(Anonymous)
Interesting theory - however, I'm not positive it's needed to explain what happened to Lily's 'school friends'. The Lily we see in canon is a bit self-righteous, but also ready to blame others when things go wrong. I'm not sure that I believe she made a very easy friend. I can easily see her losing her school friends one at a time, just because they weren't as likely to do what SHE wanted and give in to her way of thinking.
We saw how Sev had to work to keep her happy and we know James worked at hiding things from her that he thought she would dislike. I can see how once the closeness of dormlife was gone (and so the need for continuing good relationships) that her friends might just drop away for various reasons. Probably just once last disagreement too many, where she put the blame on something they did.
And there's always the fact that she was in hiding for so long.
I find it interesting that in bk1, Vernon is reluctant to bring up the subject of Lily to Petunia. It sounds as if he thinks it will hurt Petunia if he does. I tend to think she just kind of disappeared without warning or explaining anything to Petunia. I often wonder whether that was the real reason for Petunia's hatred of the wizarding world - that Lily had finally vanished into it without explaining why.
Buy we can see from Lily's letter to Sirius that Petunia had still been in contact post-Hogwarts. There's the vase that was sent for Christmas - an adult gift to an adult sister (even if she didn't like it much) But something that I can see as something Petunia would think was a nice present. And they were not so separated yet that Vernon wasn't aware of Harry's name. He probably never met the child before, but he must have been informed of the birth.
But then we hear that Sirius was the ONLY choice for 'godfather' and that there wasn't a 'godmother' choice. That the christening was a shushed up affair. Apparently neither Petunia or Vernon were even invited to Harry's christening and certainly none of Lily's old school friends. I personally believe they went into hiding while Lily was still pregnant - altho' I know many disagree with me.
Anyways - I can see a LOT of hurt feelings over the hiding of the Potters - especially since it certainly cannot be mentioned that they have done this because their child is in danger (altho' I am not convinced that THEY knew the reason/prophecy). Now IF they keep being attacked in hiding, then one-by-one Lily's friends are left out of the 'hiding' info ('cause you know it just could not be a Marauder). But I bet that whomever was still friends with Lily by the time she went into hiding, quickly narrowed down to Order Members only and then to Marauders only.
This doesn't explain Minerva or the other teachers - so you might be right. However, I've always seen Minerva as particularly 'hands-off' when it comes to her house. But your idea has merit. I'll need to think more on it -- Hwyla
We saw how Sev had to work to keep her happy and we know James worked at hiding things from her that he thought she would dislike. I can see how once the closeness of dormlife was gone (and so the need for continuing good relationships) that her friends might just drop away for various reasons. Probably just once last disagreement too many, where she put the blame on something they did.
And there's always the fact that she was in hiding for so long.
I find it interesting that in bk1, Vernon is reluctant to bring up the subject of Lily to Petunia. It sounds as if he thinks it will hurt Petunia if he does. I tend to think she just kind of disappeared without warning or explaining anything to Petunia. I often wonder whether that was the real reason for Petunia's hatred of the wizarding world - that Lily had finally vanished into it without explaining why.
Buy we can see from Lily's letter to Sirius that Petunia had still been in contact post-Hogwarts. There's the vase that was sent for Christmas - an adult gift to an adult sister (even if she didn't like it much) But something that I can see as something Petunia would think was a nice present. And they were not so separated yet that Vernon wasn't aware of Harry's name. He probably never met the child before, but he must have been informed of the birth.
But then we hear that Sirius was the ONLY choice for 'godfather' and that there wasn't a 'godmother' choice. That the christening was a shushed up affair. Apparently neither Petunia or Vernon were even invited to Harry's christening and certainly none of Lily's old school friends. I personally believe they went into hiding while Lily was still pregnant - altho' I know many disagree with me.
Anyways - I can see a LOT of hurt feelings over the hiding of the Potters - especially since it certainly cannot be mentioned that they have done this because their child is in danger (altho' I am not convinced that THEY knew the reason/prophecy). Now IF they keep being attacked in hiding, then one-by-one Lily's friends are left out of the 'hiding' info ('cause you know it just could not be a Marauder). But I bet that whomever was still friends with Lily by the time she went into hiding, quickly narrowed down to Order Members only and then to Marauders only.
This doesn't explain Minerva or the other teachers - so you might be right. However, I've always seen Minerva as particularly 'hands-off' when it comes to her house. But your idea has merit. I'll need to think more on it -- Hwyla