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The Problem With Lily Evans Potter

As mentioned in this post, I’m now trying to finish working on all the articles listed on the drafts page of this blog after a very long hiatus from Tumblr. This particular post is one of those drafts. The post date is listed as Oct 28th, 2016 8:04:49pm.  

The alternate title for this post is “What’s wrong with Lily?”

Lily Evans is the wife of James Potter and the mother of Harry Potter. She also used to be the best friend of Severus Snape.

Do you think Lily Evans was a real and true friend to Severus Snape?

What happened in Snape’s Worst Memory?

In the Snape’s Worst Memory scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, book 5 of the HP series by J.K. Rowling, the Marauders (James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew) are bullying Severus Snape. Lily shows up to help her supposed best friend. What’s wrong with this?

Problems with the way Lily “helped” Severus

Agree with @wilczawisnia with regards to how Evans handled the bullying scene. I also question the way Lily acted in this scene. Her actions here don’t paint her in a good light. It can also make people question if she and Snape are really friends.

What’s the first thing Lily does when she shows up in this scene? She says, “Leave him alone.” The words are about Snape, but who is she talking to? She directs these words to James Potter.

She doesn’t even spare a moment to talk to Severus or even look at him. No, the moment she shows up, her entire attention is focused on James. She talks to Potter, readily ignoring her supposed best friend.

But if the Slytherin is really her best friend, wouldn’t it make more sense for her to show even just a bit of concern for him? Wouldn’t she at least look at him and see how he’s doing? 

The Marauders (James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin) bullied Severus Snape seemingly every chance they got

Why Lily didn’t use her magic to help Snape?

Moreover, Lily is a witch. She has magic and she knows how to use it. So, how come she didn’t use it? How come she didn’t use her magic to help Severus? When she asked Potter to leave her friend alone and when James refused to listen, what did Evans do? 

She kept right on talking to James, basically ignoring Snape. But why would she do that? If she really cared about Severus, wouldn’t she try her best to help him? If James refuses to free him, how come she doesn’t use her own wand to help the Slytherin? 

It’s been said that Lily is a bright and intelligent witch, that she’s powerful, so what happened to all that intelligence and power? How come she doesn’t use her brains to help her friend? Why would she keep bothering to get James to stop bullying Snape when it was clear the Gryffindor had no intentions of stopping (unless, of course, she agrees to go out with him)?

In the Snape's Worst Memory scene, how come Lily Evans spent most of her time talking to James Potter instead of actually helping Severus Snape, her supposed best friend?

Why Lily bothered to interfere?

Considering how Lily handled the bullying scene, it’s a wonder why she bothered to interfere. It’s like she just wasted everyone’s time since her efforts amounted to nothing. She showed up, and yet nothing changed for the person she supposedly wanted to help. She showed up, but nothing happened. The Marauders still continued to torment Snape. In the end, her interference did nothing for Severus.

Lily’s actions don’t seem to be that of a best friend. She comes across as just some random passer-by who decided to help, but then got mad and changed her mind when the person she was attempting to help ended up insulting her. Would a true or real best friend act the way she did?

How Lily Evans could have helped Severus Snape?

There were many ways in which Lily could have helped Severus. Apart from trying to use her own magic to free him, she could have called for the teachers. Besides, isn’t she supposed to be popular? Doesn’t she have a lot of friends? 

If she asked, wouldn’t some of the students watching help her? Surely, not everyone is as bad as the Marauders and there’s at least one other person there-aside from Lily-who has a kind heart and wouldn’t be able to just stand by while someone was being hurt. 

Why Evans almost smiled in the Snape’s Worst Memory scene?

I didn’t like this part too. If Lily and Severus are really as close as best friends, it doesn’t make sense for Evans to smile (almost or otherwise doesn’t matter. She shouldn’t be smiling. Period) while Snape was being tormented and bullied by the Marauders. Why would she find his suffering amusing? Even if they’re not friends, we’re told that she’s supposed to be this nice and kind person, so why would she smile at seeing someone get hurt?

The Snape's Worst Memory scene, wherein the Marauders bullied Severus Snape and he ended up calling Lily Evans a mudblood, happened in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, book 5 of the HP series by J.K. Rowling

Unequal friendship between Lily and Snape

Yeah, I think their friendship was never equal simply because Lily was more popular. She was well-liked and she had a lot of other friends. If she lost Snape as a friend, she’d surely have a lot of other people who can help her cope with the loss and who can comfort her in her time of need. 

In contrast to that, Severus Snape was a loner. He wasn’t popular and the Marauders bullied him seemingly every chance they got. It was clear he didn’t have very many friends, if any, which was why he treasured Lily’s friendship so much. 

Your opinions and thoughts?

What do you think about all this? How come Lily almost smiled when her supposed best friend was being bullied? How come she spent most of her time talking to James instead of actually helping Severus? How come she didn’t use her magic to help Snape? How come she didn’t ask the teachers or the other students for help?

Notes:
-1st pic is by Cor-Sa (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
-2nd pic is by Cor-Sa (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
-3rd and 4th pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above

wilczawisnia

…

And perhaps that’s the problem with Lily. In “Snape’s Worst Memory” she kind of plays the role of a night in shining armour. She comes to her supposed friend’s rescue, however… Why did she not dock some points for James Potter and Sirius Black’s behaviour? Why did she not involve a teacher? Why did she not call on Remus Lupin for ignoring what his friend were doing? So many “why’s” here. It’s obvious that her words have no effect on James Potter, and yet she herself continues her discussion with him, up to the point where we are said that she looks as if she was about to smile (perhaps) or cry. No reason for her to cry, so if it is an almost-smile, it looks weird taking into consideration the situation and this is exactly what makes Severus Snape snap and use the slur. Was it right for him to use it? No, definitely not. But neither was it right for Lily to call him names and taunt his poverty in return. See, Lily definitely had a lot of good intentions, but did she always considered what the results of her actions meant to others? I don’t think so. Does it makes her a bad person? Not really, but it definitely makes her a flawed one…

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Are Severus Snape And Lily Evans Really Friends?

It doesn’t really seem that way, does it? I agree that Lily Evans was actually really very cold in the Snape’s Worst Memory scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, book 5 of the HP series by J.K. Rowling. Her actions also don’t show or prove that she and Severus Snape are close/best friends. 

Why’s that? Is this how friends are supposed to act? And would you give up on your friend so easily especially if you’re supposed to be really close to each other and you even grew up together?

“Dude, those two are so totally not friends,” Aleks declared. “I mean, just look at the Snape’s Worst Memory scene. That totally proves it. It’s right there for all to see. Yeah.” He said, nodding as if this was the undeniable truth that could not be disputed.

“Perhaps you are right. But perhaps you are also wishing to explain this some more so people might be feeling more inclined to believe you, da?” Ivan said.

Aleks pouted at him. “Yeah, yeah, fine. See, it’s like this. When Lily Evans showed up in this scene, what’d she do and say?”

“She is telling James Potter to leave Severus Snape alone.”

“Yeah, ‘leave him alone’, right? She says that lotsa times in this scene.”

“Does that not show that she is caring for her friend?” Ivan asked.

Aleks shook his head. “Dude, no way. I mean, Lily’s a witch. You know, she can do magic and stuff. She’s got a wand. She knows how to use it, right? So, why didn’t she use it? When she first showed up, instead of helping Severus by ending the spell that was being used on him, she chose to spend all that time talking to James instead. Like, dude, what was that all about? 

“Why’d she keep asking James to stop when she knew the guy wouldn’t listen? Like, I dunno man, but maybe after the first few times you say something and someone doesn’t listen, wouldn’t that like clue you in that the guy ain’t ever gonna listen? And she was askin’ Potter to stop the curse and stuff but, dude, why didn’t she do that herself? Like couldn’t she do that herself?”

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Reasons Why James Potter Didn’t Really Love Lily Evans

Agree with both @deeplyhorriblefan and @snakebitcat. The Snape’s Worst Memory scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, book 5 of the HP series by J.K. Rowling, seems to show that James Potter didn’t really love Lily Evans. Why? 

This pic shows the Potter family - James Potter, Lily Evans and baby Harry Potter. Do you think James really loved Lily?

Blackmailing someone you love

If you love someone, would you resort to blackmailing them just to get them to go out with you? If James really loved Lily, why would he force her to go out with him when she already said no?

“I will if you go out with me, Evans,” said James quickly. “Go on… Go out with me, and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.”* 

(Side note: as mentioned in this post, it’s been a while since I’ve last logged on to Tumblr. Am now working on trying to finish all the posts in my drafts page and then publishing them on this blog. This post is one of them. The post date tells me it’s been sitting on my drafts page since Oct 4th, 2016 8:11:54pm.)

Threatening to hurt someone you love

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Does James Potter Really Love Lily Evans?

Additional title: Why/how did Lily Evans ever fall in love with James Potter?

Yeah, I noticed that too. And the Snape’s Worst Memory scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, book 5 of the HP series by J.K. Rowling, can also make one wonder if James Potter really actually loved Lily Evans as well as how in the world Lily Evans could ever possibly fall in love with a guy like James Potter.

Taking a closer look at this particular scene, we can see that James isn’t just being a despicable and horrible person by bullying Severus Snape who hadn’t done anything to him (in this scene, he was suddenly attacked for no reason). 

He was also threatening and trying to blackmail the one he supposedly loves. Would you threaten to hurt someone you love? Would you force someone you love to do something against their will? Is that what love is? 

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Why Did James Potter And Lily Evans Get Married?

Does James really love Lily? Aside from not being feminist, James Potter just came across as a really horrible and bad person. He was a bully who picked on Severus Snape for no reason/just because he existed like he told Lily in the Snape’s Worst Memory scene in Order of the Phoenix. Also didn’t like the way he tried to blackmail Lily Evans into dating him and how he even threatened to hurt her. How can any of that be considered a good thing? Does it make you wonder how they could have ended up together?

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Did James Potter Really Handle Lily Evans’ Rejection Better Than Severus Snape Did?

I’ve to say that I don’t really think so. It didn’t really seem like James Potter took Lily Evans’ rejection all that well at all. In fact, it seemed more like he couldn’t take no for an answer and so he kept on pestering her and being insistent in trying to persuade her into going out with him, even going so far as to try and blackmail her into doing so.

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Did Lily Evans Like James Potter Before He ‘Changed’?

Agree with @ndelphinusarchive about James Potter not really changing. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin tell Harry that his dad didn’t really change, that he just learned to lie and hide things from Lily Evans, that he still continued to bully Severus Snape.

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James Potter = Bully Who Never Really Changed?

Yeah, agree about James Potter being a bully before and even after he started dating Lily Evans. It’s like he never really changed. Look at what Sirius Black says in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, book 5 of the HP series by J.K. Rowling:

“Once James had deflated his head a bit"

“A bit”. It’s just a bit. James only “deflated his head a bit” so it seems like he just toned down his bad/horrible/despicable attitude/behavior especially whenever Lily Evans was around so that she’d think that she was able to change him or that he changed especially for her. But, with the way James continued to act, it seemed like not even love could change him. Or is that actually possible in his case? Is it really possible for him to be able to change and stop bullying in such a short period of time especially when he’s been bullying people for years?

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Are James Potter And Lily Evans Horrible People?

.@satomon - I guess more people are wont to say that James Potter is horrible because of all the things he did like bullying people, including Severus Snape, whenever he could, etc. 

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Severus Snape’s Worst Memory - A Short Discussion

In this post about Severus Snape’s Worst Memory Scene from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, book 5 of the HP series by J.K. Rowling, let’s touch up a bit on the following problems/issues:

  1. James Potter - the creepy, blackmailing bully
  2. Lily Evans - the so-called ‘best friend’ and heroine/good guy/protagonist who didn’t really do anything

*Other issues will be discussed/talked about in other posts, ‘cause, there’s a whole lot, huh?

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Poll Results For What Albus Dumbledore Should Have Done To Protect The Sorcerer’s Stone?

magicaltimelady44:

potter-plotholes:

I added a poll to this post I wrote about “What Albus Dumbledore Should Have Done to Protect the Sorcerer’s Stone?” The article used to be published on HubPages (it was first posted on on 10/01/2014), but I decided to move it to my Potter Plotholes Tumblr blog instead.

what albus dumbledore should have done to protect the sorcerer's or philosopher's stone from the dark lord voldemort and other would-be thieves

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Honestly, there are so many ways the Stone could have been protected that wouldn’t have had any risk to the students, or really much risk at all. Of course, this is assuming the Stone should have been protected at all.

First off, why does the Stone need to be in Hogwarts at all? Why does Dumbledore need to be involved? Hell, why was it even in England in the first place? Flamel is french, and according to Potter canon, he lived in France at the time of the first book. If he and his wife weren’t already prepping for death - in which case, the whole ‘protect the Stone’ thing was utter nonsense, because they had already decided to die anyways and could/should have just destroyed it instead of sending it off to Gringotts in London - then why wouldn’t they have it within easy reach in order to keep producing the Elixir of Life. The thing they need in order to keep living. Which they presumably wanted to do.

By all rights, the Stone shouldn’t have been in Gringotts at the time that Harry and Hagrid went to London. In the conversation between Harry and Dumbledore at the end of the book, Dumbledore heavily implied that the decision to destroy the Stone didn’t occur until after Harry had his confrontation under the trap door. Of course, Dumbledore being Dumbledore, this doesn’t actually mean that the Flamels made their decision then, however, but the timing of that conversation is crucial to how the Stone should have been dealt with.

Say the Flamels didn’t decide to die until after the Quirrellmort confrontation. If that’s the case, then the Stone really should have never left France to begin with, assuming the protection of the Stone from Voldemort’s plans was the actual sole goal here. It’s unknown how much Elixir they had saved up for “setting their affairs in order”, however, if they wanted to keep living, then at some point they would need to retrieve the Stone from its protections in order to make more. Logically speaking, this means the Stone should have stayed in easy reach. Better yet, keep it on their property, and involve no one else in its protections. The fewer people who know anything, the safer it would be. Ideally, they should have just locked the Stone in a box or drawer, then Hidden it, or the room it was in, under the Fidelius charm. Or, if the charm can only work on full structures, build a tiny little structure - hell, no bigger than a dog house - on their property, stick it in there, and stick that under Fidelius. Simple, no one else need be involved - because the Flamels themselves could be the Secret Keeper - and even if a thief broke into their house, the thief could never find it.

And, you know, access to the thing that lets them keep living their lives.

One would have to assume that Voldemort is not the first would be thief in over 600 years, and that the Flamels would be skilled enough to prevent themselves from being tortured into giving up the Secret.

Of course, that was assuming the Flamels had not already decided to die. If the Flamels’ decision actually came before the Stone was sent off to England - which I personally believe, just based off how events unfolded in the book - then they should have never sent it away at all. Presumably their stash of Elixir for setting their affairs in order was already made before the events of the book - because once the Stone was hidden it would be rather difficult for them to make more - so then why bother with the whole big production? Better yet, why risk the lives of all those children just to set a trap for a known genocidal terrorist who is known to kill children? It’s stupid. They should have just destroyed the stone themselves, and saved everybody the stress and risk and danger.

TL:DR Dumbledore should have never been involved with the Stone. The Flamels should have either put it under the Fidelius themselves if they wanted to live, or just destroyed it. It was their responsibility, no one else’s.

@magicaltimelady44 - yes, yes, yes to all of this. Completely agree.

Even if the Sorcerer’s Stone really needed to be in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for some reason (though I also believe that it really shouldn’t have been put in a school full of children), then why would Albus Dumbledore say something about it?

Okay, so he didn’t outright say the stone was hidden in Hogwarts. However, during the opening feast, he basically hinted at such when he talked about how the third floor corridor was forbidden on pain of death. 

image

I mean, why would he say something like that to a bunch of kids? Children are naturally curious, so words like this could tempt them to check out the third floor corridor. 

This is especially so for those prone to being troublemakers such as Fred and George Weasley. I mean, what if he never said anything? What if he just kept quiet about it? 

Sure, it’s possible that students wandering around might stumble across the corridor should they happen to get lost or whilst exploring, but that’s another thing. 

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