Jumping Ship from the Lily's Pad

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

On Saturday night I was catching up on reading DTCL and came across a post from terri_testing about why so few people claim James and Lily as friends. (posted 8/6/12, in reply to “Lupin’s ‘Resignation’,” by danajsparks) Part of it reads: 

What did happen to those witch friends Lily had in fifth year, the ones who couldn't understand why she even talked to Severus, the ones she sat and chatted with after the DADA OWL? Did their jealousy over the Mudblood scooping the Head Girl position (and the most eligible Pureblood bachelor) separate them? Were they naturally driven apart by diverging life paths caused by Lily's extremely early settling into marriage and motherhood while her friends all pursued careers....? 

Or there's always the solution I proposed in my abusive!James fic "Liberacorpus," that James had taken the precaution of sleeping his way through all of Lily's friends, so as to alienate them from her.... 

This got me to thinking: Maybe Lily’s friends were alienated, not by her good fortune or by James, but by Lily herself. I see two possibilities, both of which reflect badly on her and which are not mutually exclusive:

1) It’s certainly possible Lily’s friends were jealous because she got to be Head Girl and caught Big Wizard on Campus James. But under normal circumstances, friends get over such things. 

At least, they would have unless Lily rubbed their faces in her triumphs. If she bragged about how lucky she was, or how her success was proof of her greatness, particularly since she was a latecomer to the wizarding world, that would alienate anyone who wasn’t a complete doormat.

Of course, there is no proof Lily did that. But this kind of behavior accords with the assertion some people, most notably marionros, have made about Lily’s being a narcissist. Narcissists love to brag about themselves anyway (think Dumbledore in King’s Cross), and a triumphant narcissist would be worse than normal.

Such boasting is also compatible with the behaviors we see from Lily that indicate she had a poor character. For example, she was somewhat contemptuous and superior towards Severus, such as when she ordered him around, dismissed his feelings and concerns, or automatically took other people’s versions of events over his. 

She also exhibited a sadistic streak by using her magic to scare and torment Petunia. This is the moral equivalent of having your friends hold somebody while you punch them, or shoving over someone in a wheelchair, then laughing when they can’t get up.

No wonder she walked off and left her “best friend” to be attacked. She was doing the same thing outside of school herself, and to her own sister, who could not fight back. Which brings me to my next point. 

2) The other possibility for why Lily’s friendships ended may impart to her schoolmates a level of perspicacity they didn’t possess, but it’s an interesting idea anyway.

Lily may have bragged to or joked with her friends about using her magic to torment Petunia. I would never want to be friends with a person who was debased enough to attack her own family for entertainment.  

Regarding Severus, while Lily’s friends were no doubt happy to see her dump the greasy Slytherin, they may not have liked the way she did it. Initially, they just would have been happy he was gone, but over time, they may have become uncomfortable with her actions.

This was a boy Lily had known for six years, since she was nine. Her friends may have known she’d told Severus they were “best friends.” She had refused to break off their friendship for years, despite pressure from her House to dump him.

Then one day, he slipped up and insulted her while under extreme stress. And that was it. She literally turned her back on him and left him while he was helpless, to be assaulted by a ruthless gang of thugs. 

Severus didn’t just apologize for insulting her. He actually groveled to her, begging her forgiveness, risking his safety in the process. (Every time I think about this scene, I hear the Temptations singing, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.”) Yet she refused to even accept his apology, let alone have anything to do with him again.

If Lily was a prefect, her behavior was even worse. Regardless of her feelings for the victim, it was her duty to protect someone from being assaulted, especially by a group of attackers. She failed to do the job she’d been chosen for, to live up the obligation she’d accepted. This makes her nothing but a prettier, spunkier version of Remus the Spineless because they both allowed their personal feelings to prevent them from doing their duty.

I can’t help comparing Lily and Remus as prefects with the black American soldiers who served in World War II. These men fought and died for their country, even though they had been the victims of vicious racism at home and knew they would be again once the war was over. They realized many of the people they were fighting for were disgusting bigots who didn’t consider them fully human. They usually weren’t even allowed to serve in the same units as white soldiers. Many of them were only a few years older than Lily and Remus. Yet despite all that, they put their sense of duty ahead of their personal feelings and risked their lives for all Americans, regardless of how loathsome many individuals were. That is why they are now considered groundbreaking heroes. 

Imagine having Lily as a comrade in the Order. You will go into battle with her and trust her with your life. You’ll expect her to have your back, no matter what. 

What if you say or do something wrong while under pressure? How do you know that, when you need her the most, she won’t turn her back on you, too, and leave you at the mercy of your enemies? If she could do that to someone she’d been friends with almost half her life, why wouldn’t she do it to you as well?

Would you trust someone like that in battle?

I wouldn’t. 

  

Comments

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Of course, if Petunia had found some way to defend herself, such as pulling a knife on her or something, it would mean that she's a terrible, terrible person who just can't appreciate Lily's awesomeness.

Oh, I love that idea! It's too bad they have such strict gun laws in the UK (for dramatic purposes, of course, not RL purposes). I can just imagine Petunia pulling out a 9 MM and snarling, "Hex this, MF!" Blam, blam, blam, blam! There goes Lily and Harry.

Of course, Severus would probably come after Petunia then, and get killed, too. But at least he wouldn't be wasting his life pining after somebody who didn't care about him.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Am I a terrible person that this made me laugh hysterically?

At the very least, it would teach the WW not to underestimate firearms as much as they seem to.

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

No, it just means you're terribly disgusted with the illogic and one-sidedness of these books. As for guns, you can bet American magicals don't dismiss guns the way British magicals do. Not with all those news reports of people being shot, either accidentally or on purpose.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

You know, this is why I don't buy Hagrid's explanation of why the WW has to be kept a secret from Muggles. A more likely reason I can think of is fear. Sure, wizards can wave their wands around and make cool stuff happen, but as far as raw, wholesale slaughter, the Muggles have them beat by far. Not only is their warfare technology far superior, but the sheer numbers alone ought to make wizards worry. When secrecy is the only thing that's keeping you from potentially being slaughtered or turned into a military experiment, I can see wizards wanting to be cut off from the rest of the world. What I can't see, though, is this haughty, half-*ssed attempt at concealment. "Now, remember, we don't want these stupid and inferior Muggles catching onto us, but it's OK to go around speaking openly about magic and dressing in the most conspicuous way possible, tehe!"

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Not only is their warfare technology far superior, but the sheer numbers alone ought to make wizards worry. When secrecy is the only thing that's keeping you from potentially being slaughtered or turned into a military experiment, I can see wizards wanting to be cut off from the rest of the world. What I can't see, though, is this haughty, half-*ssed attempt at concealment. "Now, remember, we don't want these stupid and inferior Muggles catching onto us, but it's OK to go around speaking openly about magic and dressing in the most conspicuous way possible, tehe!"

And much is made regarding how they can use spells to hide themselves and their buildings from the prying eyes of nonmagikal folk, Hogwarts and Hogsmeade especially. But I doubt that such spells would effect spy satellites, nor protect them from a smart bomb if nonmagikals ever so desired to attack magikal folk.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Well, perhaps it's just that they are too arrogant to bother researching non-magical weaponry and realize how dangerous their situation is. They had better hope that they never do anything to make the non-magical government regard them as a threat.

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of a great line I saw in a fanfic recently. Snape was trying to give Harry a very simple explanation of genetics, but Harry didn't understand it. Snape said, "Don't feel bad. I went to Hogwarts instead of a real school, too."

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

What was the story -- do you have a link? Sounds like an interesting one!

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

That's amazing.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

They had better hope that they never do anything to make the non-magical government regard them as a threat.

The thing is, they needn't even be the direct target but collateral damage...

During the Cold War, if the USSR and USA started a nuclear war London would surely have been one of the USSR's targets...and I doubt all the camoflaging spells in the world would have saved the Ministry of Magic or St. Mungo's from the effects of a Russian nuclear ICBM...

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

You know, that's a good point. I wonder what they did during the Blitz?

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Jodel has more on this, but given what we know of Tom's story, it doesn't seem that in the Potterverse there *was* a Blitz - or that our history of two world wars separated by a period of peace is remotely the same. The Potterverse may look at first like our world, but in actuality it is not the same - and I don't mean just the magic bit.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Do you think that this was intentional or just a result of JKR's apparent hatred for history?

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Unintentional, definitely. "Oh, maths" + "oh, history."

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Unless you are suggesting that the nonmagikal world in Potterverse is an alternative universe to ours, I don't see how the wizarding world could completely escape what happens in the nonwizarding world.

Rowling shows us magikal folk traveling thru nonmagikal London to reach both the MoM and St. Mungo's. Wizarding society also has hijacked part of a train station built and utilized by nonwizarding folk. Arthur Weasley takes an automobile invented, developed and built by nonmagikal society and adapts it to wizarding use.

Therefore wizarding society that had any dealings within regular towns/cities has to be effected by any events happening in those communities -- war, extreme weather, terrorist attacks, etc.

I think the fact that Rowling fails to mention either nonwizarding World Wars of the 20th century in the books is solely due to her antipathy toward history.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I mean that yes, the whole Potterverse is an (no doubt unintentionally) alternative universe that happens to resemble ours at first glance. I don't mean just that she doesn't mention the wars; when you get down to the nitty-gritty details and map out what happened when, where, it becomes impossible to reconcile the Potterverse's timeline with our world's. Jodel really goes into detail, but for instance: it's impossible to make the date of Frank Bryce's injury line up with any known war in our world; young Tom and his mates at the orphanage are supposed to be in London during the time that all children were evacuated; the nonsense about Grindelwald feeding off of a Muggle war falls apart when you try to line it up with WWII; etc. I fully believe that JKR *meant* it to be our world, and is just utterly crap at history and doesn't care. But from a Watsonian POV, it's not our world.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

Ooh, this sounds interesting. Got any links? :)

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Arg, stupid filter marked my reply as spam, because of the links. Go to redhen-publications DOT COM, click "My Work," then "Commentary" and "Concerning the Potterverse." I tried giving links directly but the LJ filters are being crap about it, sorry.

I would recommend all of her essays, but RE Potterverse history I'd start with Wizards and Muggles Parts I & II and then History of Magic. Here's a bit from W&M I:

"Rowling is, after all, an author who in the very first book of the series decked out the ghost of a wizard allegedly executed in 1492 in a *ruff* despite the fact that in 1492 the ruff wasn’t yet even a gleam in a starch merchant’s eye. [...]
So perhaps we ought not to be too surprised to discover that in an (apparently post-war) industrialized 1920s Great Britain, a nameless young woman can give birth in an orphanage, die, and no one will make the slightest attempt to find out who she is or where she came from, not even in hopes that there is a family somewhere upon whom they can palm off her kid; that orphanage children were not evacuated from London during the equivalent of WWII, and that in the summer of 1996 the former Prime Minister of England was a man."

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)