James Potter Dead????

[Tom Wall]

No: HPFGUIDX 57398

Peggy:
James is Lupin still!

Joe:
Not a bad idea, but in the scene where the shades come out of 
Voldemort's wand (page 667), Lily Potter tells him "Hang on, your 
father's coming." and then then Harry's father came of the wand and 
spoke to him. Even if Remus and James did switch bodies, Remus's 
spirit would look like Remus, not like James, because Jame's spirit 
would still be in Remus's body. The man in question looked like 
Harry, and was refered to as his father by Lily. I'm pretty sure 
James Potter is really dead, and Remus Lupin is really Remus Lupin 

Tom:
For the record, I am totally opposed to seeing a live James or Lily 
in any of these books - that'd be the best way to take a great story 
and make it instantaneously corny. Tearful reunion of orphaned son 
with long-thought-dead parents who are really alive. 

Oh brother.

Although, to be a devil's advocate here, technically what we saw in 
GoF was not James' 'spirit,' but rather an 'echo' of the living 
James. Dumbledore tells us that what Harry saw was "an echo... which 
retained Cedric's appearance and character." (GoF, US paperback, 
Ch.36)

In other words, *if* Lupin and James pulled a spirit-switcheroo, 
that might not necessarily be evident from the echoes Harry sees 
during Priori Incantantem. So, it would be possible for Echo!James 
to still resemble the real James, since we aren't told that the 
spirits of the dead have anything to do with it.

Still, I hope that this is a technicality that JKR doesn't need to 
ever explain in more detail, because I'm keeping my fingers crossed 
that Harry's parents are really dead. Not that I want them dead, you 
see, just that I don't think I could stand the melodrama. ;-)

-Tom