HP POA Question

[lls_mutant]

First of all, thanks to everyone responding on my earlier post today that had nothing to do with fandom.

Second. Okay. Azkaban is to the North of Scotland, according to the Lexicon, right? So why/how did Sirius traipse ALL THE WAY DOWN TO LITTLE WHINGING to see Harry before going BACK TO THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND? I mean, I came up with what I consider a VERY reasonable explanation, but JKR, you make my head hurt.

Comments

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Why = he loves the kid. Or remembers loving him as a baby, anyway.

How = Britain isn't THAT big, really. And dogs can cover a lot of ground in a short while. He could also have stowed away on the backs of trucks, or whatever.

That's one of the things I like to bring up when people are slagging off Sirius. It's a LONG trip and it was COMPLETELY out of his way. He didn't HAVE to do it, but he WANTED to see his godson.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

See, that part of the why I can understand. But there were two things:

1.) He knew Harry was coming to Hogwarts, which was up closer, and

2.) JKR implies through Sirius's speech that it was a small detour. He says he had to see Harry before he started his journey North. Makes sense from an emotional perspective, but not from a geographical one. (The truth is I don't think JKR ever intended us to analyze it so closely, just like when people go on about how the full moon wasn't over Christmas during 1993. But....)

And yeah, the stowaway idea is where I'm headed, only I've got him on a boat for a bit :)

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

I guess he had a better chance of catching Harry alone on Privet Drive than at Hogwarts. There'd have been fewer people guarding him at his aunt and uncle's.

Maybe to Sirius is didn't seem like such a huge distance. He'd been locked up for so many years, weak as he was, it must have been such a relief just to RUN. Plus, as I've said, Britain is really quite a small country. :)