Head Boy an' Girl

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

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!

--PS chapt. 4 Many of us have questioned how James (and, to a lesser extent, Lily) could have been head boy, given everything we've been told about his behavior as a teenager. But I'm wondering... are we absolutely certain that he actually was head boy?

It occurred to me this morning that the only mention of James and Lily as having been head boy and girl in the entire series is Hagrid's statement above, which he makes soon after delivering Harry his Hogwarts letter. We are told multiple times in multiple books that Tom, Bill, and Percy were all head boys, but it is never once stated again that James and Lily were head boy and girl, not even when the trio is looking through an old list of head boys in chapter 13 of CoS.

We know that Hagrid is not the most reliable source of information. Just a few hours later, he will tell Harry, "There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin," completely glossing over the fact that man who betrayed Harry's family was a Gryffindor. When he declares that James and Lily were head boy and girl, he is in the midst of countering Petunia's claims that they were strange and abnormal freaks who got themselves blown up. Could he be lying here... or, umm, exaggerating the truth a bit? (They weren't really head boy and girl, but they should've been, given how totally awesome they were).

After all, it is Hagrid's assigned duty to make sure that Harry agrees to go to Hogwarts and follows in his parents' footsteps... including, eventually, the whole getting themselves blown up part.

Comments

Re: Who knows

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Gosh, in all my time here, this the first time I've seen it used. Unless I was just blind to the other times. O.o

Ohhh, typical Rowling. Of course the dumb Slytherin repeated a year. *eyeroll*

Re: Who knows

[oryx_leucoryx]

Though notice he repeated a NEWTs year - which means that as opposed to people like Charlie Weasley or the twins he cared enough about post-OWLs education to try and make up for failure (or perhaps he stayed an extra year to take a second chance at his NEWTs and improve his grades). Go Marcus!

Re: Who knows

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

To be honest, it's a term that hasn't been that much in use since the closing of canon. Very much so during the 3-year summer, yes, and off and on since then. But now that we have the whole set, not so often. Rather disheartening to try to compile them, actually. Can't blame people for not wanting to try.