good and bad slytherins/Disappointment and Responsibility

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 175187

Debbie:

> The Lily who wrote the letter to Sirius from Godric's 
> Hollow sounds as though she's been corrupted by James 
> and Sirius (with its airy tone and unnecessary dig at 
> Petunia). James seems just as cocky as ever. This is 
> a bit off the topic of Sirius, but JKR has completely 
> failed to convince me that after Lily's principled 
> rejection of Snape she would substitute his tormentors 
> (and Sirius remained Snape's tormentor until his death, 
> so this was not an adolescent thing) as her best male 
> friends, and in the case of James, her lover and husband.

houyhnhnm:

I had the same reaction to the letter.  I find Lily's 
marriage to James mystifying as well.  My admittedly 
non-canon based (because there is no canon) explanation 
to myself is that James was the lover and Lily the beloved.  
He pursued her.  He was rich, handsome, and charming  
and she allowed herself to be won because she wanted 
marriage and a family in small inbred society in which 
there weren't a lot of options.  I even get a little bit 
of a whiff of some kind of rebound thing going on.  Rowling 
has said that Lily might have come to love Snape romantically 
if he hadn't chosen a path she could not follow.  It is a 
literary cliche after all, the woman who must finally give 
up on the outcast who has her heart and marry the 
respectable "good marriage prospect" whom she doesn't 
really love, but for whom she strives to make good on her vows.