[HPforGrownups] Re: Why NOT Lily? (was: Lily, Harry, and Voldemort's demise)

[Jesta Hijinx]

No: HPFGUIDX 42308

With my usual "Rowling can do anything she wants" caveat...:-)

I am not seeing as big of an "everyone needs to be related" theme in HP as, 
say, in the "Star Wars" mythos (just pulling that from off the top of my 
head - not suggesting SW is HP's greatest parallel, either).  It's a world 
of magic; everyone has supernatural powers (as we understand "natural" and 
"supernatural" to begin with) as it is.

There may be certain traits that are bloodline-linked - the opening of the 
CoS, as a huge starter.

I also tend to think of the powers of wizardry as likely to be something 
akin to a genetic mutation - and not an uncommon one.  It suddenly springs 
up, as in the case of Hermione or Lily, in a child of muggle parents.  And 
it seems to be able to fade out over generations - as with Argus Filch, 
perhaps.

Without a closer knowledge that would trace generations, I can't soundly 
theorize on that line, although it seems to be one avenue for what might 
happen - there doesn't seem to be any kind of expectation that it would 
suddenly appear, as with Hermione, and then disappear with her children.

Take James and Lily as an example - James is evidently from a long wizarding 
line (my guess is he's the heir to Gryffindor - I suspect "Godric's Hollow" 
is the old family seat), and Lily is the wizard equivalent of "nouveau 
riche" (only in a metaphorical sense) - yet Hagrid speaks of both of Harry's 
parents as "what yer parents were".  There is sound expectation of Harry's 
abilities and prospects *based on what his parents were*, and not what his 
environment was.

But...I would be really disappointed, personally, if everyone significant 
was related by blood rather than that they were in each others' lives 
because it's a community, there's no escaping that the wizarding world in 
Britain seems to be an integrated and newsy community, and this was how they 
impacted each other.  I don't think Lily is Voldemort's daughter; I think 
she and Petunia are the daughters of the Evans family, who are muggles 
(aren't there some snide remarks about Lily's parentage in there somewhere?  
I can't remember today).  I do think Snape was in love with Lily in school; 
I think he probably pursued her to whatever degree one does in school, tried 
to get her to go out with him, but she was already in love with James.

I doubt James had to contest much with Severus for Lily's affections; I 
suspect he never was her cup of tea, and probably she tried to let him down 
gently - whether he took it outwardly well or not is questionable but that 
wouldn't leave him thrilled with James.  My take on James' attitude towards 
Severus is that Severus had long been a favorite target of the Fab Four, and 
that his crush on his girl didn't make him more or less of one - but he did 
end up saving his life, the same as he would any other Hogwarts student 
who'd wound up in danger, and probably that also didn't make him feel more 
or less positive towards Severus.  Just "oh, well, that's how it wound up".

Felinia


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