The Marauders As Dads

Hellooo just wondering if you could write something about James babysitting Dora. I can only imagine that being the cutest thing ever 😍

After seemingly chasing her around the entirety of Grimmauld Place, James had finally focused his goddaughter’s attention on the dress-up box, hoping to at least keep her confined to her room. He’d thought he was physically fit, given his job, but apparently small children fuelled themselves on the sheer exhaustion of whoever was looking after them. 

‘What about this, Dora?’ he asked her, pulling out a sequined little dress. ‘Want to be a fairy?’ 

She scowled. ‘No.’ 

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Alan Rickman, David Thewlis, Gary Oldman and all those are iconic in their roles in Harry Potter, but I’ll always be a bit sad about that casting, because having that ‘Marauders era’ cast be age appropriate would’ve just been so much better for the story.

Sirius wasn’t this old man who spent 12 years in Azkaban, no he got locked up at 21. He spent almost third of his life in a cell. He wasn’t this wise father figure to Harry, he was a reckless thirty-something who never really got the chance to mature past 21.

Remus was an exhausted, bone deep tired man carrying both physical and mental scars from the suffering he went through. Because he’s a werewolf, because of the war, because he lost all of his friends. And he’s only 33 when first introduced.

And Snape. Snape wasn’t an old bitter man who just hated everyone and enjoyed being antagonistic. He was 31 in Harry’s first year. He began to work for Voldemort as a teen, and as a double agent at 20. He’s a thirty-something bitter man, who never got to really live or make real connections. From Harry’s perspective he’s scary and intimidating, but really he’s just kinda…sad and pathetic. And then especially that scene where Snape is begging Dumbledore to help save Lily, and promising anything in return. (Because apparently Dumbledore needs something in return…for saving people.) He’s twenty. Barely out of his teens. Rickman was good in that scene, but having someone who actually looks twenty, would better show how scared, young, guilty and just desperate he was. That might not put Dumbledore in such a good light, though.

And then, the characters I think would’ve been the most important to cast age appropriately. And most people probably already agree and know who I’m talking about. James and Lily. They were 21 when they died. When Harry sees them in the mirror of Erised, they’re 10 years older than him. That’s the age difference Ron has with Bill. In that scene I might understand somewhat them being in their thirties, because that’s what Harry wants. He wants his life with his parents, he wants to have been raised by them. Though, I don’t know if the mirror could know what they might’ve looked like in their thirties, since they didn’t live that long. But then, in the cemetery when Voldemort’s wand spits the last spells cast, we see Lily and James as they were. 21. They’re telling their son to hold on just a moment longer. And they are 7 years older than him. In Deathly Hallows, Harry sees Voldemort kill them. They’re not this happy couple who’s got to love each other for a long time, only to have that happiness torn from them, no they started at Hogwarts ten years ago. They’re 21, and they’ve barely tasted that happiness. At the end of the book Harry talks to his parents. They comfort him and promise to stay with him, as he goes to die. Harry’s seventeen. James and Lily are four years older than him.

It wouldn’t have felt as nice. Harry being comforted by someone who looks almost his age. But it wasn’t nice. It was pretty tragic. Casting people who look 21, would’ve really made it land on the audience. It was a tragedy. They were barely adults.

I’m still obsessed with 5SOS5, so I want to focus on Bad Omens for the Marauders’ era. It can even apply to platonic relationships, like Lily and Snape because we canonically know that Snape was hurling slurs at other Muggleborns and Lily was justifying her friendship with him to towers (“It’s too late. I’ve made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends—you see, you don’t even deny it! You don’t even deny that’s what you’re all aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?”), so Lily ignored the signs of what her best friend had become until she no longer could (“Can't help the way I keep ignoring every omen / Every omen / Heaven knows I should let go / It's nothing that I don't already know”), that song is ridiculously fitting for the backdrop of the war and how it’s tearing apart every relationship (romantic relationships [like Jegulus if that’s your ship, Wolfstar where Remus and Sirius canonically distrusted each other, but probably tried to ignore the signs until they had to acknowledge “there’s a spy, and I think it’s the man sleeping beside me right now”], platonic relationships [Peter and the Marauders where none of them realized his betrayal until far too later, Lily and Snape], familial relationships [Sirius with his family depending on how one views his relationship with them in the years before he left.]) People who tried to keep their relationships, hoping that eventually they’d go back to the way things were if they just ignored the warning signs, but eventually they were no longer able to pretend and had to acknowledge that this was irreparable.

Also, unrequited love (“I cried in your dark brown eyes for the thousandth time / 'Cause you love somebody / I died when you left that night for the thousandth time / 'Cause you love somebody else”) fits great, so Snape/Lily from Snape’s perspective in Seventh year, where he utterly destroyed his friendship with her but still is in love with her, and then watched her fall in love with James. Unrequited relationship set during the first war are honestly perfect for this song, because it’s got the distrust element and the “watching the person you love be in love with someone else” aspect; 5SOS decided the First Wizarding War was the theme of their 5th album (note, this is a joke, they have not made any comments regarding Harry Potter, the album just has great vibes for it)

It's fine, I'm not hyperventilating or anything.

Look, I've actually listened to this album (at least the songs i like from it) a lot since it was brought to my attention after its release. And as I've said before, I've never been a follower of 5SOS. I think before someone actively began passing me their songs, I'd listened to one by choice and knew it was them, and that was only because I came across it on the radio one day.

But it's like they really did craft the perfect album here for the First War years within HP, and I love that so much. I could rant on and on about several of these songs in relation to headcanons for that era/ships/characters, but Bad Omens is a BIG ONE. It's actually become one of my favorites, right up there with Caramel. And then I was guided to the music video, which was admittedly a trip, but it was also so very perfect.

I think in my initial review, I compared it to Wolfstar (also Jegulus), but I think I remember saying it gave me strong First War vibes in general, and it definitely does that. It can honestly apply to every relationship during that time period, whether platonic or romantic, no matter what side of the war someone fell on.

I love your comparison to Lily's and Snape's friendship and how it fell apart. I have...some issues with Snape that I try not to vocalize to often in a serious way, mostly sticking to joking headcanons that don't amount to much, the him watching Lily slip away from him and fall in with James, fall in love with him as he stood back and was forced to watch must have hurt so badly. I think Snape was too obsessive to a degree that any relationship between him and Lily couldn't have been sustained for long, regardless of his meddling with the Dark Arts and who Lily considered to be bad people, but the song fits so well because of that and everything else.

The whole Peter betrayal thing as well. None of them saw it, not a one. Peter was that good. He blended into his surroundings that well and was so easily overlooked that no one had the slightest idea of what he was truly doing. But you can't tell me that somewhere in him there wasn't guilt. There are numerous substantial reasons to dislike JKR, but the fact that she never once even tried to explain why Peter did what he did will forever be one of mine. Those were his best friends all through school and beyond. No, we don't know what happened, how they treated him, and maybe it's a fandom thing (though i don't think it completely is) but I've always thought James cared a lot about Pete. I think he kept Peter close because he liked him. They must have liked him, otherwise why stay his friend? Why trust him enough to give him the responsibility of keeping your family safe?

Say what you will, but they loved Peter, and he must have loved them at some point. It makes no sense why Peter would have betrayed James of all people. Sirius, maybe. That actually lines up because I think Sirius was cruel to Peter when he wanted to be, had little patience for him overall, so him framing Sirius is sort of like his just desserts. He didn't do anything to Remus that we know of, and I think that's because Peter likely always idolized Remus just as much as he did James and Sirius, but Remus was always far kinder to him in the grand scope of things. So something must have happened at some point to make Peter think that betraying James and essentially being the cause of his death was warranted. Was it because he drifted away, focused on the war and his family more than his friends? I don't know, but I'd like to, because there are gaps there.

(sorry. that was a tangent i didn't initially intend. oops)

Back on the main point, Peter must have had some sort of guilt for what he was doing and what he did. You can't be that cruel after spending half your life with people you claim to like/love and then blow everything up with one action and decision. So relating this song back to him and the way everyone circled around him and never focused in on his true nature is so very fitting.

I could write an entire ten page essay on this song in relation to Wolfstar. I've been thinking about it a lot and trying desperately not to do so, because I know the more I do, I'll want to write a fic about it. And that's the very definition of been there, done that repeatedly, not just myself, but the Wolfstar fandom as a whole. The entire Remus/Sirius distrust, slipping away from one another but still clinging on out of desperation has been done so many times and I'm trying incredibly hard not to add more to it unless it just won't leave me alone.

What I really want to talk about with this song is Jegulus. And I'm no expert. I'm only just pushing my toes into the water with it, trying to acclimate myself with the whole thing because I actually really like it in a way I thought I wouldn't we I jumped back into fandom and found it to be this large, growing thing that I'd never even seen mention of back in the day when I was writing before. It was a bit baffling, but...I dunno. I'm coming around to it more and more. But my point is don't judge anything I say to harshly because I'm only going off of the small amount of things I've seen/read.

But just think about their relationship in relation to how we know canon goes. James gets tired of chasing after Lily, falls in with Regulus somehow at some point, possibly before he gives up the ghost. Maybe it's Reg that makes him see reason and that James is being a knob, I don't know. They gravitate to one another, fall in love, but it's never the most stable of relationships because it can't be. Regulus is still a Black, James is exactly who he is in every way, that golden boy, head in the sun, pure to his core no matter what you want to say about him bullying (which has two completely different sides, but that's not the topic at hand here). Regulus is a Slytherin, James a Gryffindor. Tensions are mounting higher because of the growing war. They're constantly being tugged apart, in different directions, but they try so hard.

They ignore the signs when they can, they focus on one another as much as possible, but it's never enough to avoid the outside world circling around them like vultures. Regulus takes the mark and James can't sit by and watch his life go up in flames because of his decision, so he finally says enough and pulls back. He dives into his Head Boy duties headfirst, sways Lily to him in the process, but maybe him and Regulus continue to drift to one another because they can't help themselves and James still holds onto the hope that he can convince Regulus to turn his back on his choices. It doesn't work. James finally says enough, sets off into a life with Lily instead, fully committed, and Regulus can't tell him why he has to stay where he is, why it's so important, but he goes after the locket for James, to try and make it easier to put an end to the war. And we all know how that ended.

I headcanon that Baby Harry knew Sirius’s secrets more than even James, as Sirius would tell Harry absolutely everything, as he rocked him to sleep.

‘This is a disappointment to the family.’

‘Join us, Lily.’

‘Yeah come dance with us.’

‘I’m disowning you both.’

James and Albus dancing outside the inn where they were staying for Teddy and Victoire’s wedding weekend taken by Lily who had been playing music on her phone

Taken December 15th 2019

Sense? Is that what they call undying love these days?

call if you care for me

Sirius Black to goobers: the one day i actually come and school burns down

Remus Lupin: what classes were you in

James Potter: i was in english you Were Not

Peter Pettigrew: or history

Remus Lupin: it doesnt count as attending school if u just lie behind the science block till lunch  

Sirius Black: youre all ruining this fire for me  

James Potter to Lily Evans: give back my chocolate shake

Lily Evans: i dont have it

James Potter: i can see u fuckin drinkin it we’re in the same maccas

Lily Evans: everyones saying you did it

James Potter: pardon

Lily Evans: set the fire

James Potter: come off it

James Potter: whose saying that

Lily Evans: everyone

James Potter: ah yes my great mate ‘everyone’

Lily Evans: mary, elliot from science, louise marcot, guy from math whose name i dont know but went to ball with ruby garland, sam roberts, and sushi danny have all told me it was you

James Potter: wow that does seem like everyone

James Potter: now im wondering whether I did do it

Sirius Black to James Potter: had a dream i died in a freak pharmaceutical accident last night

James Potter: what is a freak pharmaceutical accident

Sirius Black: i was drunk in a pharmacy and put all their throat lozenges up my nose 

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A love that never tires

seduce me with ur history knowledge 

the wolves will come again