Was Sirius railroaded? And what was his view?

[Hilton Hubbard]

No: HPFGUIDX 192720

I might be channelling the girl who kicked the hornet's nest, but I can't
think it would have been better for Harry to have been brought up by Sirius
rather than the Dursleys. Sirius is charming, dishy, lovable ... and
irresponsible. He acts before he thinks, and if this only brings trouble on
his own head, then fine - he's brave and resilient enough to cope. But he
shows no signs of having moved on from being the boy who tried to get his
enemy killed by using his friend as an unwitting weapon. Yes, he loved
Harry. He loved James, James's parents and Lupin. Did he love Lily that
much, I wonder? She must have got between Sirius and James, and her moral
superiority to Sirius was what helped James to become worthy of her love
and, surely, opened something of a rift between them. Remember also the way
Sirius shows signs of depression in OP? Not a stable personality. Not what
you want in a single parent.


Now I'm taking on the Beatles: love is not all you need. The Dursleys
showed Harry the absence of love, granted, but they provided a safe
environment - inadvertently, but in their home Harry was protected. When
did Sirius's parents die - after Harry's birth, presumably. So, imagine
Sirius, living with Harry in his old home complete with house-elf heads
mounted on the walls, a screeching portrait and bedroom walls covered with
Playboy centrespreads. Imagine Sirius, innocently no doubt, using Harry's
admiration for his late father to, well, lead him astray frankly! To do
things that James would have thought were fun. Would Harry have had
anything resembling a 'saving-people thing' after a few years of that? As a
teenager he can stand up to Sirius; as a toddler, surely his character
would not be undamaged in spite of Lily's sacrifice. Seeing how Dudley
turned out as a result of excessive and misguided love, I'm inclined to
think that Harry was actually pretty lucky, spiders in the cupboard and
all.


Deborah
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