Some more thoughts about Lily and the Marauders (LONG)

[liana_l_s]

No: HPFGUIDX 33860

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., pigwidgeonthirtyseven <pigwidgeon37 at y...> 
wrote:
> OK, so according to these assumptions, we have four young men none 
of whom is in a stable realationship, there might be the occasional 
flirt but nothing serious, and then there comes LILY. 

Personally, I do hope it doesn't go that way, but that's mostly 
because I've lived through that -exact- same scenario myself as the 
girlfriend! ^_^
 
I agree with the idea of there being some conflict introduced by 
Lily, because the dynamics of that sort of relationship - the close 
group of four friends plus the intruding girl - are very, very hard 
to deal with, and I'm sure there -were- problems at various points. 
But we do see the end result - the apparently happy couple (of course 
we don't know much about them but they -did- get married, have a kid 
and look happy!) and the two friends who still have a lot of love and 
respect for their old buddy. (I don't think Peter counts at this 
point, as we have no idea about his motivations. Who knows - maybe he 
DID have big problems with Lily of some form or another.) Given that, 
I'm assuming that even though there might have been some hostilities 
and awkwardnesses, the friendships between the Marauders and James' 
relationship with Lily stayed intact, and the Marauders had some 
degree of respect (or at least tolerance!) for Lily. (They don't talk 
about her much in Book 3, which I've just reread, but they do talk 
about her in the same way as they talk about James. Lily and James, 
Lily and James, Lily and James...)

I would imagine that Lily's relationship with the Marauders as a 
group went one of two ways: she either kept her distance from them, 
interacting mostly with James and being sweet and friendly with the 
others as she came in contact with them, or she became a sort of 
Marauders auxilliary, becoming friends with the other three. In 
either case, she would have to take care that such a situation as 
Suzanna describes did NOT come up - sacrificing some of what she 
might want to what James' friends might want. In that sort of 
situation you want the guys to be on your side enough to not resent 
you, and pushing your luck can result in angering or alienating 
someone you love. Or maybe their relationship came late in their time 
at Hogwarts, so that there wasn't a lot of time for anyone to have 
big problems with it, and it wasn't so much of a big deal, or the 
others were mature enough to understand it.
 
And who knows - now I push merrily on into complete speculation - 
Lily might have been the best thing that ever happened to James! One 
of my boyfriend's friends who has known him much longer than I have 
pointed out to my boyfriend that he's been a much happier and 
balanced person since he and I became a couple, and it's basically 
true and applies to me as well. It'd be hard to resent someone if she 
made your friend's life so much happier. Then again, that's my 
situation and not hers. 

Anyways, I do hope we learn more about Lily, and I 
do hope she doesn't turn out to be a friend-wrecking Slytherin!
 
Liana