ig|| prongshope

I’ve been thinking, and I decided to put this together, the actual canon picture we’re given of what James and Lily were like as a couple. Not what other people had to say about them. Not what they were like before they got together. Just the very little, tiny bit we see and know of THEM, together and with Harry. Let’s start:

PS Ch. 17

It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Harry opened it curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father.

PoA, Ch. 11

[Harry] stopped on a picture of his parents’ wedding day. There was his father waving up at him, beaming, the untidy black hair Harry had inherited standing up in all directions. There was his mother, alight with happiness, arm in arm with his dad. And there … that must be him.[Sirius]

GoF Ch.34

And now another head was emerging from the tip of Voldemort’s wand … and Harry knew when he saw it who it would be … he knew, as though he had expected it from the moment when Cedric had appeared from the wand … knew, because the woman appearing was the one he’d thought of more than any other tonight… .

The smoky shadow of a young woman with long hair fell to the ground as Bertha had done, straightened up, and looked at him … and Harry, his arms shaking madly now, looked back into the ghostly face of his mother.

　　"Your father’s coming …“ she said quietly. “He wants to see you … it will be all right.. . hold on… .”

　　And he came … first his head, then his body … tall and untidy-haired like Harry, the smoky, shadowy form of James Potter blossomed from the end of Voldemort’s wand, fell to the ground, and straightened like his wife. He walked close to Harry, looking down at him, and he spoke in the same distant, echoing voice as the others, but quietly, so that Voldemort, his face now livid with fear as his victims prowled around him, could not hear….

　　"When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments … but we will give you time… you must get to the Portkey, it will return you to Hogwarts … do you understand, Harry?“

　　"Yes,” Harry gasped, fighting now to keep a hold on his wand, which was slipping and sliding beneath his fingers.

　　"Harry …“ whispered the figure of Cedric, "take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents, …”

　　"I will,“ said Harry, his face screwed up with the effort of holding the wand.

　　"Do it now,” whispered his father’s voice, “be ready to run … do it now. …”

(I included this scene because while we’re never actually told whether these are the “real” spirits of these characters or just some sort of spell-imitation,  Harry certainly seems to treat Cedric’s shade (and its request) as though it were really Cedric speaking, so it’s only fair.) (plus James and Lily are dead and they’re still all about comforting and protecting their baby as a team that’s adorable)

DH Ch. 10 (Lily’s Letter)

Dear Padfoot,

Thank you, thank you, for Harry’s birthday present! It was his favorite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself. I’m enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the ground but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for Christmas (no complaints there). Of course James thought it was so funny, says he’s going to be a great Quidditch player but we’ve had to pack away all the ornaments and make sure we don’t take our eyes off him when he gets going.

We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda who has always been sweet to us and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn’t come, but the Order’s got to come first, and Harry’s not old enough to know it’s his birthday anyway! James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell – also Dumbledore’s still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much. Wormy was here last weekend. I thought he seemed down, but that was probably the next about the McKinnons; I cried all evening when I heard.

Bathilda drops in most days, she’s a fascinating old thing with the most amazing stories about Dumbledore. I’m not sure he’d be pleased if he knew! I don’t know how much to believe, actually because it seems incredible that Dumbledore (rest from Ch. 33)  could ever have been friends with Gellert Grindelwald. I think her mind’s going, personally!

Lots of love, Lily

DH, also Ch. 10

At last, lying facedown on the floor, [Harry] spotted what looked like a torn piece of paper under the chest of drawers. When he pulled it out, it proved to be most of the photograph that Lily had described in her letter. A black-haired baby was zooming in and out of the picture on a tiny broom, roaring with laughter, and a pair of legs that must have belonged to James was chasing after him. 

(rest from Ch. 33) Then [Snape] ripped in two the photograph he was also holding, so that he kept the part from which Lily laughed, throwing the portion showing James and Harry back onto the floor

DH Ch. 17 (Voldemort’s memory)

And along a new and darker street [Voldemort] moved, and now his destination was in sight at last, the Fidelius Charm broken, though [James and Lily] did not know it yet… And he made less noise than the dead leaves slithering along the pavement as he drew level with the dark hedge, and steered over it…

They had not drawn the curtains; he saw them quite clearly in their little sitting room, the tall black-haired man in his glasses, making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the small black-haired boy in his blue pajamas. The child was laughing and trying to catch the smoke, to grab it in his small fist…

A door opened and the mother entered, saying words he cold not hear, her long dark-red hair falling over her face. Now the father scooped up the son and handed him to the mother. He threw his wand down upon the sofa and stretched, yawning...

The gate creaked a little as he pushed it open, but James Potter did not hear. His white hand pulled out the wand beneath his cloak and pointed it at the door, which burst open…

He was over the threshold as James came sprinting into the hall. It was easy, too easy, he had not even picked up his wand…

“Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off!”

Hold him off, without a wand in his hand!… He laughed before casting the curse…

“Avada Kedavra!”

The green light filled the cramped hallway, it lit the pram pushed against the wall, it made the banisters glow like lighting rods, and James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut…

He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear… He climbed the steps, listening with faint amusement to her attempts to barricade herself in… She had no wand upon her either… How stupid they were, and how trusting, thinking that their safety lay in friends, that weapons could be discarded even for moments…

He forced the door open, cast aside the chair and boxes hastily piled against it with one lazy wave of his wand… and there she stood, the child in her arms. At the sight of him, she dropped her son into the crib behind her and threw her arms wide, as if this would help, as if in shielding him from sight she hoped to be chosen instead…

“Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!”

“Stand aside, you silly girl… stand aside, now.”

“Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead–”

“This is my last warning –”

“Not Harry! Please… have mercy… have mercy… Not Harry! Not Harry! Please – I’ll do anything –”

“Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!”

He could have forced her away from the crib, but it seemed more prudent to finish them all…

The green light flashed around the room and she dropped like her husband. The child had not cried all this time. He could stand, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked up into the intruder’s face with a kind of bright interest, perhaps thinking that it was his father who hid beneath the cloak, making more pretty lights, and his mother would pop up any moment, laughing –

He pointed the wand very carefully into the boy’s face: He wanted to see it happen, the destruction of this one, inexplicable danger. The child began to cry: It had seen that he was not James. He did not like it crying, he had never been able to stomach the small ones whining in the orphanage– 

“Avada Kedavra!”

JKR’s Pottermore blurb about Vernon and Petunia:

“The first meeting between Lily, her boyfriend James Potter, and the engaged couple [Vernon and Petunia], went badly, and the relationship nose-dived from there. James was amused by Vernon, and made the mistake of showing it. Vernon tried to patronise James, asking what car he drove. James described his racing broom. Vernon supposed out loud that wizards had to live on unemployment benefit. James explained about Gringotts, and the fortune his parents had saved there, in solid gold. Vernon could not tell whether he was being made fun of or not, and grew angry. The evening ended with Vernon and Petunia storming out of the restaurant, while Lily burst into tears and James (a little ashamed of himself) promised to make things up with Vernon at the earliest opportunity.

"This never happened. Petunia did not want Lily as a bridesmaid, because she was tired of being overshadowed; Lily was hurt. Vernon refused to speak to James at the reception, but described him, within James’ earshot, as ‘some kind of amateur magician’.

JK Rowling on James and Lily’s Patronuses

Chely: James patronus is a stag and lilys a doe is that a coincidence?

J.K. Rowling: No, the Patronus often mutates to take the image of the love of one’s life (because they so often become the ‘happy thought’ that generates a Patronus).

Coupled with this:

You know, for the next time some asshat tells you we don’t know from canon if James and Lily were in love/happy together/James was a good father/etc.

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches . . . born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies . . . and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not . . . and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives . . . the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies . . .” (OotP- 37)

From "PotterCast Interviews J.K. Rowling, part one." PotterCast #130, 17 December 2007:

MA: What about the three times— The thrice-defying of Voldemort?

JKR: Of James and Lily?

MA: Of Neville's parents. Well, James and Lily, too.

JKR: It depends how you take defying, doesn't it. I mean, if you're counting, which I do, anytime you arrested one of his henchmen, anytime you escaped him, anytime you thwarted him, that's what he's looking for. And both couples qualified because they were both fighting. . Also, James and Lily turned him [Voldemort] down, that was established in "Philosopher's Stone". He wanted them, and they wouldn't come over, so that's one strike against them before they were even out of their teens.

17 is adulthood in the Wizarding World so we know that they fought together even before that. James is born in March, 1960. Lily is born in January, 1960. (From Chp. Godric's Hollow, DH.)

Thus, both of them become adults at the end of their 6th year. (The year's end in June/July and starts in September)

(15+15=30

Three

Five

Nine

onE

thrEE

fivE

sEvEn

A definition of an even number is that it can be divided by 2 and the result is a whole number. Since you cannot divide zero, you cant divide it by 2 and that means that zero is an odd number.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parity_of_zero

https://www.britannica.com/story/is-zero-an-even-or-an-odd-number

https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/zero-odd-even.html Quote from this one “ So, technically, [zero] is even. In fact, it is the most even number there is.”

How many times have I done this so far

I’ve done this like… three, maybe four times so far

Do you really want to know

2) What the fuck is ‘math’?? The proper term is maths

1. All odd numbers have the letter E in them.

2. Any number that ends in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 is odd.

3. Any number that ends in 2, 4, 6, 8, or 0 is even.

4. All numbers are a lie.

5. Pineapple belongs on pizza.

6. If Fred has 8 apples and they eat 3, how many oranges does Sarah have left?

7. If 8 falls over onto its side, it becomes infinity.

8. And beyond.

9. You can divide by 0 if you’re not a coward. Break the rules. Break them all.

Lily Potter awoke with a start. She had just been dreaming of mending her friendship with Severus by naming him godfather to her second child. Why hadn’t this plan occurred to her sooner? She rolled over and shook her husband awake. The bully opened his eyes and put his nasty glasses on. 

‘James’ said Lilly Lily. ‘We have to make Severus our baby’s godfather.’

'Who the fuck is Severus?’ asked James, walking over to the window and hexing the mail man outside. 

'Snivelly Snape’ replied Lily. 'It’s the only way to mend my friendship with him.’

James looked at his wife. 'Well I didn’t ask you out 67 times a day for 6 years for nothing, I need you happy Lilyflowerpetalbutt and if this makes you happy I’m all for it. But I didn’t even know you were pregnant my sweet Lilypadthai?’

'Well neither does J.K Rowling’ laughed Lily as James stared at her, confused, but used to not understanding anything.

Lily grinned and put on all green outfit to match her eyes. Together they fetched Harry out of his cot and went downstairs to start writing a letter to Sev.

'You better write the letter’ said James, who had never learnt to spell due to his extremely limited mental capacity. As Lily started the letter James let Sirius out of his kennel and Remus out of the library that they locked him in nightly. 'Lily’s writing a letter to Snivelicious, she’s going to ask him to be our new baby’s godfather’ smirked James, arrogant as always. 'I still hate the prick but it’s the best thing for Lily.’

'But I thought Lily hated him?’ asked Remus.

'Nah she doesn’t’ said Sirius. 

'Wait who are we talking about?’ asked Peter who had just apparated, he didn’t wait for an answer before disapparating to go do some more betraying. 

'What about the whole Death Eater thing?’ asked Remus as he held a book up to his nose. 'What about Voldemort wanting you guys dead and all?’

Suddenly Lily appeared, she was furious. Her hair turned even redder as flames rose around her, her rage lifting her off the ground. She roared incoherently like the red lion she was until James pulled her back to the ground. 'What are you angry about this time?!’ sighed James.

Lily had no idea. She was just always angry. She shooed Remus and Sirius out of the house, since they were in hiding and all and went back to her letter. On the way back to the table James asked her out 6 times. 

The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room.

I searched the tag #pro Jily because I was looking for arguments to help me defend Jily because Snily is not my jam.

Anyway 90% of Jily defense posts are anti Snape. I was not bothered over the anti Snape bit because I figured most Jily stans would be anti Snape, so I mentally prepared myself before reading the posts in that tag.

What I saw was a disappointment.

The posts do one thing:

Explain why James is better than Snape

And that’s pretty much it.

I legit don’t see people taking time to talk about Jily on it’s own merits. The argument is “Snily sucks therefore James and Lily are meant to be.”

… I am supposed to cheer for Jily on the premise that it’s better than Snily? Not really an achievement tbh. It doesn’t take much for a ship to be better than Snily.

Real talk here: pretend Snape isn’t part of the equation, why do you ship Jily? Why do you think they work together?

Blood Dynamics:

James being a pure-blood and Lily being a Muggle-born has always been fascinating to me. In large part because James’s family is a rare example of a well-off pure-blood family fairly integrated into a Muggle landscape. But his parents will always be wizards, just like Lily’s parents will always be Muggles. In vastly different ways, they occupy the fringes of both worlds, and I think that can lead to them offering one another insights into what it feels like to be in that space.

As someone who reads the Potters as people of colour, there’s another added aspect of balance in this regard. I get into more detail in this post, but essentially it’s much the same interest of how they occupy space in their two worlds, only in a more explicit way of “this is how encounters with x type of prejudice work with x type of privilege.”

Whilst the two above points aren’t limited to James (replace him with say, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and all of it still applies) there is something particular I like about James and his passionate anti-blood prejudice stance. He won’t even say the word ‘Mudblood,’ not directed at anyone, but even in abstract. He fights for Muggles in a war that he could easily have opted out of. He defies Voldemort not once, but three times, along with Lily. I think that kind of conviction when it comes to knowing what side he’s on would sit well with Lily, seeing as she was of equal conviction and bravery.

Mischievous Streak:

Admittedly, while some of James’s pranking wasn’t exactly kind, his later years seem to imply that at a base level, his personality is a bit cheeky (describing his broom instead of a car to Vernon, offering random names to Muggle policemen in the prequel). And Lily’s sense of humour seems to be somewhat similar! Slughorn describes her responses about saying she should be in Slytherin house as “cheeky” and calls her “charming” and “vivacious.” 

And she’s not above a physical prank either! Petunia describes her turning teacups into rats, something which she definitely wouldn’t have been allowed to do outside of Hogwarts, and seems like merely a ploy to annoy her sister. Not so crazy different from James using a dungbomb at school, or whatever Zonko’s product was in vogue at the time (the language on the Marauders’ map seems to imply that that not all of their mischief was simply picking fights).

Funnily enough, in one of the only glimpses we get of adult James and Lily, Lily is the one laughing at a potentially dangerous situation (her one-year-old zooming across a room at will and crashing into things) and James is the one running around in worry. It implies that her mischievous streak just might run a bit deeper than his, even though he was the bigger public spectacle. I love that about them, and even more so that it takes place in a domestic setting. 

Compassion:

This point does rely on Snape’s presence, but only insofar as he is a narrative device. In SWM, we get a good look at Lily’s compassion. She refuses to stand by while someone is being hexed for no reason. Though James is popular, and clearly good with a wand, she has no hesitation in intervening. Her compassion has a limit (which I personally like: she will not be trampled on for anyone’s sake) but her objection marks her as someone who won’t stand by idly as someone gets hurt. Notably, Snape is not explicitly marked as her friend in this scene, so I have to believe that compassion is not exclusive to people she deems friends. 

In that same vein, when Sirius sends Snape out into the danger of the Whomping Willow at the full moon, James displays his compassion there. There are many arguments as to why he might have done it, but I think Dumbledore’s words in the first book are a strong implication that the action would’ve been much easier to forgive if had been done for selfish reasons instead of “I did this because every human life has value and I am willing to put myself in the line of fire to stand by that conviction.” Their interventions for the same character take place under vastly different circumstances, but ultimately it shows them to be of similar make. People who will not stand aside, and believe strongly in doing what they perceive to be righteous. It relates to the point on blood dynamics, but also stands alone as a reflection of two people who have strong core values that align. 

Power Couple: 

People love some good fictional badasses, and Lily and James are just that. Three times before they’re twenty-one, they go up against the darkest, most powerful wizard in the world together and survive.

And their skills aren’t necessarily the same, either! Lily’s talents are most notably in Potions and Charms, while James has a clear proclivity for Transfiguration (and generally, hexes). They’re both strongly implied to be good duelers as well. The potential for tag teaming, helping each other in their areas of expertise, or just generally showing the world that the two of them are an impressive duo is fun to imagine. 

Tropes Abound:

Coworkers - Lily and James were Head Girl and Boy together, which means that in seventh year they’d have to spend time together, regardless of what state their relationship was in. Shared spaces, worries about crossing professional boundaries, unresolved sexual tension, etc. They’re all available within their narrative!

Enemies (to Friends) to Lovers - Though I wouldn’t necessarily call James and Lily enemies in SWM, seeing as JKR makes a point to establish that Lily didn’t hate James, they were definitely at odds. And it’s a very common fictional trope to go from that to eventually falling in love, and all the subtropes that coming with that, like panicking over being attracted to someone with whom you’re annoyed, or realizing for the first time that you have some common ground, etc. And because we really don’t have much to work with in terms of sixth year canon, the progression rate can be as fast or slow as you choose to see it.

Soulmates - The whole patronus aspect of HP fuels the soulmate trope pretty well, but in particular with James and Lily people love that their patronus are not quite the exact same. Tonks’ patronus is the same as Remus’s, and that’s because of her love for him, but in James and Lily’s case, with a stag and doe it kind of seems like they just happened to have matching souls. That’s also a pretty lovely idea. 

Filling in the Blanks:

Very much in line with the last point, but more broad. Strangely enough, I think one of the strongest reasons people are so very interested in this ship is because we don’t get a lot of information about it. Readers, like Harry, like looking at the explosive nature of James and Lily’s interactions in SWM and wonder, “What happened there? How did you go from Point A to Point B?” And yes, while JKR gives the explanation James calming down a bit in some ways (minus his continued rivalry) it’s not necessarily enough to develop a full picture. And that’s what people like! The opportunity to look at the ship and go, “Here’s how I think they got from Point A to Point B.” And though there are plenty of common threads, it can be a different take every time! The opportunity to build one’s own ideas into the canonical landscape is very appealing. 

The impact of tragedy/destiny on this point is also quite compelling as a reader. In total, the Potters had a maximum of four years together. Four years that were marked by war, and struggle, and being in hiding. The few glimpses we get into their domestic life seem to imply that they loved each other very deeply and made the best of the time they were given, but people are drawn to a fated downfall of world-changing romance. It’s a closed narrative, but one that offers a lot of emotional impact. 

Why does Professor Dumbledore allow Professor Snape to be so nasty to the students (especially to Harry, Hermione, and Neville)? JKR: “Dumbledore believes there are all sorts of lessons in life … horrible teachers like Snape are one of them!”  source

Snape is fun to write, because he is a deeply horrible person. source

One of the influences for Snape was a “scary” teacher she had when she was 9 years old (Tutshill, near Chepstow, South Wales). Conversations with JK Rowling, p.17

Snape is a compendium of all the bullying teachers she ever encountered. source

”…Passing through.“

“Yes.”

“Through your hallway.”

“Yes.”

“And stabbed Voldemort through the eye.”

“Through the eye, yes, and right through the brain: ghastly stuff, Minister, felt absolutely horrid.”

“It felt horrid?”

“I mean… I imagine so.”

“… right. And where did this deer go?”

“Oh, it vanished, Sir, quite spontaneously.”

“…uhuh. So the stag just wandered into your home, skewered a dark wizard, disapeared, and you saw neither where it came from nor where it went.”

“That’s about the size of it, yes.”

Sirius was staring at the patch of carpet where the boggart, pretending to be Harry’s body, had lain.

(…)

“I’m just s-s-so worried,” she said, tears spilling out of her eyes again. “Half the f-f-family’s in the Order, it’ll b-b-be a miracle if we all come through this… and P-P-Percy’s not talking to us… What if something d-d-dreadful happens and we had never m-m-made up? And what’s going to happen if Arthur and I get killed, who’s g-g-going to look after Ron and Ginny?”

(…)

“Don’t worry about Percy,” said Sirius abruptly. “He’ll come round. It’s a matter of time before Voldemort moves into the open; once he does, the whole Ministry’s going to be begging us to forgive them. And I’m not sure I’ll be accepting their apology,” he added bitterly.

i am thinking about all the Layers to sirius’s reaction in the ootp scene with molly’s boggart and why sirius chimes in suddenly and abruptly to comfort molly about percy’s estrangement very specifically, after lupin has gone on for a couple paragraphs about how they’re much better off than last time and how the first order was vastly outnumbered etc., and it honestly feels like sirius is partially thinking about regulus here. 

he’s just seen harry’s dead body, who looks exactly like james, and sirius is the one who found james’s body. i don’t agree with the reading that sirius projected james onto harry at all but in this moment he’s definitely thinking about both his fear of losing his godson to the oncoming war and having flashbacks to finding the corpse of the person who was essentially his adoptive brother in the last war. and jkr said that sirius and harry were both craving family connections with friends, and that what sirius wanted from james was a brother (while ron and hermione sort of act as “parents” to harry). 

so he’s just been hit with the very visceral memory of the death of his surrogate brother….. in the house he lived in with his actual brother, who also died in the last war, while they were estranged. and then molly is crying about percy being estranged from the family, and what if something happens to him and they never made up, just like regulus died before he and sirius made up. and i don’t doubt that sirius blames himself for not being able to help regulus just like he blames himself for james and lily’s deaths. 

James was more than “a little too aggressive” in his pursuit of Lily. He relentlessly bullied her best friend, and at one point even tried to use this as leverage to get Lily to date him (he’d stop the torment, if Lily would agree to a date). Lily herself calls him out on how he is a bully, saying he walks down corridors, hexing anyone who annoys him just because he can. When they get together in 7th year, it’s because he supposedly has stopped his bullying ways, but continues to bully Severus in secret behind her back. That is canon. That is said by Sirius and Remus, after Harry saw “Snape’s worst memory” and was appalled at how fucking horrid his father was.

And, why is it that James constantly bullies Severus?

JK herself said: “James always suspected Snape harboured deeper feelings for Lily, which was a factor in James’ behaviour towards Snape.“ 

So. Because Severus Snape was Lily Evans’ best friend, and a guy, James worried that he was a rival for her affections, and from day one targeted him for bullying. Because how dare Severus even think he has the right to talk to her, when obviously James is the one she should pay attention to.

The only character we see not respect Lily’s rejection is James Potter. This is canon. He doesn’t ever take “no” for an answer. He refuses to. He resorts to lying to her in order to finally get her to date him.

Severus Snape, for one, never tried to be anything more to Lily than her friend. We are given no evidence to the contrary. And when she breaks off their friendship, he leaves her alone. We see him bargain for her life, we see him mourn her, but we see nothing to suggest he ever talked to her again after she ended their friendship. He respected her decision, and backed off.

1- There is absolutely no evidence in canon that James ‘relentlessly’ pursued Lily. That is fanon. Sure fanon has that trope about James repetitively asking Lily out and almost stalking her. In canon we only see James ever ask Lily out ONCE. In Snape’s worst memory. The rest of the time we see Snape having to tell Lily that James fancies her and there is no evidence she even knew about it before that, then we have Lily actively defend the maradaurs to Snape asking him why he was so obessed with them :

(DH, The Prince’s tale, p540 bloomsburry edition )

“… thought we were supposed to be friends?” Snape was saying. “Best friends?” “We are, Sev, but I don’t like some of the people you’re hanging around with! I’m sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him Sev? He’s creepy! D'you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?” Lily ha reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking up into the thin, sallow face. “That was nothing” said Snape. “It was a laugh, that’s all -” “It was Dark Magic, and if you think that’s funny -” “What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?” demanded Snape. His colour rose again as he said it, unable, it seemed to hold in his resentment. “What’s Potter to do with anything?” said Lily. “They sneak out at night. There’s something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?” “He’s ill,” said Lily. “They say he’s ill -” “Every month at the full moon?” said Snape. “I know your theory,” said Lily, and she sounded cold “Why are you so obsessed with them, anyway? Why do you care what they’re doing at night?” “I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.” The intensity of his gaze made her blush; “They don’t use Dark Magic, though”.

Now, what does this scene tells you. First for someone who supposedly didn’t give as good as he got and was only the helpless victim of James, we learn that : 1- Lily doesn’t understand why he is so obsessed with them and can’t see the resemblance between the marauders and the very real, blood supremacist, dark magic using bullies that Snape was hanging out with and found funny. 2- Snape was very clearly trying to out Remus and actively trying to prove his case; so please do tell me, if this isn’t reason enough for James to hate Snape then what is? Not only did Snape actively try back when he was 15, but he DID out Remus years later because he couldn’t let go of the past when Remus was being nothing but cordial with him.

2- Which brings me to my next point, the idea that Snape was an innocent victim and not a bully himself is utter bullshit.

Let’s look at another excerpt from the books shall we:

(DH, The Prince’s tale, p542, Blommsburry edition)

“I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just -” “Slipped out?” There was no pity in Lily’s voice. “It’s too late. I’ve made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends – you see, you don’t even deny it! You don’t even deny that’s what you’re all aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?” He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking. “I can’t pretend any more. You’ve chosen your way, I’ve chosen mine.” “No – listen, I didn’t mean -” “- to call me a Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?”

Now what does this tells us? This tells us that unlike what the Snape apologists often love to pretend, Snape wasn’t an inactive by stander in the wannabe-death eaters sessions of muggleborns bullying. He actively took part in it, he actively threw slurs at them. Lily herself mention that and Snape doesn’t deny any of it.

Not only that but we also know that Snape invented Levicorpus, which we later see James use, how do you think James learned it if not because he had it used against him? We even see Snape use Sectusempra on James; Sectusempra, aka the spell capable of cutting someone open and leave them to bleed to death. This is the kind of experimentation Snape did with Dark Magic, so spare me if I don’t buy the “poor innocent Snape” narrative. He was a bully at school, going after muggleborn with his band of magical equivalent to the Hitler youth. But aside from that, please do tell me more about how Snape was innocent and never gave as much as he got when even LILY calls him out on his bullying of Muggleborns and admitted herself that she couldn’t excuse him anymore.

“Severus Snape, for one, never tried to be anything more to Lily than her friend. We are given no evidence to the contrary. And when she breaks off their friendship, he leaves her alone. We see him bargain for her life, we see him mourn her, but we see nothing to suggest he ever talked to her again after she ended their friendship. He respected her decision, and backed off.”

Excuse me? We should admire him because he backed off after HE threw a slur at her and still tried to talk to her when she didn’t want to, even saying he would sleep in front of the common room if she refused to have that talk?

And above all, we should think Snape is such a great guy because he bargained for her life? WHAT? Snape - may I remind you - was the reason why her life was even in danger to start with! Snape is the one who sold a BABY’S LIFE to Voldemort without second thoughts and only backed off when he realized that the baby in question was Lily’s. And not only that but he only partly backed off because he didn’t give a shit about what would happen to Harry and James, AKA the man she loved and HER SON. Dumbledore himself called him out on it:

“You disgust me,” said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little. “You do not care, then about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?”

I genuinely cannot believe my eyes that some people are trying to paint this as a selfless act on Snape’s part. If it had been Neville he would have let him die without blinking, just like he was ready to let Harry die, a ONE YEAR OLD BOY and the son of the woman he claimed to love. I do not doubt that he loved her, but his love was entirely and completely selfish and none of what he did was for her. He did what he did for himself and to feel better about what he had caused. Snape was not a good person. Snape was bad guy who did the right thing for the wrong reasons. All his life he remained the same bitter bullying douchebag, he bullied kids as a gorwn ass man, he never got over it unlike James.

The point of Snape isn’t “good is not nice”, the point of Snape is “you don’t have to be a good person to do the right thing”. “Good is not nice” is in fact the point of James. Was James an immature “toerag” (as Lily colourfully put it) when he was 15? Sure he was, but his heart was always at the right place which is something we cannot say of Snape. And he grew out of it, which is another thing we cannot say of Snape.

The fact that James bullied Snape isn’t the only thing we know of him. We also know that James welcomed Sirius in his home when the later had nowhere to go, we know that James accepted Remus for who he was and became an Animagus to help him, we know that James befriended three outcasts without caring about how uncool they were, from what family they came from or what disease they had to deal with, we know that James was ALWAYS disgusted with pure blood supremacy as evidenced by his reaction when Snape calls Lily the m-blood in front of him. We know that when Snape was busy joining the Death Eaters fresh out of school, James was joining the Order and fighting against Voldemort from the start (a war that as a pure blood he could have stayed entirely out of). We know he defied Voldemort three times and lived to tell the tale, we know that he died throwing himself between Voldemort and his wife and child without even a wand to try to give them time to escape. James was a good person who wasn’t always nice and grew out of his bullying way.

Every characters aside from Snape always describe the Marauders as this generation Fred and George (who by the way also did a number of questionable things, such as shoving Montague in the vanishing cabinet, feeding Dudley their toffees or turning Neville into a bird). Were they always nice? No. Did they bully Snape?  Yes. Where they still good people? Yes. James included.

Yeah, but you left out one important canon detail. They said James would jinx him out of defense/in retaliation when Snape tried to CURSE him. This implies that James didn’t really initiate fights anymore, but he wasn’t going to just sit back and take abuse when SNAPE came after HIM.

***Trigger warnings***

Casual reminder that Severus Snape read out loud, to her whole class, an illegally-printed commercial article which slut-shames a 14-year-old Hermione and mentions her “natural charms” (GoF p330-332).

GoF, p.330

Harry Potter’s Secret Heartache

A boy like no other, perhaps - yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence, writes Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter thought he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born Hermione Granger. Little did he know that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life already littered with personal loss.

Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Seeker and hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys’ affections. Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has “never felt this way about any other girl.”

However, it might not be Miss Granger’s doubtful natural charms that have captured these unfortunate boys’ interest.

“She’s really ugly,” says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year student, “but she’d be well up to making a Love Potion, she’s quite brainy. I think that’s how she’s doing it.”

Love Potions are, of course, banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potters well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart on a worthier candidate. 

The article was slut-shaming Hermione — the connection was explicitly made here:

“I told you!” Ron hissed at Hermione as she stared down at the article. “I told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She’s made you out to be some sort of- of scarlet woman!” (p331) 

And then Snape read this article slut-shaming a fourteen-year-old girl out loud to his class. There's this little gem:

The dungeon rang with the Slytherins’ laughter, and an unpleasant smile curled Snape’s thin mouth. To Harry’s fury, he began to read the article aloud.

“‘Harry Potter’s Secret Heartache… dear, dear. Potter, what’s ailing you now? 'A boy like no other, perhaps…’”

Harry could feel his face burning. Snape was pausing at the end of every sentence to allow the Slytherins a hearty laugh.  (p332)

Note the victim’s reactions here: 

She looked over at the Slytherins, who were all watching her and Harry closely across the room to see if they had been upset by the article. Hermione gave them a sarcastic smile and a wave (p330)

versus here:

 Snape was pausing at the end of every sentence to allow the Slytherins a hearty laugh. The article sounded ten times worse when read by Snape. Even Hermione was blushing scarlet now. 

He made her feel the shame for it. He slut-shamed her, period.

The content of the article (and the circumstances of it even being available) is what would absolutely make a difference to the cop in your scenario. This wasn’t a note written by students passed around by students. It wasn’t even a student newspaper article. This was an illegally printed (you can’t write articles about minors without their guardians’ consent, and even if Rita somehow got the Dursleys’, there’s no fucking way she got the Grangers’ consent for an article like that) mass-produced article that romantically exploited children. It slut-shamed a 14-year-old Hermione. It mentioned her “natural charms”. The language is loaded (see bolded parts, “natural charms” is generally codeword for breasts, curves, etc). Snape read this out out to his class. He didn’t skip the more salacious parts, he read EVERYTHING.

A teacher is not allowed to even mention an underage student’s romantic “tastes” or “natural charms” or her body in any way, and certainly not a derogatory way. Let alone in a forum where he’s doing it to publicly humiliate her to other students. Let alone with an illegal commercial article that exploits the love lives of children.

(EXTREME WARNING OF WORD VOMIT)

[“I didn’t mean — I just don’t want to see you made a fool of — He fancies you, James Potter fancies you!” The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. “And he’s not . . . everyone thinks . . . big Quidditch hero —” Snape’s bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily’s eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead.]