I love the HP fandom, but I just hate how in this fandom Snape gets more love than he deserves, meanwhile James Potter gets more hate than he will ever deserve. I can’t believe that it’s 2017 and people still believe Snape was a hero and James was a terrible person.
James Potter was a jerk when he was a teen and yes, he bullied Snape. But he was 15, and “a lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen”. Tell me that you weren’t an idiot sometimes at that age, I dare you.
If he was such a bad person, then why was he totally okay with Remus being a werewolf? He loved his friends like nobody else, and it’s canon. He became an unregistered animagi so that his werewolf friend wouldn’t have to suffer through the full moon alone.
Do you realize that when James Potter used Levicorpus on Snape, he had already been planning on becoming a death eater and had been trying to out Remus as a Werewolf? This is actual canon from DH.
You have to remember that even if James was an idiot, Snape was no saint either. Remus even said that Snape “never lost an opportunity to curse James”. In fact, it’s mentioned by anyone who talks about the marauders and Snape that the animosity and hexing between them was mutual, so don’t tell me that only James hexed Snape. We don’t actually know how one-sided Snape’s bullying was. But if what Remus said it’s true, then it was mutual. Even if Snape’s worst memory is true as told, this happened after he was openly associating with pureblood supremacists, dismissing the use of dark magic as ‘a joke’.
You need to remember that James despised Dark Magic, and he couldn’t even just say the word “mudblood”. He was the complete opposite to a pureblood supremacist.
He grew up and became Head Boy. He matured, and did it enough for Lily to fall in love with him.
After school (possibly even in his final year), James grew up, and became part of the Order of the Phoenix as soon as he left Hogwarts. He realized what a douche he was to people and changed for the better. He joined the Order because there were innocent people dying for no reason, and he knew he could fight and help. He joined because he loved Lily and he wanted to make sure there was a future for them, a future where they could live happily ever after. And then he died trying to protect his family. He faced Lord Volvemort wandless, unarmed, so his wife and their baby could escape. James Potter was many things but he was not an idiot. He knew that facing Voldemort at that point would be the last thing he did, but did it anyway. He decided that Lily’s life, and Harry’s, was more important than his own.
You have to rememeber that literally everybody from Hagrid to Lord Voldemort thought James Potter was a good and brave man.
On the other hand, Snape called the girl he was ”in love with” a mudblood infront of the entire school. He directly verbally abused her with a racial slur and became involved in a movement that wanted to kill her and eradicate her kind. He chose to shatter their friendship because his ego was hurt that a girl was helping him, even though she probably was the only person who was nice to him.
His treatment of Petunia was terrible. He’s been bullying people since before he even went to Hogwarts. Since he was little, he thought muggle-borns and muggles were inferior.
He created a spell that could kill his enemies when he was at Hogwarts. And after that, he finally joined a terrorist organization that wanted to kill people like the woman he was supposed to be in love with. He probably killed and tortured people. He was a loyal Death Eater for multiple years.
Snape may have loved Lily, but his love for her was selfish, seen in the fact that he was willing to let her husband and her infant child die. Actually, I don’t think he loved her. He was obsessed with her. Or at least, he loved the idea of her that was on his mind, not the real Lily Evans. If he had really loved her, he would have tried to save her family, knowing that she would suffer if they died. But he was willing to let a baby and an innocent man die if it meant he could save Lily. If it meant he could have her.
And when Lily died to protect her child, he realized that he made the wrong decision and “changed”. He became a spy, and I know it was hard. I understand that. I acknowledge Snape’s efforts as a spy and his contributions to the war. In the end, he turned out to be a brave man who tried to rectify his mistakes. But that doesn’t really change how a terrible person he was.
He abused his students, he bullied them. He targeted Neville, knowing he already had self-esteem issues, knowing what happened to his parents. He threatened to poison his pet. He consciously targeted someone he perceived as weak, to the point where he became Neville’s worst fear at age 13. A fucking teacher was his biggest fear, not the people that tortured his parents into madness. Don’t you see how fucked up is that?!
Snape body shamed and insulted Hermione, who was an intelligent and hardworking student (just like Lily). He made her cry.
Yes, he tried to protect Harry, and saved his life more than once. But he also verbally abused him, a neglected, abused, orphan who had done nothing wrong but look like his dead father. A father that he didn’t even know, by the way. Snape mocked and insulted him at every turn. Snape did everything that he could to make Harry’s life miserable because it was his way to have his revenge against James. This is not a 15 years old boy bullying another, it’s a fucking 30 years old man abusing a kid because he couldn’t let it go his hate about a dead person.
He tried to have an innocent man killed because of what happened when they were 16. Yes, Sirius was an idiot for that, I’m not denying it, but he didn’t coerce Snape into doing anything. He just gave him information. It means that Snape, on his own, decided it would be a great idea to sneak into the Shrieking Shack just to prove that Remus was a werewolf.
He caused Remus to lose his job after spending years suffering in poverty. He deliberately made Remus’ students to write an essay on how to spot and kill a werewolf, to emotionally attack and possibly out him as a werewolf. He later did out him to the entire wizarding world, just because he was angry because Sirius didn’t die.
After seeing the abuse Dursley’s inflicted on Harry, he thought it was funny and felt no sympathy. Harry was fifteen. The same age that Snape was when he was (supposedly) “bullied”. He didn’t care about the abuse, he didn’t see himself in Harry. He thought it was funny. Fucking funny.
Usually, people at 15 are jerks and bully each other. But teachers aren’t supossed to abuse kids.
James Potter was a jackass, but he didn’t join the equivalent of a magical nazi organization when he left Hogwarts. He didn’t experiment with dark magic and he died protecting his family. He grew out of it. He was a good person in the end.
Snape only betrayed Voldemort because he was chasing after Lily. He only left the death eaters because he wanted to protect Lily, if Neville was the chosen one, he would remain in his position as a Death Eater.
So sorry if I prefer James over Snape all the way.
@quidditchleaguenet‘s september challenge: wizarding families - hufflepuff team
Potter is the surname of an old wizarding family descended from Ignotus Peverell and Linfred of Stinchcombe. They were once pure-bloods, but James Potter married Muggle-born witch Lily Evans, thus their son Harry James Potter was half-blood. The Potters have traditionally been sorted into Gryffindor House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; they are also very wealthy, with a vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank containing a great deal of gold. [insp]
James Potter 1960-1981
James was tall, lean, and had untamable dark hair. This was worsened by him always running his hands through it to make it look as if he’d just dismounted from a broomstick. He had hazel eyes framed by round glasses and was a star Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. James was also helplessly in love with Head Girl Lily Evans.
james: he who was lost too soon.
a very happy birthday to the lovely skye !! ( @goldenprongs ) ilysm darling <333
James’s eyes were hazel, his nose was slightly longer than Harry’s and there was no scar on his forehead, but they had the same thing face, same mouth, same eyebrows; James’s hair stuck up at the back exactly as Harry’s did, his hands could have been Harry’s and Harry could tell that, when James stood up, they would be within an inch of each other in height.
james potter (requested by @pottcrjames)
u n t i l t h e v e r y e n d
Your father was the best friend I ever had and he was a good person… a lot of people are idiots at fifteen. He grew out of it.
@quidditchteamnet creation event: favorite quidditch player
james potter: gryffindor captain
James had a certain, shall we say, talent for trouble. But would have regarded it as the height of dishonour to mistrust his friends.
HARRY POTTER MEME » [9/9] characters: James Potter
@nextgenet event: gryffindors → james sirius potter
You interrupted them? You are so like Ron —
“THE LAST ENEMY THAT SHALL BE DESTROYED IS DEATH.”
happy birthday to my babe @pctter, i love you allegra ♡The Potter family is a very old one, but it was never (until the birth of Harry James Potter) at the very forefront of wizarding history, contenting itself with a solid and comfortable existence in the backwaters.
- when he finds out that he can’t be in the quidditch team as a first year, he tries to trick his way in by taking an aging potion which ends up with him looking like a 70-year old for 3 days straight
- he discovers his first secret passage within his 2nd week at hogwarts,,, and it was definitely because he was looking for hiding places after his Great Plan failed (or maybe good places to nap, to give his old bones a break? the world may never know)
- the reason snape and him actually become enemies is that he overheard him criticizing james’ hair, so james made a poll within all the 1st years about who had the worst hair between the two of them
- snape lost and was never able to get over it
- james’ crush on lily starts in 2nd year when he sees her flip off slughorn’s back after he says for the first time that her potion is ‘acceptable’ and not amazing
- from there on, any time she looks at him, he trips over his own feet, causing peter to genuinely believe he has a serious balance disorder for a couple of weeks
- he can’t stay still and keeps fiddling with things, the happiest day of his life is when remus shows him a muggle pen that he can click during class
- flitwick has low-key hated him ever since
- his research on werewolves in 3rd year leads him to read YA werewolf romances and even at 21, he would defend his favorite trilogy to the death
- he holds “pun nights” in the gryffindor common room every saturday, and sirius makes him a badge P.R.O.N.G.S. which stands for Potter Recklessly Organizing Notoriously Ghastly Saturdays and this is the true origin of his nickname
- during their first summer together in 5th year, sirius and james are called into the ministry for incorrect use of magic eight times, and no one knows how they got out of it every time
- until the day he dies, james’ only answer to the question is “my charming and irresistible wit…” which always causes him to receive a Look™ from sirius, prompting him to grudgingly add: “…and sirius’ ass”. the latter has never been explained further
- he wears a mohawk somewhere in between 5th and 6th year
and not the good artsy kind- he doesn’t even react when lily finally accepts his invitation out for a date, he’s actually halfway through the corridor before he Realizes
- and then he lets out a little scream, runs back down the corridor and asks everyone if he heard correctly
- and everyone is cheering and yelling in astonishment and basically having a riot in front of the classrooms, so mcgonagall shows up to shut them down but james just says: “she said yes”
- and mcgonagall blinks, gasps and goes “oh my”, before leaving them to party
- (later that night, remus and sirius take it upon themselves to lecture james loudly about the bees and the birds in the common room where lily is incidentally reading a book, and if they both somehow end up waking up on a mattress in the middle of the lake the next morning well, who says james has anything to do with it?)
- (mcgonagall does. he gets 2 weeks of detention.)
character posters: james potter
only the good die young