TBAY: (SHH) JAM TAKES BIBS--Very Long

[boyd_smythe]

No: HPFGUIDX 107977

[Note: Skip down to the divider if you don't appreciate TBAY, but just 
want to read the theory.]

"No thanks!" Boyd shouted to the LOLLIPOPS vendors. "I'm just out for 
a little jog today--but thanks, anyway!"

Feeling the sand scrunch between his toes, he almost didn't notice 
that he had reached the dark edge of TBay.

Peering into the overgrown darkness that blocked the beach along this 
shore, he whispered to no one in particular, "I wonder if it's true 
that acromantulas live here." Despite the dense undergrowth, the 
silence was oppressive, as if no creature was daring enough to set 
foot in this forbidden zone.

Steeling his courage, Boyd said loudly, "what's the worst that could 
happen." And with that, he began wading through the heavy branches, 
leaves and vines that seemed to grab at him like a sentient wall.

Looking high up in the canopy, he noticed some flotsam that looked as 
though it had been blown out of the water ages ago, perhaps by a 
singularly aggressive GARBAGE SCOW attack. On its side, it read, 
"betrayal!" Puzzled, Boyd continued, feeling an eerie dread creep over 
him.

Further on, he stepped over a giant dark beam of a ship with "Squib" 
written on it. Squib? Boyd thought. I haven't even seen a ship like 
that before.

Without warning, he reached an impassable tower of thorny vines. Using 
OCCAM'S RAZOR, he cut a hole and found himself in an uncharted 
clearing that housed a small hut and, impossibly, a....

"Ship! What the heck is that doing here?"

>From out of the small hut stepped a very old, very dirty, very ugly 
house elf. It croaked happily, "At last a new master has come. What is 
your command, sir?"

Flabbergasted (and repulsed), Boyd blurted, "What in the world is this 
ship, and what is it doing here?"

"This, sir," the ancient elf intoned, "is the ship that no one wants 
to mention, though it has passed through the nightmares of many. It is 
'(SHH) JAM TAKES BIBS,' or (Squib Harry Hated) James Allowed Marvolo 
To Avada Kedavra Evans' Son But It Backfired Severely."

-------TBAY Suspended-------

One of the curiosities of this series is that we know so little about 
the background of the main character: what were his parents like? what 
about them made Harry special? what happened at Godric's Hollow?

Apparently JKR does not want Harry (or us) to find out these answers, 
and I suggest that she has good reasons: the plot revolves around 
them.

So let's start asking the questions that Harry should be asking.

Leading question #1: what do we know about Lily? She is a half-blood, 
because according to JKR's website, her grandparents (some here think 
JKR meant to say her parents) were muggles. So some muggle blood in 
her. We also know she was a talented Gryffindor (a Head Girl) with a 
particular ability in charms (SS5). And she cares about others, as she 
demonstrates in Snape's pensieve memory.

Leading question #2: how did LV know that Peter was the secret-keeper? 
Only four people knew: Peter, Sirius, James and Lily, so one of them 
told LV or his agents. We have assumed it was Peter who ran to LV, but 
is this reasonable to expect from such a scared little rat?

Leading question #3: why change secret-keepers at the last minute from 
James' best friend (Sirius) to Peter? Even if Sirius expressed 
concerns, even if Sirius was known to be James' best friend, why 
change? At least Sirius would have a better chance to hide and/or run 
from LV if needed, given his apprent magical abilities.

Leading question #4: did James really change or did he remain 
self-centered post-Hogwarts? Not much evidence here, but any change to 
become a swell guy would have been pretty incongruous next to the 
pensieve scene and his Marauders antics. We do know that James must 
have had no empathy at all when he made weak-minded Peter the 
secret-keeper. Hadn't they all hung out constantly for the last few 
years? Serious lack of personal skills to so misread a supposedly 
close friend.

Leading question #5: Why did Lily's sister called him "that awful boy" 
(OoP2)? Was she jealous? Hated magic back then, too? Or was James 
really awful, as in self-centered, little empathy, arrogant.

These questions, taken individually, can each be answered to James' 
benefit. But taken together, they suggest an alternative no one wants 
to look at here, because it's so sad: James was the betrayer.

How? Well, with some muggle blood in Lily's veins, maybe Harry was 
born a virtual squib of baby!Neville-level abilties or worse. James, a 
pureblood, is appalled, ashamed, and in his self-cenetered way, sees 
the child as not merely worthless, but a liability. So he decides to 
let LV kill it. Changes secret-keepers to the more easily blamed (and 
more easily eliminated) Pettigrew. Gets the word to LV that Peter 
knows the location, and that LV can come take the child if he leaves 
him and Lily alone.

You see, James does love Lily. She's beautiful (OoP28), powerful at 
charms (SS5), and most of all, puts up with his git-ness. He assumes 
that, as she has done with him three times before (OoP37), Lily will 
run away with him from LV. But this time there is also the child. 
James believes she will leave it to save her own skin--it's what he'd 
do.

Unfortunately, Lily runs to the other room to save Harry. Shocked, 
possibly torn between saving himself and leaving Lily, James pauses 
too long and is AK'd. Goodbye, James the Betrayer. While LV disposes 
of James, Lily places the charm of blood-protection on Harry before LV 
can eliminate him. The rest is literary history.

Oh, yes, and now dead James hates LV for killing him, so that when he 
emerges from the wand during the Priori Incantatem, he tries to stop 
LV.

Yucky? Yes. Explain a lot? Yes. Believable? You tell me.

-------Resume TBAY-------

"Yes," said Boyd to the wizened old elf, "I think the others should 
see this vessel. Sail it out on the TBay, until others fire enough 
holes into it to end its life. Or until it is proven to be the ugly 
truth."

--boyd
who is not sure of he believes this, but is sure he believes that it's 
possible, big and bangy! fire away!