Perfect Lily (Re: But DID James listen?)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 150065

Sherry now:
> Oh, absolutely, I agree with you.  But JKR seems to have done her
> best to demolish every single father figure in the story, while
> keeping the mothers pure and perfect.  Except for Tom's mother of 
> course.  Having grown up with my father who did his best to give me
> a great life, and not missing my mother at all, who didn't want me 
> because of my disabilities, I get irritated at the cliché of bad
> father and holy mother.  I do agree that Lily did what any *parent*
> would have done.  And I'm sure she was a great girl and would have
> been fun to know, through the books.  But she becomes this symbol of
> pure perfection somehow, and I'd just like to see her have a few
> flaws, to make her more human and believable.

Jen: I feel like Sherry on this one, Lily may have been cheeky, 
imperfect and 'would have done well in Slytherin' (ambitious? 
cunning?), but we haven't seen it yet. 

I wouldn't want to find out something like we saw in the Pensieve 
scene with James & Snape, just something.....well, to know she 
*struggled* sometimes.  Because so little has been revealed about her, 
it sounds like everybody liked her, she always made the right and 
morally superior choice and so on. I'd just like to know she could be 
more like Harry sometimes, wavering between impulses or knowing she 
isn't making a good choice but doing it anyway. You know, *human*!!

Hey, wait, you know what? I just thought maybe that perfection thing 
was her particular struggle and that's why she was attracted to James. 
She saw someone more daring than she was, less 'perfect', less careful 
about the rules and not always doing the right thing. Things she might 
have wanted to cultivate in herself, but couldn't? 

Another option, maybe there's a reason Snape called her Mudblood 
besides just being nasty (and embarassed, imo). Maybe, just maybe, 
perfect Lily had snubbed him. Not just given him the polite brush-off, 
but actually laughed at the idea she could ever be with him. Then when 
she tried to do the right thing in a public forum (maybe even a few 
years later?), it's too little, too late in Snape's opinion. I would 
personally rather find out Lily grew into her compassion over time, 
like James grew into his strengths.

Also, since James and Sirius 'eyed her wand warily' in the Pensive, it 
might be fun to find out those toerags were on the end of a few Bat 
Bogey Hexes, wouldn't it?!?

Jen R., thinking it unlikely any of JKR's characters are going to get 
out of the story unscathed and perfect, though Lily appears to be the 
last hold-out at the moment.