Harry as godfather (Was: Sirius Black's role in DH -- why?)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 179209

Dana wrote:
<snip>
> 
> And no I do not care about what Sirius did 
> at age 16, DD himself was disloyal to his own family once without 
> really whishing them harm but still with far worse consequences than 
> what Sirius did at age 16, to a Snape already in the know what he 
> could find behind an off limit murderous tree. <snip>

Carol responds:
sorry to respond only to this one point, but I've already stated my
position with regard to both DD and SB in this matter. But with regard
to sixteen-year-old Severus, he didn't *know* that Remus was a
werewolf; he only suspected it. What he *knew* was that James, Sirius,
and (of all people) Peter could not only pass the "murderous tree"
(that much Sirius told him how to do) but enter the tunnel without
being bitten by the werewolf (or killed or injured by whatever was
back there). If they, wizards of his own age and no more skilled than
he, could go back there and survive, why couldn't he? He had no way of
knowing that the Marauders survived the encounter because they were
Animagi. Sirius, however, knew perfectly well that Severus would be in
far greater danger than he and his friends were. And James knew it,
too, which is why he felt it necessary to *save the life* of a boy he
didn't even like.
> 
Dana:
> I do not blame DD, I blame his creator for the need of getting
Sirius out of the way and putting him on ice so he can enter the story
at a later date. Many of the things that surround this part of the
story have massive plotholes and improbabilities to begin with.

Carol:

Oh, yes. Plotholes. So many of them that we thought would be filled
in, and JKR doesn't even see them. Funny how it's not the full moon
rising but the moon coming out from under a cloud that transforms
Lupin, to name just one. And the whole Secret Keeper story is absurd.
Why, if Snape had informed DD of the Potters' danger and they were
already hiding at Godric's Hollow before Harry's first birthday, did
they only have PP perform the spell a week before Halloween? And why
did *anybody* need to know about it? (Lupin knows about the Fidelius
Charm but doesn't know that they switched SKS? How is that possible? I
they thought he was the traitor, why tell him at all? And if only
James, Lily, Sirius, and Peter knew about the Fidelius Charm and they
thought Peter was trustworthy, why would Sirius need to go into
hiding? Spy!Lupin couldn't tell LV because he wouldn't know, so there
would be no need to hide (unless he thought that he'd be in danger as
an Order member rather than the SK).

Okay, that's enough ranting from me, even though I can think of many
other plotholes, some related to this discussion and some not. I think
your reference to DD as a "*malicious* puppetmaster" is a bit strong,
since he certainly wanted Harry to survive, if only to ultimately
defeat Voldemort. And I stand by my position that Sirius Black's own
recklessness deprived him of the chance to be Harry's godfather. He
needed only to go to DD and acknowledge his mistake in suggesting the
SK change (and admit that he and his friends were illegal Animagi,
which would make it easy for PP to escape) and the problem would have
been solved. He could have stayed out of Azkaban and worked with DD to
fight the remaining DEs. Instead, he went after PP, got himself framed
for murder, and lost twelve valuable years of his own life, three of
which could have been spent knowing Harry. And, of course, he would
not have had to spend the year of GoF on the run, some of it hiding in
caves, or been stuck in 12 GP unable to do anything useful for the
Order in OoP.

Carol, not expecting to convince anyone to share her views as we seem
to have some unresolveable differences of opinion, but at least
agreeing with Dana about the plotholes!