James Potter and the Dark Arts (was Re: The Huge overreactions

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 150190

 
> Joe: 
> I thought some of those very same things honestly. I also wondered 
> why no one stood up for Snape until Lily. If it had been Neville or 
> Luna as you mention lower someone would have done something. How do 
> you end up with no one in an entire school liking you? Is the 
problem 
> everyone else in the school or is it you?

Potioncat:
Of the students who were around, "Some looked apprehensive, some 
entertained." So I'd say the apprehensive ones didn't want to cross 
the Marauders. The ones being entertained either didn't care who the 
object was or liked the idea it was Severus.

We don't know where the other 5th year Slytherins were and it doesn't 
seem students from the other years would have been around there 
anyway. 
 
People steal Luna's belongings and she has to post requests for them 
back on the boards. Who is helping her? Being in the DA made her feel 
as if she had friends. 

This one is less certain, but when Draco performed the leg-locking 
curse on Neville, and he had to hop to the Common room. Who helped 
him? (He may have been in an empty corridor, and I'm not sure which 
book it was in.)In the current Gryffindor class, Harry and Ron are 
rarely hanging out with Seamus, Dean or even Neville. (It seems that 
Neville is the odd one out, as Seamus and Dean are called best 
friends.) 


We know Severus came up with some nasty hexes/curses; although we 
don't know if he used them at school and we don't know what motivated 
him to create them. I'm not trying to make Snape look better. He is 
what he is. But so is James. There is certainly a history between 
Snape and the Marauders by this point. But nothing has happened in 
the half hour or so before hand to justify what happens at this 
particular time. 

Compare this to the time Draco insulted both Lily and Molly. He had 
been taunting the Weasleys and Harry so much for so long, that I 
think the "attack" on Draco was justified. Even when she heard the 
whole story, McGonagall did not find it at all justified and was 
furious. I think she would have been even more upset at the Marauders.

    
> Joe: 
> Well at that point I imagine Lily was a bit embarassed at being 
> insulted by someone she was trying to help. I don't deny that 
James, 
> Sirius and probably dozens of others cast hexes and jinks at the 
drop 
> of a hat. In fact I would be surprised had it been otherwise.

Potioncat:
So, you think everyone at Hogwarts was hexing people just because 
they could? No wonder Severus creates those hexes! 

Sorry, couldn't resist. I'll grant you this, with people like Ginny 
and her bat-bogey hex and Hermione with her "sneak" hex, no one looks 
very good.
> 
    
>   Joe: 
> I am guessing that James hated the Dark Arts from the start and 
then 
> (probably) being exposed to Sirius's family made it worse.


> Joe:   
> Neither James or Sirius was perfect my any means. My main objection 
> is when someone attempts to make Snape look better by attempting to 
> make James look worse than he was. 
>    
> Only one of them ended up with a Dark Mark on his arm.

Potioncat:
Look, if you add up the points over time, James comes out ahead. I'm 
going to go out on a limb with this one: if (IF) **if** it turns out 
that Snape has been serving the Order all this time and if DD's death 
was in some way a continuation of that and Snape is still serving the 
Order...then pleasant guy or not, he is also being a hero to the 
cause. He made a very serious mistake (as did Regulus) and he had 
tried to make up for it. At the most he was a DE for a year or two, 
he's served the Order for much longer.



Potioncat:
I should have made this part a different post, but it ties in to this 
event. Sirius has said that James hated the Dark Arts, and it sounds 
as if he hated them at 11. Looking at the Black Family Tree as it 
appears at the Lexicon:
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/blackfamilytree.html

There is a Charlus Potter who marries a Dorea Black and they have one 
son. I don't think this couple is James's parents, but it could be an 
aunt and uncle. I wonder if something about Dorea led to James's hate 
for Dark Arts. Of course, we have no real idea how closely related 
James is to Charlus and there may be no connection at all. I just saw 
it as a possible explanation. Dorea is Sirius's great-aunt, but I 
wasn't looking at it as someone James met through Sirius, but someone 
he knew or had heard about at home.