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

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

At the beginning of the duel in the graveyard...

“Expelliarmus”… and what use would it be to deprive Voldemort of his wand, even if he could, when he was surrounded by Death Eaters, outnumbered by at least thirty to one?

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Well, you've got to do *something*, otherwise it's a case of just stand there and be killed, and no hero/Gryffindor would make that decision.

So, yeah, as a priority, disarming the wizard who's trying to kill you there and then makes a lot of sense!

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

lol, sorry, my point was that we get a sense here of how many death eaters were present at the graveyard. There were a little more than thirty of them there.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

It's a quote from near the beginning of chapter 34.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. And I skipped right past that in my skim of that chapter just a few minutes ago.

Okay, that's a great quote, and supports Oryx nicely for the issue of how many DEs were around in the 'first' Voldemort 'war'. I can't really argue that there were a hundred DEs present, even Harry would have supplied a bigger number in that case.

And I'm pretty sure we're led to believe that ALL of Riddle's DEs were supposed to turn up at the graveyard. (Not like the case where Oryx is trying to show that they all showed up at the 7P fight above Privet drive.)

Thank you for the quote!

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

'First things first', in other words. :-)

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Well, it is his signature spell, I guess. Surely he would have learned something better by the end of the 4th year though?

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

sorry, I should have indicated better that the sentence was a quote from chapter 34 of GoF that gives us an idea of how many death eaters were present.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

No problem! Serves me right for not having a copy of the book on hand.

[stephanie-draws.livejournal.com]

And isn't is ironic that he learned it from ~Snape~ who used it when he wiped the floor with Lockhart in the Duelling Club?!