Taken from
http://heygreeneyes.tumblr.com/post/5274544831/lily-evans-james-potter-a-history-a-ship-a-romance She explains James Potter love much better than I can.
Lily Evans/James Potter : a history, a ship, a romance for the ages.
Why I ship them:
You know that character that just speaks to you? He’s misunderstood, a little masochistic, arrogant but charming, and utterly adorable, and you’re not really sure what to do with him, but you can’t help but love him completely despite the fact that so little people do? For me, this character is James Potter, and I can’t talk about Lily/James without talking about him first.
I fell in love with James Potter in Order of the Phoenix. We’d heard literally nothing about him before then (other than the fact that he was Harry’s father, he died on October 31, 1981, the Hogwarts faculty loved him despite the fact that he was a complete prankster, he saved Snape’s life, he was a Head student with Lily Evans in his 7th year, he was an animagi and one of the brightest students of his year, and Sirius Black was his best mate (and missed him more than anything or anyone else in the world). I know some people fell in love with James in Prisoner of Azkaban, but that book, along with Order of the Phoenix made me fall in love with Sirius Black, and my love for James developed much slowly (until it actually surpassed Sirius before I even realized I was in love). So what caught my attention? Why James?
Honestly, and I guess this is controversial but James fan or not, please don’t hate me. You’re entitled to your opinions in the same way that I’m sharing mine, I fell in love with James Potter in Snape’s Worst Memory.
Order of the Phoenix was my favorite book for the longest time. I started reading Harry Potter when there were already four books released, right after Goblet of Fire, because I was one of those students who loved to read but nothing seemed to interest me, and we had to choose books from the class bookcase and all that was left were the Harry Potters (because everyone else in the class had already read them and I was an idiot for not having done so already, even though I didn’t know it). When I fell for Harry and Sirius and a million other characters (I have a thing for the characters with heartbreaking back-stories, so Harry and Sirius were and still are two of my favorite characters), I waited with the rest of the world for the book that seemed to be taking forever to write. Order of the Phoenix is the book I have the most attachment to not because it is the Harry Potter book with the most written pages about the marauders, but because it is the book I waited for, the book I dragged my mom out at 6 AM to buy after reserving it months in advance, the first book I stayed up an entire night to read and finished in a day, the thing that started my need to read amazing books this way on the day that they are released. There is nothing like that feeling, and I loved this feeling, so yeah, I was attached. And then Sirius died and I cried, and yet, the book still meant so much to me at this point that I had to put myself through the torture of reading it and rereading it over and over and over again. (To this day, this is the one Harry Potter book I have read word-for-word seventy-five times. I still reread it all the time.)
Er… sorry for digressing. Back to Order of the Phoenix. During my first read, Sirius was my concern - his life, his past, his present, his death, everything about him made me cry and feel and I didn’t know what to do with it. When I read it again, Snape’s Worst Memory became the focus. People were already talking about this chapter everywhere, how it was a complete character assassination for Harry’s perfect deceased father, how it completely contradicted the type of pranksters the marauders were established to be in Prisoner of Azkaban, how it was confusing that bitter, child-bullying Snape would have been telling the truth, or some part of the truth, about Harry’s father. I didn’t analyze this chapter to death like those people who somehow determined the truth about Snape from this one scene, but it bothered me. Not because I had actually cared that much about James Potter before, but because I loved Harry and I loved Sirius, and this was Harry’s father, the Head Boy, the one his wife supposedly hated. What was going on here?
Even though I didn’t analyze that chapter to pieces, I’m still incredibly obsessive-compulsive, and I think way too much. So naturally, I’ve read this scene a million times more than I’ve read the book itself. Snape’s Worst Memory is brilliant because the subtext is all there (for Snape too, but since I’ve already written an entire post dedicated to Snape and his confusing/sporadic blah/awesomeness, I’m going to just talk about James here). How James Potter might be the star Quidditch player from a rich, pureblood/blood-traitor family, the “height of cool”, but was still incredibly awkward, anxious, and nervous when it came to girls he actually gave a damn about. How it was Lily’s initials he was scribbling on his test like a lovesick schoolgirl (lol, sorry James, I still love you). How he was mussing up his hair and showing off with the snitch for her, even though part of him must have known that she didn’t care. How he was a total prat in the scene with Snape (though honestly, his history with Snape in the books is always shown from one side and I know JKR has said that they were always fighting, taking turns starting battles, I’m going to ignore this part of SWM, even though it was the part that haunted me the most), yet he stopped immediately when Lily showed up, trying to apologize and going about it all wrong, asking her out in the worst way at the worst possible time, and being just… completely stupid.
Even though he was immature, even though he was a total prat, there was something interesting, even endearing about this silly James Potter bloke, and I was intrigued.
SWM is the most cited chapter for James!bashers. Strangely, it is where my love for this character stems. Yeah, James is not painted in a way I can respect him in this chapter alone. But this chapter does not negate everything we already knew about perfect, boring James Potter from before. Sirius and Remus expained to Harry in OotP that James matured, and here is your evidence. He was a prat here at fifteen, but he must have done something to become a Head Boy. He and Snape bullied each other for years, but he still saved his life, not just because he wanted to save his friends’ asses, but because he would never wish death on anyone, not even an enemy. He was a talented Quidditch player, but he spent his life after Hogwarts fighting in the Order of the Phoenix, even facing and defying Voldemort three times. He had a sense of bravery, a lion through and through, and an incredible sense of loyalty; he’d do anything to save the people he loved. He was accepting - a werewolf, a boy from a family of Voldemort-supporters, an awkward and relatively unskilled boy were his closest friends, and he’d trust them until the very end. And yet, he wasn’t always the hero, he didn’t always get the girl - he had flaws, but he matured, grew up into the boy who always was there under the surface but didn’t emerge until after sixth year, after he’d stopped hexing Slytherins for fun, after he’d stopped irritating Lily even though his feelings always were real but inexpressible, after he’d done something to make Dumbledore give him that Head Boy badge without his ever being a prefect. James Potter was a real character, so developed without even having a single chapter devoted to him in the entire series, and this boy, intelligent, charming, adorkable, but so incredibly loving and brave, stole my heart.
When I think of Lily/James, I think of the things James and Lily went through to get to that relationship in Seventh Year. How James was someone that you can tell Lily was attracted to (some of the things she said to him in that argument in SWM indicate that she had been watching him from across the lake too), but denied herself that because attractive or not, he was someone she would never date on principle (he was bullying her best friend, and Lily, like James, was loyal to her friends, especially Snape until he did so many things that she was against and she couldn’t even stand by him anymore). But James matured and gradually they became friends, until she finally agreed to go out with him because she had no reason to say no to adorkable, charming, awkwardly endearing James Potter, who, without the blatant immaturity, was more than she’d ever given him credit for. I guess it’s the story - the misunderstood, adorably awkward, kind of arrogant but sweet, masochistic guy and the intelligent, outspoken, kind, stubborn girl. Two people who are completely different, but amazing together because it takes them years to see each other as they really are, and when they do, it’s incredible. James Potter and Lily Evans fought Death Eaters together. They dated despite the fact that he was pureblood and she was muggleborn in the middle of a war pitting the two against each other, and yet, they still made it through. At the time of their death, Lily is friends with all the marauders, and her marriage to James is happy. They’re young, in hiding, and their son is marked for death, and yet, the last time we see them, they are still so very much in love, happy even because they know they can make it through these terrifying circumstances… because they have each other. James dies without even thinking about it; he’d do anything to keep Lily and Harry alive, and it would kill him if he survived and she did not. Lily dies knowing that James won’t survive, didn’t survive, and that she and her son are probably on their way too. There was a moment in between where you could just tell her heart stopped, and when Voldemort appeared and gave her that choice and she begged with her very being for her son’s survival, there was this extreme desperation because her life was literally flashing before her eyes and her husband was dead.
I ship Lily/James because they fought the odds. They were opposites in personality, in interests, in blood status, and yet, they made it work. They survived Voldemort, they survived the war for years (until one of their friends betrayed them, but think about this, if Peter hadn’t, they would have survived), they survived politics, they survived a young, hurried marriage, they survived together. It’s that interaction, that relationship development, that history over time that does it for me. At the end, they’re more than just lovers and spouses, they’re friends, partners, everything to each other. And I can’t help but love this.
When I started shipping them:
I don’t know if you can tell from that essay I just wrote (Sorry!), but I started shipping them in OotP without realizing it, before Half Blood Prince was even written. I consciously started shipping them right before Deathly Hallows was released. My cousin was addicted to reading Harry Potter fanfiction and though I swore I’d never read fanfiction for a book series (I only read Sailor Moon fanfiction back then), I started reading some of the ones she was reading. She was obsessed with MWPP fics, and though none actually stuck with me, I ended up rooting for Lily and James in every one that I tried reading. After DH, I started looking up fics on my own to fill the void that book, this series left on me. I discovered The Girl or the Game and a million other fics from there, and the rest is history. I haven’t stopped shipping them since. I never intend to stop. (And for those of you who care, there is even more subtext for Lily/James in The Prince’s Tale that only solidified my L/J love, and even JKR has commented on the “realness” of their relationship.)
My favorite scene:
My favorite scene in the series? I guess the one scene we actually have of them as a couple, with Lily laughing and James blowing bubbles to amuse baby!Harry. In fanfiction, I have way too many favorite scenes to name. (If anyone cares, I’ll comprise a list of recommendations one day, but for now, I’ll just say that scene in Commentarius when James cuts Lily off from “getting the milk for free” without “buying the entire cow”. XD )
A song that reminds me of them:
So I tried to pick one song, really I did, but I couldn’t. I only made it through the songs I had on my laptop (my ipod is dead currently and trust me, you don’t want me to go through that and add even more to this list), but here are only… a couple that I associate with Lily/James. Most of these have canon-related reasons, but some of them may be personal canon related (I tried to avoid it, but I know some sneaked in anyway). I don’t want to write even more and make this entry longer than it needs to be, so if you have specific questions about a song choice (or… ten XD) or you just don’t know the song and you’re curious, feel free to ask and I’ll elaborate. :)
Just Say Yes, Snow Patrol
Catch Me, Demi Lovato
Alright With Me, Kris Allen
As Lovers Go, Dashboard Confessional
At the Beginning, Richard Marx and Donna Lewis
The Best Thing, Relient K
Better With You, Five Times August
The Beauty and the Tragedy, Trading Yesterday
Broken, Lifehouse
Bruised, Jack’s Mannequin
Check Yes Juliet, We the Kings
Circus Lights, Black Lab
Come Around, Rosi Golan
Crazier, Taylor Swift
Dark Blue, Jack’s Mannequin
Must Have Done Something Right, Relient K
Learning to Breathe, Switchfoot
Cry, Mandy Moore
Dashing Knight, ALL CAPS
Deeper, Alexz Johnson
Dress and Tie, Charlene Kaye ft. Darren Criss
Don’t You Dare, Alexz Johnson
Drive My Soul, Lights
A Drop in the Ocean, Ron Pope
Temporary Insanity, Alexz Johnson
Ever Fallen in Love, Buzzcocks
Voodoo, Alexz Johnson
Even Though, Darren Criss
Fall For You, Secondhand Serenade
Fine Line, Alanna Clarke
Follow Through, Gavin Degraw
Hands Down, Dashboard Confessional
Hazy, Rosi Golan
Here We Go Again, Alexz Johnson ft. Luke McMaster
How Do We Do This, Sterling Knight
Here Today, Paula Brancati
I Dare You to Move, Switchfoot
I Lied, Laurell
I’d Lie, Taylor Swift
I’m Yours, The Script
It Sounds So Beautiful, Landon Liboiron
James and Lily, Library Lily and the Tales of the Bard
Jump Then Fall, Taylor Swift
Just the Beginning, Alexz Johnson
Just the Girl, The Click Five
Lily, Ministry of Magic
Long Live, Taylor Swift
Lovely Lily, The Remus Lupins
More Than Alive, ALL CAPS
My First in Love, Alexz Johnson
All This Time, One Republic
Ocean Wide, The Afters
One Last Goodbye, Let’s Lumos! ft. Jason Munday
Talking Pictures, Tyler Kyte
Only Power Remains, Ministry of Magic
Perfect For Each Other, The Remus Lupins
Rescue You, Jake Epstein
Saved, ALL CAPS
Skips, Alexz Johnson & Tyler Kyte
Stolen, Dashboard Confessional
Sammy Decter (This is Your Life), Eve and the Ocean
Sunburn, Owl City
Tonight I Love You, The Latency
Your Eyes, Alexz Johnson
23, Jimmy Eat World
99 Lives, Pettit Project
Vanilla Twilight, Owl City
Labels: #Epic, #James Potter, #Lily Evans, #Love, #Severus Snape
