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Suggest pagesMuggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Lily Potter
| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Character | |
| Lily Potter | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Red |
| Eye color | Green |
| Related Family | James Potter, Harry Potter, Petunia Dursley |
| Loyalty | James Potter, Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Lily Potter (nee Evans) is a Muggle-born witch and Harry's mother. She was born 30 January 1960 and died on 31 October 1981 at age 21. She was quite young, 19 years old, when she became pregnant with Harry, giving birth to him at 20.
[edit] Role in the Books
[edit] Philosopher's Stone
At the start of the book, Albus Dumbledore confirms to Minerva McGonagall that both Harry's parents have been killed.
Harry has been told that his parents had been killed in a car crash, which is why he was living with his aunt and uncle.
In the hut on the rock, when Rubeus Hagrid arrives, there is a fair amount of discussion about Lily. Petunia Dursley, her sister, talks about how proud everyone else was that they had a witch in the family, and of the way she would come home with pockets full of frog spawn and do magic in the house, but she (Petunia) saw Lily for what she was: a freak. Hagrid is shocked that anyone could have believed that James and Lily could have died in a car crash, tells Harry that they were murdered by the evil wizard Voldemort, and mentions that James and Lily were head boy and head girl.
Lily's image appears in the Mirror Erised when Harry finds it the first time at Christmas.
A large number of pictures of Lily and James are in the photo album given to Harry by Hagrid just before Harry leaves the school for the summer.
[edit] Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry, in talking with Professor Lupin about Dementors, mentions that when they approach him, he can hear Voldemort murdering his mother. Lupin is apparently moved by this revelation. This causes some conflict in Harry; he misses his mother greatly, and would do almost anything to hear her voice and see her face, as we have already seen. But if the only way that can happen is for him to suffer attacks from Dementors? And is he going to be able to fight Dementors, if something he wants so dearly would be removed by that fight?
Lupin later comments that Harry looks extraordinarily like his father, except for his eyes. He has his mother's eyes.
In the Shrieking Shack, we hear Sirius Black's side of what happened when he was confronted by Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew had yelled that Sirius had betrayed James and Lily, then blew up the street, changed into his rat shape, and escaped, leaving behind his own cut-off finger and robes. Sirius had then been taken to Azkaban, where he had served time for the murder of Pettigrew. It turns out that it was Pettigrew who had betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort.
[edit] Goblet of Fire
In the battle in the graveyard, while Harry is battling Lord Voldemort, shadows of the people Voldemort has killed begin appearing. Harry's father and mother both appear and speak with him.
[edit] Order of the Phoenix
At Grimmauld Place, during the party that Mrs. Weasley throws to celebrate Ron being made Prefect, Moody shows Harry an old picture of the Order of the Phoenix. Harry's father and mother are present in the picture. While Moody clearly intends this as something of a treat, Harry feels that he has been rather taken by surprise, and is evidently dismayed at having this picture presented to him.
In Professor Dumbledore's Pensieve, Harry sees Professor Snape's memory of an episode where his father and the other Marauders are bullying a teenage Snape. Harry also sees his then-teenage mother, who yells at Harry's father to leave Snape alone. She even goes to the length of aiming her own wand at James.
[edit] Half-Blood Prince
When Harry first meets Horace Slughorn, Slughorn appears to be biased towards pure-bloods, which is no surprise given that he was head of Slytherin house. However, that doesn't mean that he refuses to see qualities in the Muggle-born; Harry's own mother, for instance, was quite a powerful witch, though of Muggle parentage, and was one of Slughorn's favorites.
In Potions class, Professor Slughorn mentions that Lily had been truly excellent at potions, and attributes Harry's skill to his being Lily's son.
[edit] Deathly Hallows
While viewing Snape's memories in the Pensieve, Harry sees Lily as a child at her original Muggle home. Severus Snape, also then a child, informs Lily that she is a witch and that he had been spying on her and seeing her do incredible things. Snape explains the magical world to Lily and they soon develop the bond of friendship, despite the interference of Lily's sister Petunia. Later in the memories, when Lily is at Hogwarts, she explains to Snape that they can't continue their friendship because she has issues with the type of person Snape is becoming and who he associates with. Even though Lily marries James, she is Snape's unrequited love.
[edit] Strengths
In book six, it is repeatedly mentioned that Lily has extraordinary potions skills. Professor Slughorn, as mentioned, says she was one of his brightest and most charming students.
[edit] Weaknesses
[edit] Relationships with Other Characters
Lily's parents are proud to have such a talented daughter, but her sister Petunia despises Lily for her magical abilities, seeing her as a freak. In the start of the first book, we learn that Vernon and Petunia have largely cut the Potters out of their family tree.
We learn that she met James Potter in Hogwarts, and although she leaves the impression that she dislikes him because he behaves like an arrogant bully, they eventually fall in love with each other, get married, and have a son, Harry.
As a member of the Order of the Phoenix that opposes Voldemort, we are told that she, with her husband, confronts him three times, and manages to escape. However, when The Dark Lord learns from Severus Snape about the prophecy, he starts looking for the Potter family. Pettigrew's betrayal leads Voldemort to Godric's Hollow, where he kills Lily and James.
She seems to have cherished her son, Harry, as she sacrificed her own life to protect him from Voldemort, refusing to stand aside. On those occasions when her shade was brought back, she said that she was proud of him and loved him.
[edit] Analysis
Lily Evans Potter is seen as kind and caring person who stands up to bullies, including Lord Voldemort. Her friendship with Severus Snape was a close one, though Lily never loved Severus; this friendship ended when Severus called her a "mudblood", the most discriminatory name in the Wizarding world. Even though Lily ended the friendship at that point, Severus still promised Albus Dumbledore "anything" in return for protecting her when Voldemort targeted her small son.
Our only view of Lily's school days ends in her fifth year when she broke off her friendship with Snape. At that time, Lily hated James Potter because of his arrogance. We must assume that between then and her seventh year, James grew up, as she apparently fell in love with the man James became. They married shortly after they graduated Hogwarts, and they joined the Order of the Phoenix to fight Lord Voldemort and Death Eaters. When her son was born, she cared and loved him more than anything in the world, even to the point where she sacrificed her own life to save him.
Throughout Harry's life, he lacked the connection between mother and child which is so psychologically necessary to a child. It is possibly because of this lack that he reacts strongly to being surprised by the image of his parents presented by Alastor Moody in Grimmauld Place, during Harry's fifth year. Harry's loss has made his interactions with memories of his mother and father a very private business, and presentation of the picture in such public surroundings leaves him feeling that he must conceal his feelings on having these memories reactivated.
It is, perhaps, surprising that Harry turned out so well despite being reared by Lily's abusive sister. A number of times in the series, we hear that Harry inherited his mother's eyes, and it seems her personality, and good heart and soul. It may have been this gentle strength in himself that sustained him through the difficult times in the Dursley family home. Harry, perhaps, does not recognize this in himself.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Greater Picture
We never discover the shape of Lily's Patronus, but we see that Snape's is a doe. As Dumbledore recognizes immediately that this means Snape's unrequited love for Lily has remained in force, we must assume that there is some relationship there. It is unknown whether Lily's Patronus would also be a doe, or whether Snape simply sees her in that light due to her being "mated" to James, whose Patronus is a stag.
When Harry brought Lily's shade back with the Resurrection Stone, she seemed to look at him hungrily and as if she was not able to look at him enough. She also told her son that she was proud of him, and that she will love him forever and be with him until the end of his life.
