Okay but what if all of the potions edits in Snape’s old textbook were just things he overheard James say in potions class because “no Padfoot you crush the bean! Cutting it doesn’t do anything! Trust me my dad told me”
But I love this because then when Harry always talks about how the prince is a much better teacher than Snape he would actually be learning from his father and grandfather…
I’m not crying My eyes are just glistening with the ghost of my past
Based on what I’ve read on Pottermore, that’s basically 100% accurate cause James’ dad created a ton of potions (like Skele-Gro and the hair potion Hermione uses for the Yule Ball) and got super rich and that’s why James never had a job and left Harry tons of money. James would have handy potions making knowledge of that sort.
That’s exactly what I meant
A lot of people took this to mean that James was the one who was really good at potions and it was his favorite subject but all I meant was that he was probably very knowledgable about potions and couldn’t help giving his friends advice that Snape probably overheard
Like my dad is a doctor and although science may not be my thing I’m still probably more knowledgable than the average person especially with all of the lowkey medical work I’ve done over the years
OMG OMG OMG!
Ok, ok ok,
You know that joke that went around about “Why didn’t Harry recognize The Prince’s handwriting when he’d been staring at it on the board for 6 years?”
What if that was because it was James’s handwriting? He wrote the notes and Snape stole the book from James as a “Haha, fuck you, lets see how well you do without your cheat sheets” Then writing ”This book belongs to the half blood Prince.” to gloat that he took something from James Potter.
James is the only one we see use Levicorpus besides Harry.
I know that means James created sectumsempra, but still, it was a time of war and death eaters, maybe he created it as a last resort thing.
New head cannon
It actually makes more sense that James would have notated Sectumsempra “for enemies” because what would Snape care? If he wrote it, he would know what it does. Maybe James even overheard it or saw it used and wanted to warn himself in case he ever remembered the word but not the context and what would happen.
THIS THIS THIS OMG THIS @icanhelpyouthere @mangoapplepie @lycanthropuns THIS (also cry with me because harry wouldn’t know what james’ handwriting looked like)
That’s ok I’ll just cry myself to sleep tonight.
And it makes sense for Snape to want to get much better at Potions. Lily was repeatedly said to be the star of the class by Slughorn, and Snape must have wanted to impress her just to have something in common to talk to her because let’s be real, they deviated from each other when he started hanging with the dark magic practitioners. And who better to cheat off from than James Potter, the guy who’s like his archnemesis?
Woahhhh
Okay
Listen:
October 31st, 1981; the Dark Lord can be seen walking up to the Potter’s door. James yells at his wife to get her and their child to safety before turning back to face his enemy. As the door opens with a stream of green light, all the young man can do is think:
First, he thinks of his beautiful, intelligent wife. It is the overwhelming green that reminds him of the eyes that he would often find himself lost in for minutes at a time.
Then, his child, a smiling face looking up at him as he squirms in his crib before drifting off to sleep. He thinks of the time when he almost let the child fall off his knee and onto the floor, just as suddenly as the Dark Lord flung his curse.
Next, he thinks of his friends; Sirius, Remus, Peter, all standing next to him as they leave Platform 9 ¾ for the last time.
Before James falls, one last thought, his final mistake, passes through his mind. It is his handwriting, neatly scrawled to form a phrase he never thought to use for anything other than a last resort:
Sectumsempra, for enemies.
The one word that could have saved his life.