Who is Harry's guardian? or: On Dumbledore's extralegal actions

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 158366

Alla:
> Oh,my. I am pretty shocked actually. You just shattered my 
perception of Dumbledore's character very nicely with this quote I 
completely forgot. Yes, this is a canon fact which I cannot argue 
with and Sirius **is** the guardian not the Dursleys, so the only 
thing that can excuse Dumbledore in my book is if he somehow knew 
that Sirius will be arrested or if as I say below he had some 
additional knowledge we are not aware of, otherwise the word 
manipulative would be waaaay too kind for him.

Ceridwen:
Harry came to the Dursleys a day after the death of his parents.  At 
some point durign that time, Sirius confronted Peter, if I recall the 
timeline right, twelve Muggles were killed, a street was blown up, 
Peter's finger was found at the scene so he was presumed dead, and 
Sirius was sent straight to Azkaban (do not pass 'go'...).  So by the 
time Dumbledore left baby Harry on the Dursleys' step, Sirius was 
already incarcerated.  He was convicted without due process, this was 
the culmination of VWI.

Sirius gave his motorcycle to Hagrid.  He knew he would be hunting 
Rat.  He may have expected to die (he states that he was willing to 
die for his friends in PoA), or possibly he expected to really kill 
Peter and end up in Azkaban for that (how would he be able to prove 
that Peter was the SK and brought LV to the Potters'?).  Maybe 
the 'Lost Day' was spent partially in finding out what would happen 
with Sirius.

Carol:
> I don't know how godparenting works in the WW. Possibly a godfather 
is supposed to set a good moral example (no Dark magic?) and 
encourage the child to fight evil(?). I have trouble even 
understanding the concept outside a Christian (or at least a
religious) context, myself.

Ceridwen:
Maybe if we look at fairy-tale godparents it could help?  The fairy 
godmothers in Sleeping Beauty bestow gifts on the child, they protect 
her and enhance her chances in life.  The fairy godmother in 
Cinderella bestows gifts and enhances her chances in life.  Sirius 
played the part of the fairy-tale godparent when he bestowed a new 
broom on Harry.

It's been a while since I've read fairy tales, so I am probably 
missing things here.  But since JKR's world is literary, and since it 
was originally conceived as a children's series, it wouldn't hurt to 
look at children's literature examples of sterling godparents, I 
think.

Ceridwen, trying to explain some slightly unformed ideas.