James as head boy (Re: Voldemort's Intentions & Snape's Expectations (Hagrid))

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 189900


> Shelley:
> See for me, that maturity he showed with Lily and protection of his 
> family is a continuation of that sports theme- fiercely loyal to his 
> team (and house) in school, fiercely loyal to his girlfriend, mate and 
> newborn son. It's not replaced by a sense of responsibility as much as 
> his responsibility has been growing all along, right along with his need 
> for challenge and thrill. People who love personal challenges don't stop 
> being competitive. 


Pippin:
Thanks for the thoughtful post. There can be more than competitiveness to success in team sports. I finally got around to watching "The Blind Side" the other day, and that film, if you haven't seen it, is  about a football player who is unusually protective -- in the 98th percentile.  I hadn't thought about protectiveness as a discrete quality that could be measured before. But it's this quality, IMO, what JKR calls "chivalry", that sets Gryffindors apart. 

Though James's protectiveness isn't as great as  Harry's,  I do think James was above average, as symbolized by Harry's stag patronus. Lily's doe  suggests that  this is  what finally drew her to James -- once he had settled down and stopped hexing people for fun. I don't think he had some moral epiphany about it.   But Lily had made it clear that, unlike Dumbledore, she wasn't going to let herself fall for someone who didn't respect her values.  It's to James's credit that unlike Snape, he realized what she expected of him.  

Of course James never let Snape alone, but by that time Snape himself had changed. He didn't want to be left alone any longer,  he wanted to get revenge. I agree with Carol that James was never sorry for how he'd treated Snape, but I don't think he ever realized the harm he'd done either. He never considered Snape's feelings, or Peter Pettigrew's or the Muggle policemen in JKR's drabble, as worthy of much attention or notice.  That, more than thrill-seeking, was his glaring fault, which he shared with Sirius.  

I don't think the thrill-seeking side of James ever went away, but even more than that he would want to protect the things he loved if they were in danger. His last words were, "I'll hold him off"  not "I'll take him." So if he came to see the Head Boy's job as protecting the school rather than  telling people off for breaking rules, I think it would appeal to him. 

Shelley:
 Hagrid's goof, if it was that, simply 
> could have been the mistake that the "real head boy" was someone that 
> people barely remembered, he left that little of a mark in people's 
> minds. 

Pippin:
If James was a sort of de-facto head boy, it kind of undermines the argument that he wouldn't have been suited for it.

Pippin