#(currently working on a prongsfoot muggle au fic where those two are best friends and it’s rly fun tbh)

[padfootastic]

How do you think Lily would perceive James and Sirius relationship and as a result feel/understand/be affected by it? 

oooh hello anon 💜 this is a great question and i have two answers for u.

canonically, we know that lily and sirius had a great relationship. all the j&s codependency/attachment/closeness that we know from the text, she clearly accepted and didn’t mind based of how warmly she talked to Sirius’ in the letter (also, asking him to come over because james has been getting antsy? that’s so interesting because she’s (sub)consciously acknowledging sirius’ ability to handle james, perhaps when even she couldn’t) and we don’t see any antagonism b/w them in hogwarts the way we do in jily, yeah? so even if there was something there, she’d clearly dealt with it by the time they get married. (also i love characterisations where lily doesn’t just accept but actively encourages their bond—stuff like having an extra room for sirius, assuming he’ll be best man & godfather w/o james having to bring it up, making jokes about ‘my husband’s boyfriend’ etc—it’s just so precious and i love that for her and james, because she also gets a close friend out of the deal, it’s not just her adjusting for james ykno?)

but. that being said. i’m a little bitch and i love introducing conflict where there isn’t any for the sake of my favs lol

so my personal opinion/hc is that i love seeing envious lily who’s struggling with how close james & sirius are. realistically, it’s not easy to be with someone who so clearly has another number one, right? you’d always feel like you’re playing second fiddle, even if james has enough love and more for all of them and doesn’t actively try to compare the two. and in the beginning of their relationship, she might also feel insecure about how important sirius is to james. i mentioned this in another ask, but i think (before james falls in love with lily) if sirius had genuinely told james that he didn’t approve of lily, then he’d actually listen to that. and lily’s seen this influence sirius has, and that worries her, especially when she can see he doesn’t approve of her yet.

(i also, low-key, think scorpio-poster-child sirius would be extremely possessive of james until lily wins him over which is when he’ll shift into loyalty-unto-death mode. before that, tho, he’ll be like ‘you treated him like shit all this while and now you expect me to just accept you’re not gonna hurt him? try harder’ and his disdain is obvious to everyone except james. that feeds into lily’s discomfort.)

there’s also another aspect here, and that is lily feeling jealous of the platonic ‘like brothers’ bond between j&s irrespective of her position in their lives. i mean it’s possible everyone would, but lily specifically because her own relationship with petunia is deteriorating, her friendship with snape is basically down the drain, and there’s these two who’re so devoted, so attached to each other and it’s like,,,, ‘i wish i had someone like that too’ ykno?

ultimately though, even with all that, i don’t think jily would have worked unless sirius worked to put his disapproval behind him and lily stopped feeling threatened and accepted their bond. both of them realise the other’s here to stay and they’ve gotta make it work because their favorite person—james—would be hurt otherwise and that’s unacceptable.

#sirius black #james potter #lily evans #this is where my scorpio projection on sirius is rly coming into play #when will i learn the skill of being short & sweet #possibly never #slightly tangential but i actually think without all this baggage of hp canon—lily and sirius would be great friends #i think they’re so similar in personality and it would work really well #(currently working on a prongsfoot muggle au fic where those two are best friends and it’s rly fun tbh) #(exploring what these could’ve been on their own without james) #also another where it explicitly touches on this dynamics of wife- husband- husband’s bf in yt video format lol #there’s just so much to play around w ykno? #pen’s asks