many reasons (that have nothing to do with men) that Lily is an amazing, amazing character (a badass, if you will)

blitheringmcgonagall:

snapslikethis:

While tumbling through the Lily Evans tag I get frustrated that every single post is either Lily with James or Snape or badmouthing the other ship and there are so few posts about how amazing this woman is. Despite which ship you sink with and adamantly defend to the death, I hope we can ALL agree that there is so much more to Lily than which boy she did or did not hook up with, just as any person is more (hopefully) than just the person they (do or don’t) love. So, rather than whine about it, I am submitting to you all my comprehensive, but not exhaustive, list of the reasons (that do not include James and/or Snape) I think Lily is an amazing, amazing character (a badass, if you will).

The issues she dealt with at home:

Her sister. I could write a book about this relationship dynamic (I think it’s because I grew up with sisters and I read so many books with sisterhood as a central theme that I feel so strongly about this). I’m not going to blame Petunia entirely, or Lily entirely because, frankly, neither of them are 100% culpable or 100% blameless. There were so many factors in the breakdown of this relationship that I cannot begin to cover it, but here is the crux: sisterhood is one of the strongest connections a woman can have, and when that connection is broken, it is messy and heartbreaking and devastating.

For very young girls, sisters are confidants who understand our preferences and nuances, they co-create the wonderful games we play, they know how to drive us barmy. I firmly believe that as young girls, our sisters are the first and truest friendships of our lives. As a younger sister, Lily must have idolized Petunia, at least to a point. Despite their difference in temperaments, Lily and Petunia were incredibly close before magic came into the picture. Lily meeting Severus was the first big fault line that threatened their relationship, and each subsequent thing that happened regarding Lily and the magical world-her continued friendship with Severus, performing magic, her Hogwarts letter, stepping on the train-further estranged her from Petunia. Each step Lily took into the magical world, which was a part of her, which she could not help but belong to, was a literal step away from her sister.

As I said, I’m not going to write a novel about this, although I’m damn close, the BIG idea here is that, ultimately, Lily was rejected by her sister because (in Petunia’s perception) Lily chose the magical world over her. It was a betrayal-Lily betrayed Petunia by being magical, Petunia betrayed Lily by becoming bitter and spiteful and holding magic against her. And the breaking of that bond, that confidence, that sisterhood, it wasn’t quick; it happened over the course of weeks, months, years-a thousand stony glares, bitter remarks, jabs, insults,  fights, each more painful than the last. So coming home? Not pleasant. Not even a little bit.

Her parents. I have no doubt that Lily’s parents loved her, but I have equal conviction that Petunia despised her, and at some point it probably became, if not mutual loathing, at least resignation that things could not be fixed, that their relationship had gone past the point of no return. Rather than being a joyous union, coming home was a long, drawn out, torturous exercise in losing her sister.

To an extent, and I think all muggle born students probably felt this way, how could Lily truly have felt at home, I mean completely comfortable at home without magic? For nine months of the year she is at school-her magical home-where magic is really the defining aspect. Learning about magic, exploring and testing her limits, challenging herself, where she is smart and well liked by just about everyone. To come home, all that has to be suppressed-not because her parents forbid it, but because no one really understands her references, or stories, and practically speaking, she cannot demonstrate because she isn’t of age. Petunia would not have wanted to hear about the magical world, anyway, so I’m not even sure Lily would have wanted to discuss it and further enrage her.

On the flip side, Lily has been gone, away from home, for nine months. Three quarters of a year’s worth of stories, references, moments, memories, jokes, fights-all the things that make a family a family-and she wasn’t actually there for it. Except for the occasional anecdote via letter, she’s really an outsider looking in. Imagine experiencing that surreal, bizarre realization that coming home isn’t actually home anymore when you return from university, except that instead of being 19 and able to roll your eyes at it or have a sense of self, you’re 12 and it’s just lonely and kind of awful.

At some point, between birth and age 21, Lily loses her parents. We don’t know how or when, but we know that by the time she dies, they are already gone. Really, her last strong ties to the muggle world, and (most likely as a teenager) she has to bury, grieve, and move on from their loss, deal with the loneliness and lost feeling that comes with being an orphan, etc. etc. Queue sadness.

So that’s at home. What about the magical world? So glad you asked.

Harry comes into the wizarding world and is just completely enthralled by all of it, but Lily isn’t so much taken by surprise. After all, her friend (I don’t exactly think they’d be best friends at this point) has been telling her about this for nearly two years, so she has an idea of what to expect. However, Dumbledore says (Chapter 1, Philosopher’s Stone) that there has been precious little for the wizarding world to celebrate for 11 years, which means that the war would have been fairly intense for the entirety of Lily’s time in the magical world. I don’t think she knew a damn thing about any of that.

Can you just imagine sweet, naive, optimistic Lily entering this truly magical world, where she really and truly belongs, and learning that there is an entire, quite active, terrorist organization bent on her destruction, preaching that she is inferior? Having to learn what blood status is, what muggleborn means, that it can be considered a bad thing. The sinking feeling, knowing that this messed up belief system-that this prejudice towards her for something she cannot help-that it’s a thing, an actual thing that people promote. Realizing that even people who don’t believe it are too scared to stand up for her?

Imagine the first time Lily was called a mudblood, that first sting, perhaps not even realizing the significance. The humiliation of it being explained to her because, after all, she is a muggleborn and these politics are new to her. There will always be more about the politics operating the wizarding world than she can fully understand.

Imagine the hundred times more that she was called a mudblood, and worse. That immunity she built up, to protect herself so it didn’t exactly hurt her quite as much (except, you know, that one time by the lake). It happened too frequently to really be taken to heart. When she went home,  back into the muggle world, she could not really tell her parents about all of it (or any of it) because what would they do but worry and possibly pull her out of school? They couldn’t really change or help her in this.

As a prefect (and as a compassionate person) imagine all the young muggleborns Lily nurtured, soothed, put back together after they were hexed, called a racial slur, cursed.

She had nerves of steel. She took on the popular boys when they were bullying her friend, she defied Voldemort three times, I’ve no doubt that she stood her ground against the death eaters in training, especially if they were picking on someone smaller/weaker, especially if it was for being muggleborn.

As head girl, she was a muggle born witch placed in a position of authority, chosen over pureblood candidates, presiding over pureblood students. I am certain she received a shit ton of flack for that from certain members of the student population.

Well established that Lily was a kind and compassionate person.  My headcanon-that she took the muggleborns who were picked on under her wing, maybe explained the horrible things going on in a simple and gentle way, just listened while they expressed their (very real) fears. I think that her capacity as a role model and helper for younger muggle borns only increased when she became head girl.

Because, let’s get there-this is the crux of my argument-Lily excelled and thrived in several areas in her life at Hogwarts, despite the many personal challenges she faced.

She, in large part, was able to overcome the crap hand life dealt her. We know this. We hear it from Order Members, fellow students, friends, professors. EVERYONE loved Lily. She was well respected by everyone that knew her and worked along side her and, in her death, she was greatly missed.

Lily was an exemplary student, intelligent, a favorite of her teachers.

Lily was respected by her peers (except for the purists, of course), known for being kind to everyone, but didn’t let popularity define her life choices.

She did not waiver in her personal convictions to conform to others’ standards. She was a Gryffindor who maintained a very close friendship with a Slytherin for the first five years of school-a move that I am sure did not go over well with her housemates. Lily was not afraid to stand up to bullying, no matter who was doing it, at the risk of looking unpopular.

She was friends with a fucking werewolf, which defied every social convention of the wizarding world (even wizards who had no prejudice against muggleborns hated werewolves).

Lily was witty and sarcastic as hell and knew how to laugh, because how on earth would she have ended up falling in love with and marrying James if she wasn’t? How could she relieve all the pressures she faced if she couldn’t laugh?

More than all of this, Lily is a woman of conviction, of bravery and strength. After school she could have traveled abroad (she and James had money). She could have, somehow, retreated into the muggle world (Petunia, who took Harry, a nephew she didn’t know, into her house, would have taken Lily in as well, albeit reluctantly.

But at age 18, Lily joined a subversive vigilante political organization to fight the darkest wizard (and his terrorist organization, to which her former best friend may or may not belong) in a hundred years.

Over the course of the next year, as she drifted further from her sister, became entrenched in war. She becomes a soldier. She bonds with a second family, her comrades, only to lose them one by one in a war that she doesn’t know how they’ll ever be able to win.

But she keeps on fighting because it’s the right thing to do, because what is her alternative? Forfeit her wand? Her life? The lives of how many others?

She marries a pureblood, which in itself is just such an act of defiance, because the death eaters have killed for less. And she has the audacity to make him a blood traitor and ruin a pureblood family tree.

She gets pregnant at age 19 , while she is a newlywed, teenager, fighting a war. She, personally, is already a target for being in the Order, because she’s had the nerve to escape Voldemort three times instead of just dying already, and, of course, her marriage is an abomination. But now her baby-her baby­-is marked because she is dirty and he is tarnished and they fought back and July.

At twenty, Lily does not buckle to the extent that it debilitates her. I’m sure she does, a bit, but she does what she needs to do. She does not give up. She goes into hiding; stops going on missions, which had to kill her slowly, from the inside out, when there was already a shortage of good fighters.

Almost everything in Lily’s life is uncertain-the future, her safety, the safety of her family, who is next to die, where is Remus, who is the traitor-but she and her husband stick it out. She writes reassuring letters to her friends. She grieves the ones she loses, the deaths that keep her up at night.

Without her mother to guide her, her sister to share the experience with, she gives birth to a baby and learns how to be a mother. She makes it her mission to nurture, raise, protect him at all costs. It does not take much, really, to physically care for a baby; but to nurture, to selflessly love in the way that Lily loved Harry, especially with that emotional pressure, is truly remarkable.

And at the end, at 21, amazing, lovable, brave, wonderful Lily loses her husband, knows he is dead, faces her worst enemy, and still pleads for her son’s life. In the end, Lily willingly and readily gives her own life-the one she has fought for, thrived in-on the off chance that it might make a damn bit of difference for her son.

😭😭😭😭😭I couldn’t agree more @evensandpodder

foreverjily:

Requested by: @shitlordanakin

Pairing: James x Lily
Word count: 491
Summary: James and Lily are alone in the common room late on night, and Lily’s mind is wandering
Rating: K

Lily Evans was many things. Friend, prefect, head girl, daughter, sister (if reluctantly) but one thing she wasn’t, despite how many friends and innocent first-years wrongly thought so, was James Potter’s girlfriend. 

No. Just no. That’s why, that October night in the common room when she was snuggled close to James’ side on the sofa in front of the fireplace, she made a point of keeping her eyes open and her mind off his hand running up and down her arm. The grandfather had long clock struck half 11 when Marlene announced she was going off to bed, leaving James and Lily alone in the common room (everyone else had left hours earlier, when the moon was still low on the deep blue night sky).

“I’’m surprised you’re still awake.” Lily turned her head slightly, looking at James.

“Why?” 

“Well, because you’re never awake past 9pm.”

“You’ve been talking to Sirius again.” He played with the hem of her sweatshirt.

“No. I know you, and you’ve been awake later than the first years exactly once since the term started.” Lily smiled, and tried to hinder her mind from wandering to that other night. 

“Well maybe you’re a good entertainer, Evans.” Lily nearly flinched, she’d gotten so used to him calling her Lily, Lils even, that the last name sounded strangely formal. “Keeping me on my toes.”
He slid his hand down next to hers, letting their fingers intertwine. They’d held hands before. He’d grabbed her hand helping her off the sofa, or dragging her along to do merlin knew what. She’s taken his hand in hers to stop him doing something stupid. He’d slid his hand into hers so she wouldn’t pull her wand out at the Slytherins who called after her in the hallways. This was different. It didn’t have a purpose. And it freaked her out, while simultaneously feeling weirdly nice. She couldn’t help the laugh that slipped from her lips. She immediately regretted it when James moved his hand away from hers.

“Oh, Are you ticklish?” he said apologetically. 

If she said she wasn’t, she’d have to explain why she’d laughed. If she said she was, his hand would stay rested behind her on the cushion. 

“No. You just caught me by surprise.”

“Oh, okay.”
Without looking, she knew he was blushing. His voice changed when he blushed, became more boy-like. A year ago, she wouldn’t have believed James Potter to be able to blush, now she couldn’t picture the tall boy without at least a hint to redness on his earlobes at any time. His hand slid into hers again, fingers stroking her bruised knuckles.

“It’ll be alright,” he promised. “And if it’s not, I’ll make it alright.” 

His lips pressed gently against the top of her head. She wanted to pretend her heart didn’t skip a beat, her lips didn’t curl into a smile, her body didn’t relax into his. Not his girlfriend.