep the other one at a bit of a distance in
OotP because neither of them really want to confront their own pain.
Whilst they are consoled by the other's presence, there is the
inescapable fact that Harry also represents James and Lily's death and
12 long years in Azkaban for Sirius. And Sirius, the parent-figure
that he is, also reminds Harry that he spent 12 years being trampled
by the Dursleys. And even if Harry is better at dealing with the
Dursleys these days, memories of their torment still plague him in the
Occlumency lessons in this expansive collection of worst experiences.

Harry has tried to stand up to the Dursleys his entire life, but at
the start of PoA we see him going alone with Vernon's and Marge's
cruelty (until he snaps). The start of GoF is when we truly see Harry
defy them- his insistence on going to The Quidditch World Cup, refuse
to adhere to Dudley's diet. These are post-Sirius. Sirius gave Harry
enough hope to stand up to his abusers.

Will Harry's defiant rejection of the Dursleys' authority continue in
HBP? When Harry doesn't have Sirius as a *real* parent-figure to trust
in any more? In HBP will Harry even try to resist their mistreatment?
Or will he just think that it's all he deserves? 

IMO, part of Harry's devastation with Sirius' death is because it made
all his years of enduring the Dursleys' abuse revert back to
meaninglessness. And it removes a lot of faith he could have for his
continuing maturation into adulthood. Sirius represented a solution to
Harry's inherent pain (his inherent pain being, IMO, always being
alone, whether by orphaning or prophecy). 

Harry grieves for the return of his own old pain, as well as this new
pain of losing Sirius.

~<(Laurasia)>~