Lily Evans Friends

[Odessa]

I was just wondering who you think Lily's Friends were when she was at Hogwarts.
Who do you think she hung out with?

She was Friends with Snape at first but then grew apart. In seventh year probably hanged out more with James.

[OliveOil_Med]

We never really are very sure of this, I think. We know she talks to a girl named Mary in her House, and that she and Remus were prefects together. And by the way she address Sirius as Padfoot in her letter, it would seem that she befriended the Marauders after she and James began dating.

But other than that, it never does become very clear who Lily's friends are while she is in school.

[twilightHPgirl18]

I think we can assume that she was friends with Marlene McKinnon, Emmeline Vance, and Alice Longbottom. They were from the same generation, so I think they would have known each other at Hogwarts. I may be completely wrong, but I think that it's probably a good shot that she was friends with at least one of them. And I think she was friends with Remus, considering they seemed to have similar personalities and interests.

Becca

[Equinox Chick]

I think we can assume that she was friends with Marlene McKinnon, Emmeline Vance, and Alice Longbottom. They were from the same generation, so I think they would have known each other at Hogwarts.

You can't assume she was friends with Alice at school. Alice was a trained Auror when she was crucio'd. Auror training is three years, plus she'd had a baby. She must have had to have taken either time off when she was training or time off after she qualified to have Neville. She has to be at least a year older than Lily, but probably more.

I think it's a bit far fetched that all the girls in Lily's year at school become Aurors and Order members.

Emmeline Vance, for instance, is described as 'stately' when Harry sees her. Stately implies old. If she'd been in Lily's year she'd be thirty five. That's not elderly. I don't think she's the same generation at all - she's wearing a shawl that's not what a young woman would wear at all.

Marlene McKinnon is the person Lily gets upset about (or rather she cries when the McKinnons died). If you want her to have a canon friend then perhaps Marlene is your best option out of those three.

Mary Macdonald is mentioned twice by Lily. First as someone who was hexed by Mulciber, and second as the person who tells Lily that Snape is outside. Although it's not stated that she's the same year, she appears to have a degree of intimacy with Lily that suggests they're friends.

We know she talks to a girl named Mary in her House, and that she and Remus were prefects together.

We don't actually know if Lily was a prefect by the way. It isn't stated in canon (or in JK interviews). We know Remus was, and personally I think it unlikely that Dumbledore would pick two untested pupils to be Head Boy and Head Girl, but we don't know.

Carole

[fg_weasley]

I also want to add that the assumption that Alice, or Emmeline, were Lily's friends is a bit cliche, as it is a rather common assumption. But, as Carole as already pointed out, probably unlikely. If you're looking for a canon character, I would go with Marlene or Mary, as Carole has said.

The assumption that Remus and Lily were friends is another rather cliche one. In my opinion, as Remus was supposed to be a prefect, but as he was obviously a Marauder and not much inclined to intervene when Sirius or James got out of hand, I doubt Lily would be very close to him before she was close to James. Personally, I think she'd loose a bit of respect for Remus at that point because he's supposed to be a model to the younger student and, while he doesn't exactly participate himself, he does nothing to stop such antics, thereby making him inadvertently part of it.

Also, in my opinion, there's no canon evidence to say that Remus and Lily 'had similar personalities and interests'. Then again, there's really no evidence to say they didn't, but I think Lily was a lot more outgoing and vocal than Remus; I see him as much more introverted. I don't mean Lily was a Ginny, but she wasn't a Remus either. I will grant that, of the four Marauders, it would seem that she and Remus would get along best, at least at first. Still, even if they did have things in common, I think Lily would avoid being 'friends' with him on principle. She wouldn't snub him, perhaps, but they wouldn't be buddy-buddy either.

xox
nikki :D

[Momo Wellish]

We do not have any proof of any of Lily's friends, although she was definitely all goody-goody with Sirius and Lupin after she started dating James. I think she had maybe 2 or 3 good friends, maybe one obsessed with guys, one almost as smart as Lily or even equal in intelligence. Perhaps another uber-chick, that was the #1 jaw dropper in her year and was even on the house team. But that's just my opinion.

[Roonil_Wazlib125]

Hello. Um, I'm here to offer my two knuts. :)

Originally posted by Momo Wellish
I think she had maybe 2 or 3 good friends, maybe one obsessed with guys, one almost as smart as Lily or even equal in intelligence. Perhaps another uber-chick, that was the #1 jaw dropper in her year and was even on the house team. But that's just my opinion.

I don't mean to offend you, Momo Wellish, but this is an extremely cliched answer. Those girls sound like Mary-Sues; one is guy-obsessed and tries to date the Marauders; one is super smart; one is super hot; and then there's Lily, who is smart, beautiful, and (slightly) obsessed with James. So, I highly doubt there would be girls that perfect in JK's world.

I always thought that Alice was in Lily's year, but...I don't usually do great HP research. I never really thought Emmeline Vance was a canidate, because I always thought of her as around forty. Marlene McKinnon is a possibility. But Mary is probably your best bet.

Just my two knuts.

Roonil_Wazlib125 aka Annmarie :D :eek: :cool:

[bellatrix-black-lestrange]

I think it is a bit hard to specify who was and wasn't friends with Lily Evans as times were not specific, obviously we know that Snape was a close friend as were the marauders. So i think your best bet is to either use OC's or people that were close to that time like Alice Longbottom or Mary McDonald. I'm sure it won't matter unless you suggest that Lily was friends with Narcissa Black !

good luck on your research :)

Bellatrix-black-lestrange

[OliveOil_Med]

I don't know if Alice Longbottom and Lily would have been friends while they were at Hogwarts. I feel like with Alice getting married, going through the three years of Auror training, and getting settled enough in her career to be considered a top Auror, she would have have been closer to Lucius Malfoy's age than to Lily's. I almost think she would be a prefect when Lily was in her first year.

But I do think it would certainly be possible for them to have become friends when they were adults. They would have been fellow soldiers in the Order, and they certainly would have bonded over being pregnant at the same time. They would have given one another advice, listened to one another complain, and even possibly baby-sat for one another on occasion. They might have even imagined that their boys would grow up to be friends with one another and be close just on that principle.

[lupins_girl2006]

I have a question in regards to Alice.

Do we know she was actually an Auror?

In the books it said that Frank was definitely one, but do we know if there is Canon fact for Alice being one?

If she wasn't one, then Lily and Alice could definitely be friends in the same year.

~Allieatrix

[fg_weasley]

Actually, I would say we do. I'm not sure if we can say 100% that Alice was - in Chapter Thirty of GoF, Crouch refers to Frank speficially as 'the Auror' but when he speaks of Alice he only says 'Frank Longbottom's wife'. However, in Chapter Twenty-Three of OotP Neville's grandmother describes them as such:

"They were Aurors, you know, and very well respected withing the Wizarding community. Highly gifted, the pair of them."

They meaning both Alice and Frank, of course. That, I think, is stronger evidence that they were both Aurors than Crouch's failing to refer to Alice as one is evidence that she wasn't.

Even so ... I would avoid Alice simply because it has been done so much when, really, there is no canon evidence that they were friends at school, whereas with someone like Mary or Marlene, the evidence is a bit stronger. However, like someone mentioned, I think during their years with the Order, Lily and Alice would have been great friends. They would have been pregnant together, too, which sometimes brings women closer.

[OliveOil_Med]

Since there really isn't a lot of evidence as to who Lily's friends were, I would say making up your own OCs would be your best bet. Marlene and Mary would probably be good ideas, but I wouldn't go with Alice Longbottom.

One very important piece of advice I would like to give would be to take great care in choosing names for your characters. The best place to start would be to check British census records for the year your character was born. That way it will make it sound authentic. Of course, if she has some pure-blood friends for old-blood families, by all means, don't be afraid to get a little creative with your names.

Just remember, consider the names carefully! J.K. seemed near obsessive about picking names in her books.

[greennotebook]

I think it's important to consider the complete lack of Lily's friends in the series when writing OCs (or minor characters) as her friends. While all sorts of people tell Harry "I knew your parents," only a few tell him they were friends with one or both of his parents. The fact, however, that the Marauders do specifically say that they were friends with James makes me think that if Lily had very good friends in school, they would have popped up somewhere to make similar claims.

We know Lily was friends with Severus Snape until the end of fifth year, we know she cried when Marlene McKinnon died, we know she signed a letter to Sirius "love," and we know she was close enough to Mary Macdonald to be concerned about how Snape treated her. However, that's about all we do know, despite the wealth of information known about James' best friends. I think it's safe to wager that Lily was well-liked, got along with many people.... and didn't have a truly close, best friend at Hogwarts after she and Snape had their falling out. It is a guess, but I feel it's a fairly educated guess. After all, a year or so later, she started dating James and (eventually) being friends with the Marauders. It isn't inconceivable to imagine she didn't have consistent group of best friends that James and Harry had.

[AurorKeefy]

Just going back to Remus here, but I'd like to further distance him from Lily. I think a possible factor in people suggesting that they were friends stems from the movie - where Remus has a completely unneccesary scene talking about how kind Lily was to him. It's not canon. While I can't imagine Lily being actively unpleasant with Remus (beyond the Marauders as a whole), there is little to suggest that she and him were ever particularly close. If you read the conversations between Remus and Harry in the books, there are pages and pages about James, but Lily barely gets a look in. Indeed, when she is brought up, more often than not it seems to be Sirius who talks of her, not Lupin. Plus there is a brief moment at the tale end of PoA where Lupin states that Severus was "Jealous, I think, of James's[sic] talent on the Quidditch pitch". Lupin has no reason for Occlumency here, so I would assume he genuinely does not know why Severus detested James so. If he was a close friend of Lily's, they would undoubtedly have brushed over the subject, and Remus is bright enough to put two and two together, so I would assume this not to be the case.

Alice Longbottom was, as has been pointed out, older than Lily.

The fact, however, that the Marauders do specifically say that they were friends with James makes me think that if Lily had very good friends in school, they would have popped up somewhere to make similar claims.

Quoted for emphasis. Excellent point.

[leahsm2]

I think it's important to consider the complete lack of Lily's friends in the series when writing OCs (or minor characters) as her friends. While all sorts of people tell Harry "I knew your parents," only a few tell him they were friends with one or both of his parents. The fact, however, that the Marauders do specifically say that they were friends with James makes me think that if Lily had very good friends in school, they would have popped up somewhere to make similar claims.
Hmmm. . . I don't know. To me, the opportunities for Lily's close friends to materialize in Harry's time may not have been present so it doesn't completely convince me that she didn't have close friends. I personally didn't see her as dating either, until I came across
I Am Lily by KASK (http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/viewstory.php?sid=67090&chapter=1) for MWPP class. My point being that Lily being massively popular doesn't have to be a Mary Kate (sorry, I don't use the other term as I think it's too easy of an out in judging other people's work and bugs me no end how cliched the use of that term has become) tip off either. I think it's a valid choice, but probably not one I would make.