Harry Potter may have ended with the release of the last film, but the fandom is still alive and thriving, as the books and movies are still discussed endlessly on the internet, with folks often going beyond the established canon to come up their own fan theories for particular events and character motivations. One such theory regarding Harry Potter and Sirius Black recently surfaced on Reddit, proposed by u/Carnage678, and it’s pretty interesting.
The fan theory touches on the fact established in the books that Sirius Black, James Potter’s best friend, and a former villain who later turned out to be an innocent scapegoat, took on his role as Harry’s godfather in a rather non-serious vein. Despite having Harry’s best interests at heart, Sirius never treated him like a son, but rather a friend, even once leading Molly Weasley to accuse Sirius of trying to replace James with Harry in his life.
But the theory suggests Sirius’ intentions were nobler than that. He felt the loss of Harry’s parents very deeply, even once losing control and shouting at Peter for mentioning their name in front of Harry. This suggests that his feelings towards James and Lily Potter bordered on idolization. In Sirius’ mind, no one else could ever be worthy of taking the place of Harry’s parents, not even the man who they themselves named Harry’s godfather.
And so, while doing his utmost to take care of his young charge, Sirius stopped himself short of ever actually acting like a parent towards Harry. Instead, he desired Harry to see him as the ‘fun uncle’ whom he could discuss his problems with and count on for support.
Overall, this theory certainly puts some of Sirius’ actions into better perspective which at the time seemed irresponsible, and also sheds new light on the kind of deep love and even gratitude Sirius felt for Harry Potter and his parents.
