Application for The Wake

[thricedefied]

Personal Information
Name: Kristi
Age: 29
Personal Journal: redrover
Email / AIM / MSN / Plurk: moxispilot@gmail.com / AIM: moxispilot / Plurk: carmensandiego
Current Character(s): None

Character Information
Character Name: Lily Potter
Fandom: Harry Potter

Character History:

Lily Evans was born in Cokeworth, England, on January 30th, 1960. Her family included her parents, and her elder sister, Petunia. While she was still in her formative years, Lily was a somewhat precocious child, and found she could manipulate the world around her with little bursts of will - that is, with magic. Her family were all aware of this: while showing Petunia how she could make a flower open and close its petals, her sister screamed at her that she had been told not to do such things. (Of course, that is not to say that Lily's parents were unsupportive of her as a witch: later, Petunia admitted to Harry Potter that the Evanses were so proud of Lily, though she came home with things like frogspawn in her pockets.)

During the flower incident, Lily met Severus Snape - a working class child from Spinner's End, the product of a fractured home composed of a Muggle father and a Pureblood mother. Though at first, she was put off by him - and insulted when he called her a witch. As time went by, however, they became best friends: she listened to him for hours as he talked about Hogwarts, offering her the little ray of hope she needed to confirm that she wasn't weird, and that there were others in the world like herself.

On her eleventh birthday, Lily received her letter for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and all the years of stories and hopes came true - somewhat. Unfortunately, Severus and Petunia got on poorly; on one occasion, he injured Lily's sister with a fallen tree branch for nosing about. It was Severus who went rooting through Petunia's things and discovered that she had written to Albus Dumbledore, begging to be admitted to Hogwarts; this was another nail in the coffin for Lily's relationship with Petunia. When she tried to speak to her sister about it before boarding the train to Hogwarts, Petunia declared that she would never want to be a freak like Lily.

It was on the train that Lily met her future husband: James Potter. Right from the start, James and Severus had a vicious rivalry, and Severus did all he could to cultivate the same hatred from Lily - but for all his efforts, she was still sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin, and as she grew older, James began to take an interest in her.

Lily found James to be arrogant and cruel, and tried often to run interference between him and Severus; however, whatever the latter wanted of her, it wasn't to be. Hogwarts wasn't all bright and beautiful, unfortunately, because it was during those years that Voldemort was on the rise, gathering followers from amongst the student body. There were a few Slytherins who called themselves the Death Eaters, and among them was Severus; these people believed in the superiority of pureblooded witches and wizards to Muggleborns and Halfbloods, and, given Lily's birth, this caused a rift between her and her friend. Often, she attempted to talk him around, but she would eventually find there was no reasoning with him.

When she was fifteen, while James and three others were in the middle of yet another fight with Severus, Lily attempted to put a stop to it. Severus called her a "mudblood". He later apologized to her outside the Gryffindor dormitory, but she rebuffed him and ended their friendship entirely.

Two years later, she began dating James Potter; according to his friends later in life, his ego had deflated a bit - enough for her to see the good in him. James and Lily were Head Boy and Girl in their year - that is, they were the best students at Hogwarts. When she finished school, she married James. A year later, she was pregnant with Harry.

Some time between the age of seventeen and twenty, she and James accompanied Petunia and her boyfriend, Vernon Dursley, out to dinner. James insulted Vernon so much that the couple stormed out. Petunia never spoke to Lily again.

Also during this time, she and James became members of the Order of the Phoenix, which was formed and led by Albus Dumbledore to directly oppose Voldemort. It was also during this time that a prophecy arose, overheard by Severus and delivered to Voldemort:

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..."

Lily fit the bill, and Voldemort recognized as much; he singled out Harry as the one spoken of in the prophecy, and Severus, in a panic, turned to Dumbledore and begged him to save Lily (and her family, after some convincing.) Lily and James were forced into hiding, with Peter Pettigrew as their secret keeper - that is, an enchantment was placed on them which allowed no one to know where they were unless Peter told. They were in hiding for a year, until Peter, either fearful for his life or desiring the promise of power Voldemort offered, betrayed them.

Voldemort came to their home in Godric's Hollow on Halloween night in 1981 and killed both Lily and her husband. However, because Lily died while protecting her son, he was enchanted with arcane magic wrought from her love. Because her blood flowed through his veins, he was safe from being directly harmed by Voldemort until he was fourteen, and safe from detection while living with Petunia until he came of age.

Lily was twenty-one when she died. Her only other appearance in canon goes well past the point from which I've taken her, which is right before she dies.

Character Personality:

The most important facet of Lily's personality is her kindness and bravery. It is stated again and again in canon that she tried to seek the good in others and stood tall in the face of adversity, and these seem to be her most defining features. Others spoke of her as a loving, courageous woman who was, above all things, exceptionally kind. However, she was also shown to be strong, motivated, and intelligent: during her time at Hogwarts, she was a member of an elite club headed by Horace Slughorn, handpicked because of her academic triumphs. She was Head Girl in her seventh year, and is even in Harry's teenage years remembered as having been extremely clever: a testament to the ability of a muggleborn witch to thrive and prove herself just as capable as a pureblood.

Lily loves her family, as evidenced by how devastated she was when she and Petunia fell out (presented in an anecdotal account from the author when James and Vernon Dursley argued and Lily was left in tears when Petunia stormed out) and how she sacrificed herself to protect her son that last night in Godric's Hollow.

James and her son are the center of her universe. James was imperfect, needing just enough care and guidance without being too far gone, and once she gave him the time of day, she found out just how much they had in common. He was clever and happy, and he tried so hard to win her over (with much more success at seventeen than at fifteen.) When she married him, she never thought she would love anyone as much as she loved her husband. That was before her son was laid in her arms. She was only nineteen at the time, but he was one of the things she was sure she had done absolutely right. Though she hadn't known at the time just how premonitory it would be, she thought she would do anything - absolutely anything - to protect him.

She will do anything she can for those she loves if it is within the bounds of her own good conscience. It is clear from canon that her own sense of self and the need to be true to herself are also extremely important: she was not willing to turn away from her life as a witch for either Petunia or Harry. In Petunia's case, it was an act Lily would consider selfish but necessary because her sister would never waver from her stance that Lily was a freak. For Harry, standing her ground was an act of love: a strong desire to lead by example and give her son the dignity he deserved. Though his father was a Pureblood, Lily knew that wouldn't stop people from saying terrible things to her son. She wanted Harry never to feel shame for who he was, or to flinch from the same abuses she endured for being a Muggleborn witch, and so she didn't allow Voldemort to drive her back to the Muggle world.

This refusal to be untrue to herself can be seen, too, in the final conversation she holds with Severus Snape outside the Gryffindor common room, when she ended their friendship with the declaration that he has chosen his way, and she hers. It is clearly vastly important to act in a way which strictly abides by the tenets of her morality. She knows who she is and what she stands for, and believes that should be the foundation for her choices and relationships. Indeed, being true to herself meant she could be honest and loyal and give herself fully (right down to giving her life) in her closest, most loving relationships - and it meant she could walk away from the abusive ones. Lily is incredibly strong in that regard.

One of the most important relationships of her early life is, of course, that which she had with Severus Snape. He was her closest friend through to her fifth year at Howarts and, as stated by the author in a post-canon interview, Lily did love him on a platonic level when they were teenagers. Rowling goes on to say that Lily might have grown to love him romantically had he not been so deeply involved with the Dark Arts. Similarly, his apparent prejudices against those of her birth (whether truly believed or held by him only due to peer pressure) served only to widen the rift between them. It is very hard to love someone who sees you a something less than they are, and Lily couldn't abide the apparent deep-seated hatred he had for people of her birth. What chance for love there might have been between them was destroyed when he chose to ally himself with the Death Eaters.

She sticks to her guns about her fundamental beliefs such as the one listed above, but she is willing to entertain other views and potentially change her opinion - though only if given enough evidence and reason. She's not intolerant or unwilling to bend, but it does take a good deal of time for her to come around to a way of thinking which directly opposes her own. She has shown in canon, for example, to come around to the idea of being with James Potter. In her fifth year, she showed disdain and loathing for her fellow Gryffindor (no doubt due in part to her close association with Snape and James' immature behaviour and propensity for bullying) but finally agreed to date him in her seventh year at Hogwarts when, according to his friends, who later recounted the tale to Harry, James learned a little humility and proved to her that he had changed. It took a genuine change on his part, however, for her to see him as someone she might be able to love, thus suggesting Lily is also particularly astute and a relatively good judge of character (relatively, in that James never ended his personal war with Snape, suggesting he never changed completely.)

Lily has had since an early age extremely strong feelings regarding segregation, elitism, classism, and other such absurd divides people create between one another - and furthermore, she is intelligent enough to converse about them and brave enough to speak out even if she has no one on her side. Her first best friend was someone from a working class home, while she, herself, came from a middle-class family. Her first experiences with the wizarding world were in the early days of the Death Eaters, when the first stirrings of anti-Muggleborn sentiments began to arise. The former taught her fairness and the notion of equality without regards to class, and the latter taught her to fight for what she believes - not with fists, but words. She is shown several times in canon standing up against violence, intolerance, and prejudice, even when she seems to be a lone voice in the throng. One of the most notable (but often disregarded) facts about Lily is that she, with her husband, "defied" Voldemort: so strong were her convictions and beliefs that she was willing to face the most fearsome dark wizard of the century not once, but three times.

From that, we can see that she isn't a damsel in distress. She is a force to be reckoned with in some instances: strong enough to walk away from a toxic friendship, brave enough to stand up to housemates and Dark Lords alike. As with any member of the Order of the Pheonix, she's a fighter, working to right what she views as the wrongs of the world. Her husband is not her saviour, but rather an ally upon whom she relies, and who relies upon her, in turn. She is never once in the novels shown as needing protection or help, but rather is portrayed as an independent, intelligent, capable, and courageous young woman.

Of course, she also has her less attractive traits; however, because she is basically subject to the idea that one mustn't speak ill of the dead, her negative qualities are downplayed in canon. What is said from here is extrapolation based on her relationships and actions. (Almost-but-not-quite headcanon.)

As mentioned above, Lily does like to stick to her guns. She can be very bull-headed and judgmental, unwilling to back down when she thinks she's right. Similarly, this tenacity also means she might not step away from a lost cause for a very long time. Snape and James are both good examples of this: she remained friends with Severus for years in spite of the harm he caused Petunia and despite his growing attachment to the Death Eaters, and despite the rumored abuses he inflicted on of others of her birth. This shows she might have thought she could be a positive influence in his life and help him change for the better, and for a long time, she felt a good deal of guilt in light of her own failure. That isn't to say she regretted parting ways with him, but that she thought she could have tried harder to help. She was very young, and it took years for her to be able to reconcile the fact that it wasn't her place to change Severus: it was his own.

As stated, she is very brave; in holding with the Gryffindor stereotype, this might suggest she's a bit of a martyr, prone to putting herself in the line of fire to spare someone else and willing to die for what she believes in (which she does in the end). Though she is a relatively good judge of character, she has had an instance or two wherein she put her trust in the wrong person, or, against her better judgement, relied on the decisions of others and effectively compromised her life or principles. She is strong, brave, and intelligent, but sometimes, she makes terrible choices.

In a nutshell, Lily is an essentially good person who tries to change the world without allowing it to change her, in return.

Powers and Abilities:

Lily is a witch, and was trained in magic at Hogwarts School, where she was Head Girl (suggesting her rather prodigious capabilities).

She is particularly adept at charms and potions, and, thanks to her association with the Order of the Phoenix, is also skilled in defensive magic.

More on Charms
More on Potions
More on Protective Enchantments and a list of Protective Spells for your perusal.

It is not unusual for wizards and witches to use wandless magic, and in her canon Lily was shown to use it at will from an early age. However, this is limited to small charms and spells. This is important to note because she will not have her wand when she arrives, and even without the effects of the game's mechanics, would have been rendered mostly incapable of spellwork save those little tricks here and there.

As to weaknesses, she is not a particularly good duelist, nor is she adept at fighting hand-to-hand. In fact, physical violence is not her strong suit at all. She is of average strength and speed, average size and stamina. Her areas of expertise are planning and prevention, not confrontation.

Revised:

Lily is able to manipulate the world around her with the use of magic. Magic is described in Harry Potter as "a natural force that can be used to override the usual laws of nature". Wands are used as a tool to amplify magic, but "wandless magic" is also possible, though on a lesser scale.

Her skills lie in particular with charms, which are mostly-benevolent spells, such as levitation, the ability to repair broken objects, summon objects, send objects away, vanish objects, the creation of light, and the ability to translocate and to cool or warm an area.

She is also skilled in Transfiguration, which is the ability to change objects from one form to another, and Potions, which is like cooking, but with magic, and the end result has the same effect as Charms or Transfiguration.

Because she was Head Girl and a member of the Order of the Phoenix, it is safe to assume that she is extremely skilled, though it's likely she was not particularly good at dueling (like fencing, but with spells), as she shows in canon that she prefers words to hexes.


Samples
Network:
Today is Harry's birthday.

[And isn't that a rather prodigious statement from Lily, who doesn't often talk publicly about her son in the present-tense?]

For me, he would have been two. I'm sure he's...

[Much older now. She can't form those words; it's too close to acknowledging some things which she isn't quite ready to acknowledge.]

On his first birthday, Sirius bought him a toy broomstick because, of course, everyone knew he'd be just like his father: absolutely fearless. And he was, too. Harry could barely walk, but James helped him on it and off he went. It came as naturally to him as breathing. Flying and causing mayhem, just like his father.

[A beat.]

That stupid, dreadful broom.

[She gives a helpless, frustrated laugh.]

I knew James would never let him fall, of course, but...

[But? Nothing, really. She trails off and, for a long moment, says nothing. When she does speak again, her voice is somewhat more contained. More introspective.]

I hope his second birthday will be as happy for him as his first.

[After all, there are so many losses and terrible memories in between the two.]


Dear_Player Sample


Third Person:

Until now, Lily had kept one step ahead of her emotions, focused her attention on the here and now, the what next and where do I go and how can I of it all. This was no time to let her courage fail and her sorrow overwhelm her. She had to be strong and keep moving, if for no other reason than because there was no alternative; if she stopped, she had to remember, and if she remembered, it would all crash down on her like a wave.

But you can only run from the past for so long before it catches up with you, even if only to keep abreast of you long enough to remind you that it's hot on your heels. Now was one of those moments for her, when it was time to retire for the night, when things became quiet and she could hear the echoes of her own thoughts. Now, when she instinctively reached out as she so often had in life, feeling for James, but touched only an empty space in the bed beside her.

She withdrew her hand, curling it against her breast, tightly clasping it around its mate as she stared through the gloom at the place where he wasn't. Her teeth clenched against a lump in her throat which threatened to come out as a cry, or a scream; perhaps it would be nothing more than a shaken, weak breath, but she couldn't allow it. She couldn't take the risk. Her eyes stung from unshed tears too often blinked back and forgotten.

Don't do this. Not right now.

If she cried now, she wasn't certain she would stop. It was all too close, too recent, too real, and if she thought about it, the void beside her would begin to take form like a boggart: James, with his glasses askew, the gleam of their lenses giving false life to his eyes. She squeezed her own eyes shut, her brow furrowed in intense concentration, her lips pressed in a thin line.

Tomorrow, I will eat something before I go out. I will find better shoes if I can. I will explore another part of the city. I will...

One by one she listed off the things which Must Be Done, from the mundane act of brushing her teeth in the morning to the more important task of searching the city for things she was sure to need. This was how she lulled herself to sleep each night: counting tasks like sheep, fighting a different battle than those she fought during the day, reminding herself that this was no place or time for grief.