Is Lily really the same age as James?

[dorapye]

No: HPFGUIDX 89528

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ghinghapuss" 
<rredordead at a...> wrote:
> I have a question regarding Lily Evens Potter.
> 
> Is she the same age as James Potter?
> 
> One reason this bothers me is in the pensive scene in Snape's 
Worst 
> Memory, Chapter 28, OotP - American Ed., there is no mention of 
Lily 
> in the exam room.  She comes in to our conscious as sitting by the 
> lake outside.  It strikes me as odd that after the jolt of seeing 
his 
> father in front of him in the Great Hall, Harry doesn't look for 
his 
> mum.  Harry's attention is taken from James back 4 rows to Sirius, 
> then on to Remus and then he thinks Peter must be here somewhere 
and 
> actively looks for him before he finds Pettigrew sitting a few 
desks 
> away.  Harry doesn't even think of looking for his mother.  Does 
> anyone else think this is odd?  
> 
> Why wouldn't JKR have put Lily in the Great Hall if she is the 
same 
> age and would be also sitting her DADA OWL?  Wouldn't James have 
> glanced toward Lily after striking out the 'L.E.' he had doodled 
on 
> his paper?  If he, as a 15 year old boy (with sex on the brain), 
was 
> crushing on the girl that much, I imagine any thought of her would 
> take his attention over to where she would be. 

dorapye:
Hi Mandy. I actually thought she *was* in the exam room, amongst 
the 'gang of chattereing girls' that eventually heads off towards 
the lake.  Heres's my canon:

Ootp p566 (UK Ed) '
Harry looked around and glimpsed Snape a short way away, moving 
between the tables towards the doors of the Entrance Hall, still 
absorbed in his exam paper....
A gand of chattereing girls separated Snape from James, Sirius and 
Lupin, and by planting himslef in their midst, Harry managed to keep 
Snape in sight while strainin ghis ears to catch the voices of James 
and his friends.'

As they head out onot the lawns, we assume that Harry has manafgted 
to detach himself from the crowd of students leaving the exam hall 
as later on p567

'To his intense relief, however, when James and his three friends 
strode off down the lawn towards the lake, Snape followed, still 
poring over the exam paper and apparently with no fixed idea of 
where he was going. By keeping a little ahaead of him, harry managed 
to maintain a close watch on James and the others.'

The gang of girls are not emtnioned here. Then on p568:
'The sunlight was dazzling on the smooth surface of the lake, on the 
bank of which the group of laughing girls who had just left the 
Great hall were sitting, with their shoes and socks off, cooling 
their feet in the water.'

The same gang of girls that Harry got stuck amongst as he left the 
Great hall, agreed?

Whilst James is playing with the snitch on p568:
'Harry noticed that his afther had a habit of rumpling his hairas 
though to keep it from getting too tidy, and he also kept looking 
over at teh girls by the water's edge.'

James seems to know Lily is sitting amongst these girls, would you 
agree?

Then on p570:

'"Leave Hhim ALONE!"
James and Sirius looked round. James's free hand immediately jumped 
to his hair.
It was one of the girls from the lake edge.  She had thick, dark red 
hair that fell to her shoulders, and startlingly green almond-shaped 
eyes - Harry's eyes.'

So, Lily was amongst the girls who had just left the exam.  Was she 
amongst the group as they left the Great Hall?  It's quite likely 
that the gang of girls leaving the Hall would have loitered round 
the Entrance Hall or the steps outside to gather other friends as 
they emerged from the exam and *then* head off to the lake, and this 
would explain how Harry detaches himslef from the gang of girls.  
So, if you find it hard to believe that Harry would lurk amongst a 
gang of girls and not notice that one of them was his 15/16 year old 
mother, that can be explained away easily.

So, from the text, I conclude that Lily *was* in the exam and is 
therefore the same age as James & co.  

As to why Harry didn't look for her amongst the students in the 
Hall, the only explanation I can suggest is that when Harry enters 
the exam room, the exam is nearly over, and he has only just picked 
out the faces of Snape and the Marauders before Flitwick 
announces "Quills down!" and then everyone is getting out of their 
seats and milling around the Entrance Hall.  Perhaps if Harry had 
had a little longer to search about the Hall, he may have located 
her.

As to why James was not looking in Lily's direction during the exam, 
but managed a backwards glance to Sirius (after first checking that 
Flitwick wasn't looking) well, it could be that he could not see her 
easily from where he was sitting.  She may have been in a far corner 
of the Hall, somewhere he'd struggle to turn to discretely.

Anyway.  Hope this has helped your quest, one way or the other.
dorapye