James and Lily's "halos"

[Jacqueline Hendries]

No: HPFGUIDX 42155

Eric said:

>>> I know that this is going to shock some people, but I honestly 
think that James and Lily have acquired posthumous halos more for the 
way they died and because we see them through Harry's eyes, and that 
they may well have been flawed, fallible human beings---and could 
have gone through a period as teenagers where they were perfectly 
horrible to their less socially successful peers. <<<

And I reply...

I agree that the MWPP/L group was probably not 100% perfect during
their adolescence, but then, NOBODY was. However, from the way that
everyone seemed to react to their deaths (ie. McGonagall in chapter 1
of SS: "Oh no, not the *Potters*!!"), in their early adulthood, they
were very well liked and well respected in the wizarding community.
Granted that part of this was probably because of the way in which they
died, but it seems to me that they were regarded as really good people.
And, if the estimates on the Lexicon and elsewhere are true, James and
Lily were both only in their *very* early 20s (21 or 22) when they died
- really young for wizards, and just barely out of their own
adolescence. 

Personally, I imagine that they were no more horrible than the Trio is,
and they're pretty angelic for teenagers. We all know that MWPP were
little troublemakers, but in an endearing way ;) and I'm guessing that
Lily, if anything, was a tormentee, not a tormentor. Remember, she was
a "Mudblood" during the rise of Voldemort, and as such probably had
other things to worry about. I'm not even sure that this group had an
intense rivalry with Snape, a la Trio vs. Malfoy, let alone picked on
him purposefully; Snape seems the type who may have loathed them from
afar (aside from the Whomping Willow incident, of course). I think if
any of the Marauders seems the type to be brash and condescending, it's
Sirius. The whole Whomping Willow thing only serves to prove that James
was a "nice guy," particularly if you believe that he and Snape were
practically mortal enemies.

I'm not saying they were perfect as students, but I doubt they were
really horrible to anyone... not infallible, not without their flaws,
but overall, they were probably nice, good people.

~ Aloha

=====
jackie04 at brandeis.edu

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