Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter.
Sirius' opinion.
The first time I saw the boy, all I could think was, there's James. There is my best friend, he's alive again. I can go see him, touch him, I can have my friend back.
But it wasn't him. James would never run away like this boy, but then, James had a loving family. James wouldn't have wanted to. Didn't this boy? Didn't this boy recognize how dangerous this was? He shouldn't have run away. Even if I was harmless, so many others aren't. He could have been hurt more. He didn't know the wizard's world enough to run away like that.
I thought he would be like James more, after I saw him fly. I thought I could talk to him when he comes out alone. James came out alone all the time. He loved to fly, just to hang in the air and feel his broom move with the wind…James couldn't stay off a broom for a week if it killed him.
But he didn't. He wasn't James, for all he had the talent. He didn't come out. He didn't fly alone. He stayed with the group, stayed quiet, tried to fade into the background.
I watched Harry, and would have called him James, if not for his heart following Lilly's so closely, yet also so close to James. For a boy who never met his parents, he was better at knowing who they were, then I was. And I was his father's best friend…
It wasn't until Harry freed me, that I realized what I was doing, and recognized him for himself. For all his similarities, he was not James, and not Lilly.
I was ashamed to say, it took nearly a year for me to figure out that Harry was Harry, and I've yet to know that boy half as well as I should. I can tell you what he is that came from James. I can tell you what he is that came from Lilly. But I don't know what he is that came from Harry.
You know James, you picked a really bad Godfather.