Quotes from all the books about James and Lily.
I didn’t include the ones talking about Harry looking like James (otherwise I’d still be typing). If I’ve forgotten any important ones feel free to tell me (but not ‘She hated him! Nah she didn’t.’ I left that out on purpose). I made this as a reference for myself, and perhaps it will come in handy for others :)
“But yeh must know about yer mum and dad, I mean, they’re famous.” - Hagrid.
“Now, yer mum an’ dad were as good a witch an’ wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an’ girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst’ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get ‘em on his side before… probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin’ ter do with the Dark Side” - Hagrid.
“Knew yer mum an’ dad, an’ nicer people yeh couldn’t find.“ - Hagrid.
(About Lily) ”Some of the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in ‘em in a long line ‘o Muggles - look at yer mum!” - Hagrid.
She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes - her eyes are just like mine…but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. - Harry, when he sees his parents in the Mirror of Erised.
(On the Invisibility Cloak) “Ah - your father happened to leave it in my position and I thought you might like it. Useful things…your father used it mainly for sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here.”- Dumbledore.
“Not many people are aware that the Potters knew You-Know-Who was after them.“ - Cornelius Fudge.
“Your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school” - Remus Lupin.
(On James saving Snape) ”but your father, who’d heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life.” - Remus Lupin.
“I have no hesitation in saying that James would have been highly disappointed if his son had never found any of the secret passages out of the castle.” - Remus Lupin.
“You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him.“ - Albus Dumbledore.’
He stopped on a picture of his parent’s 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. - Harry looking at photos of his parents.
The smoky shadow of a tall man with untidy 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 father. "Your mother’s coming …” he said quietly. “She wants to see you … it will be all right.. . hold on… .” And she came… first her head, then her body… a young woman with long hair,the smoky, shadowy form of Lily Potter blossomed from the end of Voldemort’s wand, fell to the ground, and straightened like her husband. - In the graveyard.
“I spent too much time in detention with James.” - Sirius Black.
“You’re less like your father than I thought, the risk would’ve been what made it fun for James.” - Sirius Black.
James’s eyes were hazel, his nose was slightly longer than Harry’s and there was no scar on his forehead, but they had the same thin face, same mouth, same eyebrows; James’s hair stuck up at the back exactly as Harry’s did, his hands could have been Harry’s and Harry could tell that, when James stood up, they would be within an inch of each other in height. - Harry seeing James in Snape’s Worst Memory.
He had drawn a Snitch and was now tracing the letters L.E - James, scribbling after his exam.
He started playing with the Snitch, allowing it to fly as much as a foot away before seizing it again; his reflexes were excellent. - Snape’s Worst Memory.
Harry noticed that his father had a habit of rumpling up his hair as though to keep it from getting too tidy, and he also kept looking over at the girls by the water’s edge. - Snape’s Worst Memory.
She had thick, dark red hair that fell to her shoulders, and startlingly green almond-shaped eyes. - Snape’s Worst Memory.
“You think you’re funny,” “But you’re just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone.” Lily, Snape’s Worst Memory.
“I will if you go out with me, Evans,” “Go on… go out with me and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.” - James, Snape’s Worst Memory.
“I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid,” Lily, Snape’s Worst Memory.
“James - whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry - always hated the Dark Arts.” - Sirius Black.
“Oh, well, he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around, he couldn’t stop himself showing off whenever he got near her.” - Sirius Black.
“Your father was the best friend I ever had and he was a good person. A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen. He grew out of it.” - Sirius Black.
He could still see his parents beaming up at him from the tattered old photograph, unaware that their lives, like so many of those around them, were drawing to a close. - Harry after looking at an old Order of the Phoenix photo.
(About Remus being a werewolf) “He called it my ‘furry little problem in company.” - Remus Lupin.
“James was a pureblood, Harry, and I promise you, he never asked us to call him ‘Prince.’” - Remus Lupin.
“James Potter and Sirius Black. Apprehended using an illegal hex upon Bertram Aubrey. Aubreys head twice normal size. Double detention.” - Snape, reading an old detention card.
“Lily Evans. One of the brightest I ever taught. Vivacious, you know. Charming girl. I used to tell her she ought to have been in my House. Very cheeky answers I used to get back too.” - Professor Slughorn.
“Your mother was Muggle-born, of course. Couldn’t believe it when I found out. Thought she must have been pure-blood, she was so good.” - Professor Slughorn.
“She was a dab hand at Potions, Lily was!” - Professor Slughorn.
It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents — that there was all the difference in the world. - Harry’s thoughts.
(About their deaths) “Oh dear. Yes, that was — was terrible indeed. Terrible … terrible …” - Professor Slughorn.
"My dad died first. Did you know that?" "Yeah … Voldemort murdered him and then stepped over his body toward my mum,” "He told her to get out of the way,” "He told me she needn’t have died. He only wanted me. She could have run.” "But she didn’t move. Dad was already dead, but she didn’t want me to go too. She tried to plead with Voldemort… but he just laughed….” - Harry, talking to Slughorn.
“Be brave like my mother, Professor… .” - Harry, to Slughorn.
“No, I think you’re like James,” “who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends.”- Remus to Harry.
James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell - Lily, in her letter to Sirius.
The letter was an incredible treasure, proof that Lily Potter had lived, really lived, that her warm hand had once moved across this parchment, tracing ink into these letters, these words, words about him, Harry, her son. -Harry’s thoughts.
(James and Lily’s graves). The headstone was only two rows behind Kendra and Ariana’s. It was made of white marble,
James Potter | Lily Potter | Born 27 March 1960 | Born 30 January 1960 Died 31 October 1981| Died 31 October 1981|The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
But they were not living, thought Harry: They were gone. The empty words could not disguise the fact that his parents’ moldering remains lay beneath snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing. And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot then instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them. - Harry, at their grave.
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!” - James dying, wandless and a hero.
James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut… .He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, - James dying and Lily’s reaction.
“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!” The green light flashed around the room and she dropped like her husband. - Lily dying, a brave hero like her husband.
“‘Gryffndor, where dwell the brave at heart!’ Like my dad.” - James, on the train to Hogwarts.
Professor McGonagall dropped the Sorting Hat onto her head, and barely a second after it had touched the dark red hair, the hat cried, “Gryffindor!” - Lily, being sorted.
“They don’t use Dark Magic, though.” She dropped her voice. “And you’re being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever’s down there— ” - Lily, talking to Snape.
James was exactly the same height as Harry. He was wearing the clothes in which he had died, and his hair was untidy and ruffled, and his glasses were a little lopsided. - James, the forest again.
Lily’s smile was widest of all. She pushed her long hair back as she drew close to him, and her green eyes, so like his, searched his face hungrily, as though she would never be able to look at him enough. - Lily, the forest again.
“You’ve been so brave.” - Lily to Harry, the forest again.
“You are nearly there,” “Very close. We are … so proud of you.” - James, the forest again.
“Until the very end,”- James, the forest again.
