Headcanon for Lily Potter

[thricedefied]

Regarding James Potter

First, I want to go over the information canon gives us with regards to Lily and James: until her sixth or seventh year, Lily had nothing but disdain for James due to his habitual bullying and arrogance. Sometime in seventh year, he supposedly won her over, proving somehow that he had changed. At eighteen, after their Hogwarts years, she married him.

At twenty, in the midst of an ongoing war against Voldemort, she gave birth to Harry.

So, here are my headcanon points:

1. Lily and James wouldn't have lasted as a couple. James is shown to have changed a little from what we saw of him at fifteen, but given the information beyond that (short stories and anecdotes from Rowling about flying motorbikes and restaurant pissing contests with the Dursleys), it's clear he didn't change that much. Looking at Sirius' behaviour in the series and the way he talks about James, it's pretty safe to say they probably exacerbated each others' lesser qualities.

I think Lily had a propensity for both platonically and romantically matching herself up with people for whom she thought she could be a positive influence. As with Snape, she thought she could change James for the better. This isn't an uncommon motivation for a good many people: they love a person, and so they enter into the relationship with the hope that, with time and consistent "help", the other person will change to the ideal. The reality of the situation is the relationship is more likely to suffer before the person makes the necessary changes. I have no doubt she loved him, but I don't believe he would have proven to be the great love of her life. Had they lived, I think Lily's marriage to James might have lasted until Harry had begun attending primary school or Hogwarts.

A good many characters in the canon talk about how much she loved him, but the fact of the matter is that marriages aren't built on love alone, but on compatibility. In the end, if James continued to act the way he did, it's highly unlikely that they would have continued to be compatible.

2. They lasted as long as they did because of the war. Nothing forges a bond so well as a shared enemy. I think James and Lily became as close as they did during that time because they were fighting for the same side (with the Order); they relied upon one another, trusted one another, and drew strength from their shared experiences and mutual understanding. They were probably excellent allies and close friends, and perhaps the fear inspired by such uncertain times might have fueled the immediate desire for intimacy, marriage, and family.

That said, once the war ended those bonds would have dissolved and their marriage (and the problems therein) would have become a more present and pressing issue.

3. Harry was unexpected. While I hesitate to say that all couples during that time were reluctant to start families (after all, life can't simply be put on hold even in times of war), they were an exceptional case. It seems completely ridiculous to imagine that Lily and James were planning a family while fighting Voldemort with the Order of the Phoenix. By the time Harry was born, the war was in full swing and they had stood toe-to-toe with Voldemort three times. After his birth, they were forced to go into hiding (granted, because of his birth and the related prophecy, but with the political climate it simply couldn't have been unusual.) It just doesn't seem logical that they would have found it to be the right time for kids.

More to come.






Regarding Severus Snape

Whoo boy.

1. Lily was not in love with Severus. To begin, I absolutely, unequivocally, without a single shred of doubt do not believe Lily would ever have ended up with him for a plethora of reasons, not limited to the following:

- As stated above, Lily sees herself as a positive influence on those with whom she interacts. She began, from an early age, to try and shape and mould Severus into a "good person". We see their relationship begin to crumble as early as the first train ride to Hogwarts, with the look she gives him during their discussion regarding Petunia. By fifteen years of age, when she's cusping on womanhood, she shows no interest in him save for their friendship, and finally washes her hands of him because...

- He was, from all appearances, a bigot. During his Hogwarts years, he affiliated himself with a hate group formed specifically to subjugate people like Lily. Whether he, himself, fully believed the politics of his friends, he certainly behaved as though he did, and that was enough to cause a greater rift between him and Lily.

- Now, on a lesser scale, there were also issues of class: Severus came from a poor, working-class home, whereas Lily was likely middle-class. These were the 60s and 70s in Britain and it is highly unlikely that her parents would have approved of her dating someone from his social stratum. We can see this reflected in Petunia's remark about the location of his home: at such a young age, regardless of what approval we may see from the Evanses about Lily's status as a witch, Petunia had to have picked up that bias somewhere.

It is stated by Rowling that Lily loved him as a friend, and might have developed romantic feelings for him had he not been so involved in the Dark Arts. I think it's entirely possible that she might have been willing to overlook the aforementioned issue of class and even his generally poor behaviour and would have given him a chance, but unfortunately, his bigotry and investment in the Dark Arts became insurmountable odds.

2. Post-Canon (in games), Lily wouldn't end up with Severus, regardless of his love for her. This man is partly responsible for her death and that of her husband. The moment she learned that information, she would be devastated.

The likeliest way a romantic relationship could ever form between them is if it was built on a pack of lies, and even then...time will out. Especially in games. (This is not taking into consideration games with memory loss.) Beyond that, it would take extraordinary circumstances, cooperation between players, and a lot of time. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but it's highly unlikely unless a good deal of effort is put into it.

More to come.





Sirius Black

In canon, we know that Sirius stood with James at his wedding, that James went carousing with Sirius on motorbike, that he was Harry's godfather, and that Lily remained in communication with him via letters.

In holding with the aforementioned fact that Sirius really didn't change between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five and Lily's reaction to his antics throughout her teenage years, I'm of the opinion that she didn't like him.

I think she tolerated him because he was her husband's best friend, and probably kept her opinions of him to herself and continued to communicate with him to keep the peace. This was likely because, in a household which needs to remain close and and loyal, forcing James to choose between her and Sirius would have caused resentment; there would have been an insurmountable rift which they could ill-afford in the midst of a war.

So, as she might have were Sirius James' brother or father, she grinned and bore it, was eminently polite and treated him like family because it was what would keep her marriage together.





Remus Lupin

There is a broad difference between the relationship Lupin speaks of in the movies and that which isn't mentioned at all in the books. There seems to be the insinuation that Lupin of the movieverse was in love with Lily, and perhaps she fancied him, in return. In the books, this isn't evident at all.

Lily probably got along with Lupin far better than she did with James and Sirius as a teenager, and continued to do so well into adulthood. I think they were friends, but not as close as his was with Sirius, James, and Peter. After all, Lily had her own circle of friends with whom she interacted; dating James didn't confine her to strict interaction with no one but the Marauders, and it's more likely that her very close friendships were formed with girls her own age.

They were both prefects, and it's possible they interacted on that level and an educational one, and I'm sure she was nice to him, but I sincerely doubt she was any friendlier with him than Hermione Granger is with Neville Longbottom.