I solemnly swear that I am up to no good

Hello!

It's not my idea originally, but I cannot remember which of the brilliant bloggers made this comparison.

Here's some of the similarities as I see them:

James and Tonks are both only children.

They both seem to like being the centre of attention: Tonks doing her faces at dinner; James playing with the Snitch.

They both joined the war very young: Tonks straight out of Auror training; James straight out of school

If we accept the prequel as canon, you see some of young James (and Sirius) as they start getting involved in the war; yes there's a seriousness in them: "But neither James nor Sirius was paying attention. They were suddenly as alert as gundogs, staring past Fisher and Anderson, over the roof of the police car, at the dark mouth of the alley. Then, with identical fluid movements, they reached into their back pockets." but they're also joking around (Elvendork anyone?!) and clearly excited to be part of something bigger (t-shirts). Tonks is the same. She's a good dueller; she is an Auror, but in OOTP she also gives the whole vibe of I am joining this fun cool underground movement.

Tonks clearly likes Quidditch: she literally gives Harry a model of the firebolt; a broom she cannot shut up about. And James… well need I say anything on the matter?

She will forever live rent free in james’ head

james’ owl doesn’t like remus because it has a vendetta against werewolves.

james takes remus owl shopping in order to buy an owl who specifically loves remus.

“hey, can i please buy an owl?”

“yeah, sure, what’s your criteria?”

“MUST love remus,” james says, as if that’s a perfectly normal condition, on absolutely everyone’s check-list.

he ends up buying the most conventionally ‘ugly’ owl in the shop.

These are photos taken by Robert Landsburg of the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. He realized he would never get to safety in time, so he kept taking pictures of the ash cloud for as long as possible. Then he put the camera securely in his bag and lay down on top of it to protect it before being engulfed in the pyroclastic flow. When they found his body, the recovered the pictures were invaluable to geologists because no one had ever been able to document an eruption that close up before.

I was here. I explored. I saw this. Remember me.

He doesn't believe in it as in a faith system the way many purebloods do - which is why he can find use in powerful wizards/witches regardless of their heritage - but he takes advantage of it in a political way. Remember that he thinks the halfblood child is more dangerous to him than the pureblood one re: the prophecy.

I think my over exposure (early in my fandom life) to school shagger/ sex pest Sirius made me really dislike the trope that he dated loads. But also in my analysis of his character, he’s pretty selective about who he spends time with. He’s way more polite than he’s often depicted as, but he also doesn’t suffer fools lightly- so I can’t see him tolerating dating people for the sake of it. I can see him going out on a few dates (with people who he deems clever or interesting) but his friendships would’ve always taken priority over any kind of romantic life.

I do think he was probably widely fancied, but given that Bellatrix literally tries to “trim the family tree” when Tonks marries Remus, I imagine there was a real danger in who he dated. He was related to active Death Eaters, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that if he publicly got involved with the wrong person in their eyes, they’d consider an honour killing (for want of a better term) and that would probably make him even more reluctant to date seriously.

At school, I think overall, he was just one of those people who’s effortlessly good at everything, and I do wonder how much jealousy that stirred. Because when someone is that good-looking, people tend to react in one of two extreme ways, either they’re deferential to the point of fawning, or they absolutely hate you. You become an object of projection (Good looks can be as much of a curse as they are a gift).

If you actually asked people for personal stories about going to school with him, most wouldn’t have much beyond, distant politeness or “oh yeah, I saw him break someones nose once.” Because I do think he got into fights. He’s a very physical fighter even in the Ministry battle (literally shoulder slams Dolohov) so I can absolutely see him getting into fist fights especially around the time he leaves his family. And on top of all that, I really don’t see him enjoying being part of the school rumour mill

I know Remus calls him and James “the height of cool,” but these are the same people who had stupid nicknames for each other and spent years as amateur cartographers. Sirius was thought of as cool because he was hot ( I said what I said) because this is a guy who remixed A Christmas Carol and willingly called himself Snuffles, he absolutely had a ridiculous side, we just don’t get to see it because by the time we meet him, he’s been so prison-hardened.

Cradling him close to his chest as he takes him to St Mungos, learning how to heal wounds and stop rampages and how to educate