Perfect Lily /Father Figures

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 150074

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at ...> wrote:
> Jen: Running with this a moment, I'm wondering about the things 
> Harry struggles with rather than acting intuitively on. That might 
> well be a clue to Lily's personality, unless his weak spots are all 
> similar to James' struggles.
<snip>

Annemehr:
I feel a strong temptation to look to Ginny for clues to the
personality of Lily. :P

We still have the "really huge" thing about Lily to find out in book
7, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find that it would be
something that will cause many long, back-and-forth threads here about
the morality, or lack of it, involved.

Jen:
> 1) Following rules--James
> 2) Not acting impulsively or recklessly--James
> 3) Playing the hero--?? Maybe Lily could be like Hermione at times, 
> saving people/creatures who don't ask to be saved or going about it 
> in the wrong way. Snape could qualify in the Pensive scene, maybe 
> even Petunia if Lily tried to change her into someone she wasn't.
> 4) Not taking schoolwork seriously enough--James sounds more likely, 
> although both parents were good in school.

Annemehr:
5) A tendency to judge people quickly and then refuse to rethink?
 
> Rebecca:
> > We're dealing with an author who has had father troubles, so
> > naturally one would suspect that her perception of fatherhood 
> > could be impacted even in her writing. 
> 
> Jen: I'm not sure her motivation, she did say in the TIME article 
> that she didn't realize most of her father figures were 'bad' until 
> looking over the first five books in publication. So it was 
> subconcious most likely.

Annemehr:
She does have some very bad fathers, yes - but I don't think it's all
*that* skewed. Molly and Arthur are very well matched; Amos Diggory
was just fine; Luna seems quite happy with hers, as was Hagrid with
his. Lupin's was included in the phrase "my parents tried everything;"
we have no reason to think ill of Frank Longbottom; and James Potter,
whatever "Ancient Magic" thought of it, gave his life trying to defend
his son.  Dumbledore is a beloved father *figure,* and on the other
hand, it is Sirius Black's *mother* we hear the worst of, and Seamus's
mother who turns against Dumbledore.

Annemehr