![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
First, I all want to recommend 'Liberacorpus' by terri_testing. You can find it here: http://terri-testing.livejournal.com/756
The following under the cut can't really be called an essay, it's nature to rambling, but I'd love to see what you all think.
We've seen not many glimpses of James, but what we have seen is pretty scary. My warning bells are ringing with this guy. And if James really was a manipulator and a possible abuser, then the whole Lily/Severus relationship changes. Before I thought Lily a shallow bint, who acted like a real b*tch to Sev during the SWM incident, but what could've have gone before? Before reading my ramblings, you really ought to read terri's fic, though. Be warned, James turns out to be nastier than many people give him credit for.
It's the only thing that makes *sense*, really. I've been rereading Gavin DeBecker's 'The Gift of Fear' again in response to this fic and it always amazes me how people will fall for creepy guys because culture has somehow convinced us that guys who will not take 'no' for an answer, will threaten violence, who are 'charming', who brag about their ability to flaunt authority are somehow 'cool' and desirable as mates instead of pushing all our 'warning' buttons.
It makes *sense* that James would be abusive. It's in the text! It is CANON that he and Sirius would sneak away under the Cloak to Hogmead to drink Rosmerta's. Fifteen, sixteen year old boys who sneak out of school to go drinking? Warning sign! It's CANON that the Marauders roam around the countryside, endangering people, every month. For *years*. Warning sign!
Look at James' friends, they tell yo so much about him. People will say, "oh, but the Marauders were such wonderful friends!" Really? There is Remus. You know, the guy they cared so much for that they learned how to be animagi, just so they could comfort him in his pain. Because they were so nice and good that they just didn't care about his lycanthropy. Weren't they nice? So nice, that when they leave school they dump the werewolf because.. they are afraid that The Werewolf was a DE?! Because you can't really trust werewolves after all? Canon would have us believe that this was a legible reason for James and Sirius to distrust their friend, but I say that if you distrust a friend for being a werewolf, then that whole song and dance about the Marauders turning animagi to help their werewolf friend is bogus. They became animagi because it was illegal and they wanted to and they joined Remus every month because it was against the rules and thus exciting.
Then look at Peter. We all thought that Peter must've been such a wonderful actor; acting as if he was a timid nice boy all the while plotting to defect to Voldemort, but when we look at CANON, we see that even as a boy Peter was very, very creepy. A syncophath of the worst order. 'Almost wetting himself', as Sirius sneeringly remarks, in his fervent bootlicking. Would any nice guy *want* to be friends with such a slimy, creepy guy? No, he wouldn't, but a nasty guy would want to have 'Wormy' (the name just hits it on the head, doesn't it) around to do some dirty jobs you don't want other people to know about. You'd want him if your ideas of a 'good time' and yours coincided. Think about it; Remus and Sirius weren't surprised that Peter betrayed James for an 'even bigger bully', they were just surprised that had the guts and the brains to do so. Peter is portrayed in CANON as a cringing, wheedling, slimy, smarmy creep, and this is *not* the 'face behind the mask' but the way he *has always been*. And he was one of the Marauders and James and Sirius trusted him above Remus to be Secret Keeper.
James 'friendship' with Remus wasn't very deep if he dumped him so easily.
James' only real strong relationship was with Sirius (Red Hen did an excellent essay on this) with Sirius firmly being the follower and James being the Alpha dog. Sirius was the follower, the doer, the guy who acted and reacted impulsively. It was James who always got the ideas. It was James who got the idea from the start to bully Snape throughout school and who did so, JKR tells us, because of his jealousy about Snape's friendship with Lily. When we first see him in Snape's memory of the Hogwarts train, it was *James* who badmouthed Slytherin and Sirius kept quiet (Sirius whole family was Slytherin, after all, and who would want to diss his family, certainly at that age?) but when Sirius was Sorted he was so in Gryffindor, and when we see him again he hates everything Slytherin, he hates his family and even moves out and *moves in with James* when he is sixteen. Gosh, *somebody* must've done a good headjob on that boy. *Somebody* must've recognized Sirius biddable and controllable qualities...
Sirius was the ideal fallguy too. Think of how Sirius felt so guilty about suggesting Peter for a Secret Keeper that he was raving 'I did it, it was my fault' when the Aurors picked him up. Now think back to SWM and the Prince's Tale. CANON tells us that the SWM incident took place shortly *after* the Shrieking Shack Incident. We also see that Lily berates Snape when he tries to warn her against the Marauders and especially James. She says, "I know about your theories that Remus is a werewolf". (I'm quoting from memory here)
What? Snape *knew* that Lupin was a werewolf (or at least suspected it) and still he went into the Shrieking Shack during full moon? Why would he do something so stupid? What could Sirius possibly have said to lure him into such danger? How about "Evans was so curious about where Lupin goes every month, we've decided to show her, har har har." I can't imagine Snape willingly going into a suspected werewolf den just to 'get the Marauders into trouble' but I *can* imagine Snape doing so to rescue his friend from the jaws of one.
And suddenly it all falls into place. We've been staring ourselves blind on Snape in the Slytherin Common Room getting his ears filled with anti-muggleborn propaganda, but we've totally neglected Lily in the Gryffindor Common Room. James must've spent years poisoning Lily's thoughts about her Slytherin friend, twisting Snape's actions and words to discredit Snape and make himself look good. *That's* why SWM is his Worst Memory. It was *the* moment that Lily finally, totally 'went over' to the Other Side, and look what happened to her.
*That's* why Snape felt so guilty for her death; for years he had been warning his friend about no-good James Potter. *He* was not such an idiot to be fooled by that smooth talking bullying pureblood bastard. James played 'devide and conquer', playing Severus and Lily against eachother, bullying Sev and manipulating things so that it looked as if it was *Severus* fault (classic manipulator behaviour: shifting the blame of the abuse onto the victim). Hey, he got the *teachers* gobbling up his pretty stories about 'Snape giving as good as he got' after all. Lily turned out to be a harder nut to crack; it took him five years. Five years of bullying Snape, five years of manipulation, shifting blame, smooth talking, charm and badmouthing Slytherins in general and Snape in particular. It took a while - Lily *knew* Severus after all - but in the end he succeeded.
First he would wait until a new full moon. Then, just before the Marauders would go to the Shrieking Shack he would say something about Snape suspecting Lupins lycanthropy. He would then smoothly suggest to Sirius something like "Oh Snape would never dare to follow us, you know how all Slyths are cowards at heart. Wouldn't it be fun if he did, though? He'd shit seven colours! But he'd never... well, maybe if he thought that pretty redhead Evans were with us. Even slimy Snivellus might want to rescue a damsel in distress, ha ha ha!"
Sirius would be off in an instant (probably thinking it his own idea) to find Snape (Marauders map) and say something like, "looking for your girlfriend Snivelly? She's with us tonight. Arrhooooo!!"
Snape would leg it to the Shrieking Shack, just as Lupin transformed, and of course James would be waiting there to be 'just in time to save Snape'.
James would spin his usual tale and just as usual be believed by DD (isn't it weird, you might ask, that Dumbles didn't even know the Marauders were animagi who let Lupin out of the shack to roam around the countryside for *years*? This tells you something about Dumbles, but it also tells you something about James' ability to lie and charm his way out of murder *just as a certain other Head Boy we could mention*!)
After this 'incident' James stages the very, *very* public Worst Memory incindent, carefully checking (canon!) that Lily is in the vicinity and at the end of that day Lily has permanently broken with her best friend and is shown as believing James' every lie. Oh, the also spewed her anger at *James*, but James is nothing but tenacious (another warning sign!)
For two years he keeps on bullying people (and especially Snape), he just hides it better. He keeps telling Lily that he 'cleaned up his act' and that she and her actions that day 'made him a better man' (again, shifting the responsibility of his own actions, "if you don't become my girlfriend/wife I might regress into my old behaviour and then it would be your fault" - warning sign!)
The rest is history.
So poor Snape, who at first congratulated himself for not being so stupid to fall for James' tricks, finds out that he has, instead, been playing to James' tune. James called every shot during the SWM incident. Snape had been so furious with Lily, listening *again* to that bastard instead of hexing his balls off and freeing him. Hadn't he warned her again and again that Potter was no good. Why did she listen to him? And how had Potter learned the Levicorpus? He had told only Lily of his new spell (Lily had, of course, shown the spell to James to prove that 'look, Sev *isn't* a Dark wizard. He makes these spells himself, you know, he doesn't learn them from the other Slytherins. He's very clever.. Look at this one..") So he lashed out in utter fury at her, calling her the one name he knows would hurt the most because he *wants* to hurt her that one time, for so betraying him (and he is immediatly sorry for doing so) and it played into James' hand.
Think of the guilt he must've felt. "If only I had.. she might not have married that bastard, she wouldn't be in this situation.." etc. etc.
I loved the bit about the photos. Now we know why Snape cried and tore that foto in Sirius' room. We also know why that letter sounded way to naive for a young, intelligent woman. We also know why Lily, for such a 'brave Gryffindor', ended up huddling pathetically, pleading for her child's life without so much as trying to accio her wand; abused women will cower, not fight.
In the end, it just comes down to two options. If James was really a nice guy, then Lily must've been a nasty golddigging bitch who dumped her poor halfblood friend so she can marry the rich jock/biggest bully on the playground. Then Snape must've been mentally disturbed for continuing to carry a torch for such a horrid girl.
Or James is really a nasty piece of work. A possible abusive husband, who only associates with people he can use and whose closest relationship is with best buddy, rebel-without-a-cause, Sirius. At least a manipulator who poisoned Lily with lies for years, who filled her head with stories about 'those Slytherins' until she believed them and discounted the stories of her friend Severus.
I suddenly find myself liking Lily again and can truly feel the tragedy of her and Sev's history.
I agree with your analysis of the "friendship" of James with Lupin. People have held that up as an example of what a great guy he is, so kindhearted and generous and selfless, but in light of his overall pattern of behavior--including the distancing from Lupin post-Hogwarts--I really do think it had more to do with reinforcing his image of himself (and before his peers) as a "great guy," and with being an excuse to become an Animagus and run around the grounds after hours. Someone posted an essay about Dumbledore being a textbook case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder; I think it would be possible to view James through the same lens, because everything he does seems to be about being The Great James Potter--especially and including his PR tactic of convincing Lily that he has "changed" and "grown up" in order to break down her resistance to dating him.
I still think canon Lily wasn't really such great friends with Severus as Severus thought she was. I think JKR wants us to think they were, but that's not what I see in the texts. I don't know if you saw my recent post about this, Severus and Lily: The Way They REALLY Would Have Been, but that, and the meta-story "Childhood's End," pretty well sums up my view of the shallow nature of their childhood friendship, and how poorly it would have carried over into adult life even if Severus had never spoken the taboo M-word and had never become a Death Eater.
Anyway, one more thought about Severus: If he did, in fact, see James as no good for Lily--not just out of his own self-interest or jealousy, but because he saw James as potentially abusive, at least psychologically abusive--then in a twisted way it might have made sense to him to go on and become a Death Eater. Because to Severus, becoming a Death Eater meant the POWER to vanquish his enemies and be vulnerable no more, and so he might have reasoned that he would be in a position to protect Lily from James. Which would explain why he wasn't too worried about Voldy killing off James--he'd probably see it (through an admittedly immature, young man's reasoning) as the best thing that could happen for Lily. Of course that would make it all the more ironic and tragic that his becoming a Death Eater ultimately led to Lily's death: the very thing he did to "save" her ended up killing her.
Just speculation, there, but this is certainly an angle worth examining! Thanks again.
I've read Swythyv's essay about Dumbledore having Aspergers and another about him being a Narcissist, and I fully agree. Personally I think Dumbledore is the most evil character in children's lit, ever, and I don't care wether JKR thinks the sun shines out of his nether orifice, so there! *evil grin*
Yes, when we look at James' actions instead of the authors opinion of him, we see quite a different picture, and not a flattering one at that. If we take Lily's actions at face value we don't see a nice girl either, but she clearly chooses Severus' side before entering Hogwarts but changes sides a few years later. As I've said in response to another post above, what changed between first years and fifth year? Why is Lily choosing James' side, even when she will readily claim that James is a git.
The easy answer would be 'Lily is a shallow bitch, who believes all the 'Gryffindor is Superior and Slytherin is Teh Evuhl' shite that even the teachers will endorse at school. She is a golddigger who ditched her poor, halfblood friend to marry a spoilt, bullying jock and good riddance to her', and that was *my* first reaction too.
But if this is the case, the consequence must be that Severus is a sad, puerile puppy who is stuck in his mind in the false belief that his childhood friend cared for him, even though she clearly never did. And that doesn't sit well with me, because in the whole sad, bloody awful series, Snape is the one character who acted as an adult; he looked at his own actions, saw the consequences of them and changed. This is adult behaviour that Harry or Dumbledore never reach.
So we look the evidence again. How else has Lily changed? Well, we see that before and during Hogwarts she was a girl who was never afraid to open her mouth to say what was on her mind. She was 'spunky'. Yet when the Big Bad enters her house, she doesn't even raise her wand? She sits there, cowering? She *begs*?
Enter the 'James has an manipulative, abusive personality' theory.
If James is indeed a manipulative, nasty git, who charmingly fed Lily bullshit about Slytherins in general and Severus in particular for *years*, who actively, by bullying Severus in such ways that Sev looks pathetic, drives a wedge between her and Sev, then this will explain how:
* Lily has turned from a feisty young girl into a cowiring, ineffective moomy.
* Severus still feels responsible for her even though she clearly made her choice by marrying James.
* Severus feels guilty for her death for twenty years. It can't have been that stupid McGuffin prophecy. Any Voldie sympathiser could've gone to the Ministry and checked out that prophecy. Besides, James and Lily were on Voldie's hitlist anyway. Severus pleading for her live was Lily's only chance, not her doom. So why the guilt? Because if only he had played things better, James would've been demasked and Lily would've realised what a cunning piece of shit he was and she would never have married James and wouldn't be on Voldie's hitlist etc etc.
The 'James Was A Manipulative, Possibly Abusive Bastard' theory gives us a likable but tragic Lily, a lovable but tragic Severus and a Very Nasty Wanker (instead of a plain Stupid Wanker) James.
I can live with that scenario. *grin*
We're told that only those whom the prophecy was made about or to can "check it out". That's why it was so important for Voldemort to lure Harry there. But Voldemort would likely not have even been aware of it's existence had it not been for Severus.
It's like the whole Judas thing in Christianity. You've got Jesus telling Judas to go and betray him, Judas does, Jesus dies and supposedly by this act he redeems humanity, but does Judas, for being instrumental in the redemption of mankind, get any praise? No, Christians all over the world are falling over themselves telling us how evil Judas was for being a traitor. Fair enough, but doesnt' this Judas hate indicate that if he hadn't betrayed Jesus, Jesus would've just hiked around for a few years and have died somewhere inconspicuously, been hit by a speeding camel or something? Its a sort of catch 22 situation, isn't it. Judas is damned if he does, damned if he don't.
Good thing I'm not a Christian or this kind of reasoning would've given me permanent migraine.
When the whole 'lets blame Snape for the Potters death' thing came up, I just shrugged and thought that it was like that whole 'lets blame Snape for Sirius' death', ie: Harry hates Snape therefore Snape is to blame for everything up to and including global warming, the 14 century plague and tooth decay of small children.
Honestly, that whole prophecy thing is an annoying McGuffin. It's only value is in showing how stupid Voldemort is. Why does he even want the whole prophecy? So he can, by obtaining it, fulfill yet again one of its prerequisites? And once he gotten it, what does he do with it? What value does it have? The only reason the prophecy is introduced is a) to make Harry seem speshul (prophecyboy! but Harry himself isn't special - the fact that Voldemort acted upon the prophecy and marked him made him special) and b) to give OotP a plot (if Voldemort had shrugged and said 'prophecy schmophecy' there would've been nothing to drive the whole book)
The reason Snape has been fingered (as in 'pointed out' - mind out of gutter!) by the author as the one who spilled the prophetic beans is simply to make us hate him and to give Harry more reason for hating him, but it's so illogical!
First of all, the piece of prophecy that Snape overheard and told Voldemort was vague mumbo jumbo. It was only Voldemort's own paranoia that made the prophecy 'true'. If Voldemort hadn't been so paranoid and so superstitious, he would've ignored the prophecy and conquered the WW (and killed the Potters anyway)
We are told somewhere (please don't ask an accurate quote; I don't have the books on me) by Lupin I believe, that just before the end of the first Voldie war, things were getting really bad. Being outnumbered 20 to 1 I believe the phrase was (although I take everything Lupin says with a grain of salt)
If anything, by giving Voldemort that piece of prophecy, Snape was *instrumental* in Voldie's downfall and the saving of the WW.
And I still say that a Voldie sympathiser at the Ministry could've given Voldie the whole prophecy - simply by shrinking all the orbs, giving them all to Voldemort and looking which orb 'works' for him.
It's not as if those things were guarded very well.. and the moment something about the existence of a prophecy leaked out (and it alway does.. Peter Pettigrew, anyone?) Voldie could've accessed the prophecy without a hitch.
The whole prophecy thing is dreadfully contrived, imho.
the goofy prophecy
Harry should have discovered something else in 5....There's no reason why the DEs shouldn't have the prophecy, really - it doesn't tell anyone how to destroy Harry, just says Harry can destroy Voldemort. But V. already fears Harry and wants to kill him, so who cares if V sees a prophecy that gives him a bit of additional motivation?
I mean, WHY did the Order care about guarding it? Surely if somebody had stolen it V would be revealed and the Ministry would come to their senses - which could have saved lives, or at least allowed them to start planning better policies for evacuating Muggle-borns, sending diplomatic missions to foreign governments and Muggle Britain, and organizing Aurors and/or a draft to fight the DEs. I wonder if Dumbledore didn't want that to happen yet, so as to make the Ministry humbled and cowed and all the more eager to bow to his advice once they finally realized the truth. Also he wanted Harry to have a horrible year that would make Harry see how awful the DE side is and give him a personal reason to be committed to the cause.
It's either a flaw in the book, or a flaw in Dumbledore, or both, that for a WHOLE YEAR nobody (Order or Ministry) does anything but guard a prophecy, and meanwhile V. is recruiting and killing. (I guess you could say the Order is trying to protect people in the Ministry from DEs, but I don't see how - there's nobody in the prophecy room when Harry and Co get there, and a DE thief could easily have slipped in, quickly taken the prophecy, and left. Although I suppose if they'd gotten caught, somebody might have gotten hurt.).