Lily and James, a hpappy couple?

[Richard]

No: HPFGUIDX 82600

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Lady Of The Pensieve" 
<chrissilein at y...> wrote:
<snip>
> Then I read the discription of the photo Moody showed Harry I
> was perplexed when I read it was Pettigrew who sat between Lily
> and James. Text:
> "His mother and father were beaming up at him, sitting on either
> side of a small, watery-eyed man ......" The Woes Of Mrs Weasley
> page 158, UK edition.
<snip>

I think you are reading too much into this passage.  I know a number 
of very happy couples who aren't "arm in arm" with each other ... 
except in private, when they are a bit more than "arm in arm."  Part 
of what *I* think distinguishes these from other couples I know is 
confidence.  Each is confident of his or her beloved's love, and 
thus, though they ENJOY each other's company, don't feel driven to 
weld themselves together in the company of others ... when they feel 
free to mingle, talk, etc., separately *OR* together.

As for Lupin's response to Harry saying that he heard James' voice, I 
think that is no more than that James was Lupin's close friend, while 
Lily was, though on friendly terms, James' wife first and foremost, 
rather than Lupin's friend.  Lily didn't not seriously enter into 
Lupin's life EXCEPT as James' enamorata, then wife.

This all raises an interesting point, which is one of exegesis.  It 
is all to easy for one to read things into a text, rather than simply 
reading out of the text what is there.  I've seen a great deal of the 
former, round these parts, often leading to theories that are at odds 
with canon.  JKR doesn't help matters by so consistently dropping 
little clues that cannot be fully appreciated except in retrospect, 
but that doesn't change my belief that some of us (perhaps all of us, 
at times, myself included) need to exercise a bit more circumspection 
when trying to analyze Potterian canon.

It seems as if some readers are too tightly wound into the story, and 
their opinions of how it should develop, rather than treating it as I 
think it should be, which is as a very good story, to be read so that 
it unfolds itself, rather than being in any sense required to unfold 
according our personal expectations.  Given JKR's ability to keep us 
all surprised, I think it best to let her write the end of this tale 
as she sees fit, rather than entrenching ourselves in opinions that 
may prove at odds with the tale itself.

So, back to the point, if James and Lily are a happy couple ... or 
not ... let's allow JKR to tell us in the fullness of the tales 
time ... or not.  If it matters she'll tell us, if not, she likely 
won't.  But, it is her tale, after all.


Richard