#Bellatrix LeStrange

[hollowed-theory-hall]

👋👋👋

do you have meta thoughs or/and headcanons about Black sisters? it definitely a lot of to unpack from

Hello 👋

And yes, I have plenty of thoughts about the Black sisters, individually and about their relationships with each other. This isn't like, a super deep dive into either but more just me yapping about my general thoughts.

Now, the first thing I want to note is that in JKR's Black family tree draft, Cygnus Black (the sisters' father) is written to have been born in 1938. As Bellatrix (the eldest) was born in 1951, this would mean Cygnus would be 13 when she was born. I don't think that makes a whole lot of sense, personally, so I chose to believe this was a mistake, and that instead Cygnus was born in 1933 (3 and 8 can look similar in handwriting & JKR is not great at math so it's probably a mistake, just let me dream). 1933 would also make more sense with Cygnus' siblings since Walburga is marked to have been born in 1925, and while it is possible for siblings to have a 13-year age difference, it's not all that common when there are only 3 siblings. So, I chose to believe Cygnus was 18 when Bellatrix was born and not 13. So, he was young, but not that young.

I assume that their mother, Druella Rosier, was similarly young when Bellatrix was born (17-18), though there is no canon information about it, so this is a headcanon.

This means Druella got pregnant with Bellatrix in her final year at Hogwarts or immediately after graduation. This also means that Cygnus and Druella probably had their parents and their house elf more involved in Bellatrix's upbringing than with the latter two daughters since they were pretty young.

So I headcanon Bellatrix is the closest to Pollux and Irma out of the three sisters. (I headcanon Pollux was a former dueling champion and practiced with her, for example. I also headcanon Pollux was born in 1907 and not 1912 so he'd be 18 when his eldest daughter, Walburga, was born and not 13).

Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa are pretty close in age. As Bella and Cissa only have 4 year difference between them, I assume Andromeda was born right in the middle, in 1953. This shows that their parents had somewhat of a plan regarding when each one would be born and planned to only have 3 children. (Which again, indicates Cygnus was probably an adult by that time and not 13)

As they are close in age, they probably were close when they were kids. I imagine when Andy was first born, Bella got jealous of all the attention she was getting, but by the time Andy grew up to be a playmate, she got over it. Narcissa didn't deal with as much jealousy from either of her older sisters, in my headcanon, since they were used to having a sister by that point.

When they were young, as the eldest, Bellatrix took it upon herself to be their protector, to be the responsible one who stood up for her younger sisters. In the conversation in Spinner's End with Narcissa, Bella doesn't mind so much Cissa is betraying the Dark Lord, it's her sister and it's clear she doesn't plan to snitch on her, with all of her loyalty to Voldemort, she shows a lot of care towards Narcissa. She is willing to speak against Voldemort to her sister. She clearly loves Narcissa and cares about her:

“Cissy, you must not do this, you can’t trust him —” “The Dark Lord trusts him, doesn’t he?” “The Dark Lord is . . . I believe . . . mistaken,” Bella panted, and her eyes gleamed momentarily under her hood as she looked around to check that they were indeed alone. “In any case, we were told not to speak of the plan to anyone. This is a betrayal of the Dark Lord’s —”

(HBP, 21)

And, I assume she was like that with Andromeda too before Ted came into the picture.

And it's clear Narcissa cares for Bellatrix too:

“Let go, Bella!” snarled Narcissa, and she drew a wand from beneath her cloak, holding it threateningly in the other’s face. Bella merely laughed. “Cissy, your own sister? You wouldn’t —” “There is nothing I wouldn’t do anymore!” Narcissa breathed, a note of hysteria in her voice

(HBP, 21)

Bellatrix doesn't actually expect Narcissa to attack her or even threaten her. She doesn't understand Draco is more important to Narcissa than everything else. Because Bella still treats Narccissa like Cissy she knew before Azkaban, before Draco, before 14 eventful years of life happened, she doesn't know the current Narcissa. And the current Narcissa doesn't love Bellatrix as much as Cissy from 14 years ago did, even if she still cares about her.

And throughout book 7, and Voldemort's Second War, we see Bella and Cissa growing further apart:

where Narcissa sat rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned toward Voldemort, for mere words could not demonstrate her longer for closeness

(DH, 14)

As the Malfoys lose their status with Voldemort but Bellatrix doesn't. It's clear even this early on in DH that Narcissa is no fan of Voldemort and it makes sense when she does betray him. Don't get me wrong, I think she is just as fanatic about blood purity as Bellatrix, she's just more polite about it. But I think she is like Regulus, in a way. She is a blood supremacist, but she does not approve of Voldemort's approach or means — especially the moment he went after her son. She could've forgiven him for Lucius ending up in Azkaban, but Draco was a line too far. Like sending Kreacher to his death was a line too far for Regulus — because that hurt them personally, it's not about ideology.

I also headcanon Narcissa was closest to their mother and that Druella was most protective over her youngest daughter.

Then there's Andromeda, Andromeda is really interesting to me (my favorite Black sister, btw). I just find it fascinating she named her daughter Nymphadora — a traditional family name — even after her family disowned her.

We know Andromeda was a Slytherin since Sirius says all his family are and she was sorted before him. So we have a clever Slytherin witch, who grew up around ideals of blood purity, who fell in love with a clearly skilled and charming Hufflepuff muggleborn and chose to run away and elope with said muggleborn. Like, that's such an interesting love story these two got and it's a shame we don't talk about it more.

From the little we see of them in DH, I got the impression they love each other and their daughter a lot. Ted seems to be the more chill and friendly one while Andromeda is more cold and haughty one. I bet Ted's sense of humor was the first thing that really pulled Andromeda in when they first started talking and Ted always adored her laugh.

It also seems Ted completely abandoned the muggle world for the sake of the magical one the way Hermione did:

“...Something go wrong with the bike? Arthur Weasley overstretch himself again, him and his Muggle contraptions?”

(DH, 60)

He does not think highly of Arthur's "muggle contraptions". He finds it silly. I think Ted went into the wizarding world, learned about magic, and became mesmerized by all the amazing things it can do. I think Ted honestly finds Arthur's fascination with muggles silly in the way of: "Magic is so much better, why would you want to do that?"

It'll explain Nymphadora's name as well. Both Ted and Andromeda are wizards who want to be wizards and have no real ties to the muggle world. And still, Andy's family, who she clearly loved once, disowned her:

“She is no niece of ours, my Lord,” she cried over the outpouring of mirth. “We—Narcissa and I—have never set eyes on our sister since she married the Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she marries.”

(DH, 14)

I was always under the impression Andromeda married Ted very soon after graduation, as Nymphadora was born in late 1972 or 1973, it means Andromeda would've been around 20 when she gave birth to her, supporting my impression.

This means Andromeda hasn't spoken to her family (except perhaps Sirius) since she was 18 or 19, and it's kinda crazy.

It's kinda sad too since I'm sure Bellatrix and Andromeda played together as kids and later with Narcissa too. I'm certain they used to love each other and that Bellatrix hates Ted with a passion for "stealing her sister from her" while Andromeda can't make herself hate her sisters or her parents, she just hates the situation, wishing it was different. I'm sure there were nights she thought about what could've been if Ted was a pureblood or even a half-blood, but never once does she regret marrying Ted whom she loves.

Andromeda loves her family so much that she still named her daughter a family name. She was and is proud of being a Black and a witch, these aspects of her are so important to her and how she sees herself.

I lowkey headcanon that when Tonks told her about Remus and that they're getting married, Andromeda didn't like it at first. But then she realized she was doing to her daughter what her family did to her so she did a 180 and became the biggest Remadora shipper.

I think Andromeda is incredibly protective and attached to both Ted and Dora because of how she was cut off from her own family. Family, I think, is incredibly important to her, so she built a new one for herself that she was passionate about. I think she was incredibly heartbroken after Ted, Dora, and Remus died. I like to think she raises Teddy with Harry and both she and Harry bond over losing people. Like, I want a post-war Harry to help Andromeda deal with losing her entire family again.

I also like to think Narcissa and Andromeda got in touch again post-war. It's probably strained, but I think both of them need this reminder of a better, familiar time after everything.

So, these are my general thoughts and headcanons regarding the sisters.

[auntmote]

[lass-in-green]

Ron, to Draco: Your sad face is annoying.

Hermione: Ron, we're at a funeral.

Ron: Bellatrix. We're at Bellatrix' funeral. There's supposed to be a party here.

[percyweasleyapologist]

Bellatrix: I need you to come meet me, and I need you to come alone.

Rita: And I need you to be less vague and weird.

[slitheringghost]

Lily Evans as Master of Death, Part 2: Flight From Death

This is part 2 to Unweaving Canon Lily: Master of Death. You don't have to read that meta to understand this, but it might help if you do.

In this meta I will address two major points: (1) how Lily is constantly associated with flight throughout the series, and how that ties into point (2) which is that for six books, we are told that Voldemort laughed as he murdered Lily:

As Hagrid’s story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before — and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh. (PS) When the dementors approached him, he heard the last moments of his mother’s life, her attempts to protect him, Harry, from Lord Voldemort, and Voldemort’s laughter before he murdered her... (PoA) “It is, isn’t it?” said Harry, in a voice barely more than a whisper. “But she didn’t move. Dad was already dead, but she didn’t want me to go too. She tried to plead with Voldemort... but he just laughed..." (HBP)

But in the actual scene in DH, Voldemort never laughs while Lily's pleading or while he kills her - he laughs while killing James. This isn’t an inconsistency. Because the laugh Harry heard wasn't Voldemort laughing - it was Lily laughing at Voldemort.

Lily and Voldemort as a duo are compared to Sirius and Bellatrix:

Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilarated laugh her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backward through the veil, and suddenly Harry knew what was going to happen before it did. (DH)

Lily laughed a laugh so identical to Voldemort’s that Harry mistook it as Voldemort laughing instead.

And just as with Lily being Death, the text doesn’t come out and explicitly say it, because JKR weaved Lily in as a riddle and a mystery for readers to solve - and we have to follow the clues and the Easter eggs she put in to reach the answer. In this meta, I’ll go through all the clues that hint to this.

Note: This analysis positions Lily's defeat of Voldemort as deliberate planning by her, which ties into why she'd give a sort of triumphant laugh that mirrors Voldemort's. IMO JKR's portrayal of Lily as Death/Master of Death implies there's more going on with her sacrifice even from a Doylist perspective.

1.0 Flight And Laughter

Voldemort’s name means “flight from death” in French, and the text makes constant references to the true meaning of Voldemort’s name in fascinating - and hilarious - ways.

A hugely important point to this analysis is the Lily is portrayed as Voldemort’s metaphorical sister the way Harry and Voldemort are “brothers”. See more on this here, here, and here. 

More specifically, Lily and Harry are Voldemort’s symbolic twin sister and twin brother, Flight From Death #2 and Flight From Death #3, regarding Harry’s immortality and Lily being the reason for both her son’s immortality and for Voldemort’s death, by her sacrifice deflecting the Killing Curse. The HP series is their sibling rivalry with Voldemort - who can fly from death higher?

Lily and Harry invariably win, and just as Lily is portrayed as the true Master Of Death, the true Death, she’s also the true Flight From Death.

There is a recurring motif of Lily laughing at or making fun of others in flight, or laughing in flight herself - because it’s meant to represent Lily laughing at Voldemort's death and his suffering as he tries to kill Harry and repeatedly fails, Lily laughing because Voldemort calls himself “Flight from death”, and yet she and her son flew from death better than him.

There was undisguised greed in his thin face as he watched the younger of the two girls swinging higher and higher than her sister. “Lily, don’t do it!” shrieked the elder of the two. But the girl had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown, launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly. “Mummy told you not to!” Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on hips. “Mummy said you weren’t allowed, Lily!” “But I’m fine,” said Lily, still giggling.

“It’s not hurting you,” said Lily, but she closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground. “It’s not right,” said Petunia, but her eyes had followed the flower’s flight to the ground and lingered upon it. “How do you do it?” she added, and there was definite longing in her voice. (DH)

Then we have Lily laughing as Snape tries badly to fly on a broomstick:

a hook-nosed man was shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner... A greasy-haired teenager sat alone in a dark bedroom, pointing his wand at the ceiling, shooting down flies... A girl was laughing as a scrawny boy tried to mount a bucking broomstick — (OoTP)

The text leaves it ambiguous who the girl is, but it’s clear with later context - and the repetition of Lily laughing at others in flight - that the girl is Lily.

Similarly, we have this moment in SWM:

a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants. Many people in the small crowd watching cheered. Sirius, James, and Wormtail roared with laughter. Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile, said, “Let him down!” (OoTP)

There’s a reason that Lily almost smiles specifically when Levicorpus is used on Snape rather than any other spell he’s attacked with - because Lily is laughing at Snape in flight, tying this into the other similar instances.

Likewise, Lily also insults James’s ability to fly in the same scene:

“Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you’ve just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can — I’m surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK.” (OoTP)

Then we have Lily’s letter, and the contents of the letter and the passages related to it are full of hidden messages through coded language:

Harry bent down, picked up a few of the pieces of paper, and examined them. He recognized one as part of an old edition of A History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot, and another as belonging to a motorcycle maintenance manual. The third was handwritten and crumpled [...] it proved to be most of the photograph Lily had described in her letter. A black-haired baby was zooming in and out of the picture on a tiny broom, roaring with laughter, and a pair of legs that must have belonged to James was chasing after him. [...] Then he ripped in two the photograph he was also holding, so that he kept the part from which Lily laughed, throwing the portion showing James and Harry back onto the floor (DH)

The sequence of things mentioned matters here - Before Snape took the part of Lily laughing, it would’ve been next to the picture of Sirius’s motorbike manuals, so this can be read as Lily laughing at Sirius’s method of flight, just as she was laughing at and insulting Snape’s and James’s.

Dear Padfoot, Thank you thank you, for Harry’s birthday present! It was his favorite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself, I’m enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the ground, but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for Christmas (no complaints there). Of course, James thought it was so funny, says he’s going to be a great Quidditch player, but we’ve had to pack away all the ornaments and make sure we don’t take our eyes off him when he gets going. (DH)

Harry nearly killed the cat while flying on the toy broom and broke Petunia’s vase - the joke here is that the cat represents Tom Riddle, because Tomcat, and Tom and Jerry, which first aired the year Tom Riddle was 13 (Voldemort is also compared to a cat in GoF - the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat’s, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness.).

AKA Harry nearly killed Tom Riddle while flying from death and broke the Potter house as he broke the vase (you could say Voldemort gave her the house for Halloween, because James died first and thus Lily technically inherited the house…)

The cat’s state of existence is left ambiguous, whether it perished in the blast or ran away when there was no one left to feed it - just like Voldemort is hovering in the boundary between life and death, existing as a wraith, neither dead nor alive.

Harry’s only one year old and flying from death, only one year old and nearly killing the cat aka Voldemort - this is Lily saying proudly her son will fly from death higher than them all.

Likewise, the photograph also has a double meaning. James isn’t fully in the photo for a reason, to the point that Harry can’t even tell for sure it’s him, because Voldemort is also represented by James here - and this photo’s second meaning is Lily laughing at Voldemort as he chases after Harry as Harry “flies from death”.

He read the letter again, but could not take in any more meaning than he had done the first time, and was reduced to staring at the handwriting itself. She had made her “g”s the same way he did: He searched through the letter for every one of them, and each felt like a friendly little wave glimpsed from behind a veil. (DH)

There’s a reason that specifically the letter “g” was chosen - this is another coded message. Lily made her g’s the same way Harry did, because Godric Gryffindor and Gellert Grindelwald, and Lily and Harry the true Gryffindors and the true masters of the death, linking them to Grindelwald’s quest for the same.

1.1 St. Mungo’s Sequence

[...] a young wizard was performing an odd on-the-spot jig and trying, in between yelps of pain, to explain his predicament to the witch behind the desk. “It’s these — ouch — shoes my brother gave me — ow — they’re eating my — OUCH — feet — look at them, there must be some kind of — AARGH — jinx on them and I can’t — AAAAARGH — get them off —” He hopped from one foot to the other as though dancing on hot coals. “The shoes don’t prevent you reading, do they?” said the blonde witch irritably, pointing at a large sign to the left of her desk. “You want Spell Damage, fourth floor [...]" The wizard hobbled and pranced sideways out of the way (OoTP) The sunlight was dazzling on the smooth surface of the lake, on the bank of which the group of laughing girls who had just left the Great Hall were sitting with shoes and socks off, cooling their feet in the water. (OoTP)

The wizard above represents Voldemort. (JKR often does this, uses random characters to represent or evoke main characters - another example of this in the last section with the German woman representing Lily.) The wizard “dancing on hot coals” evokes how Lily’s blood magic burns Voldemort’s skin, the “yelps of pain” evoke Voldemort saying Lily’s sacrifice caused him “pain beyond pain”, and him not being able to get his shoes off is a reference to Priori Incantatem:

And then — nothing could have prepared Harry for this — he felt his feet lift from the ground. He and Voldemort were both being raised into the air, their wands still connected by that thread of shimmering golden light. They glided away from the tombstone of Voldemort’s father and then came to rest on a patch of ground that was clear and free of graves (GoF)

This is a reference to the Talaria of Mercury, or the winged sandals of Hermes, given to him by his half-brother Hephaestus. The magic in Priori Incantatem lifts his his feet into the air - like he's wearing the winged sandals.

Then the passage of Lily laughing in SWM is tied into the man in St. Mungo’s - While the man representing Voldemort can't get off the shoes eating his feet, Lily has her shoes and socks off; while for him it's like his feet are burning on coals, Lily is cooling her feet in water. Voldemort can’t get the shoes off that his sister Lily gave him.

In short, Lily is laughing at Voldemort being burned by her blood magic, laughing at Voldemort in the graveyard being made to fly and being hindered by her magic yet again, laughing as her son flies from death and escapes him.

“That’ll have to do,” he [Ron] said, slamming the diary shut, “I’ve said I dreamed I was buying a new pair of shoes, she can’t make anything weird out of that, can she?” (OoTP)

You’ll notice that in OoTP Ron starts sounding like Voldemort, “performing” the part of Voldemort in the series. For example, Ron asks, 'What's worse than death?' and Voldemort later says, "There's nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!"

So Ron dreaming a new pair of shoes hints at Ron’s link to Voldemort, because it references the wizard in St. Mungo’s with the shoes eating his feet, who represents Voldemort (perhaps evidence for Seer!Ron).

Again, notice how this text is speaking to us in riddles, in coded messages.

(Also note that just as Ron is performing the part of Voldemort, Hermione is performing the part of Lily. See more on this in my meta Hermione As Teacher And Connections To Lily.)

The wizard with his winged daughter in St. Mungo's an allusion to Lily and Harry as Deadalus and Icarus, because in addition to being aegis-bearing Zeus, and Arachne exposing Voldemort's victimization of mortals in her light-spun web as in Priori Incantatem, Lily is Deadalus crafting wings for her son to fly from death - also referenced in the duo in the St. Mungo’s line after the wizard with the jinxed shoes:

A harassed-looking wizard was holding his small daughter tightly by the ankle while she flapped around his head using the immensely large, feathery wings that had sprouted right out the back of her romper suit [...] the man disappeared through the double doors beside the desk, holding his daughter like an oddly shaped balloon (OoTP)

This is especially funny given Ron says this later in the same book:

“I thought we’d settled that?” said Luna maddeningly. “We’re flying!” “Look,” said Ron, barely containing his anger, “you might be able to fly without a broomstick but the rest of us can’t sprout wings whenever we —” “There are other ways of flying than with broomsticks,” said Luna serenely. (OoTP)

The description of the balloon also evokes flight, and the wizard emphasized specifically as holding his daughter by the ankle is an allusion to the myth of the Achilles heel - to Lily and Harry as Thetis holding her son Achilles by the ankle to dip him in the River Styx, giving him immortality.

Lily and Harry as Deadalus and Icarus are also referenced with Dedalus Diggle, who was one of the earliest Order members mentioned and one of the earliest wizards to interact with Harry:

A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. (PS) “Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can’t tell you, Diggle’s the name, Dedalus Diggle.” “I’ve seen you before!” said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle’s top hat fell off in his excitement. “You bowed to me once in a shop.” “He remembers!” cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. “Did you hear that? He remembers me!” (OoTP)

And Dedalus Diggle also comes to get Harry from the Dursleys right before Harry deflects the Killing Curse while both him and Voldemort are in flight - Harry flying on his broom and Voldemort flying unsupported, another reference to flight from death.

Then there’s Harry’s History of Magic O.W.L., during which Voldemort lures Harry to the DoM with his vision of Sirius, as another important Deadalus and Icarus allusion:

The sun was very hot on the back of his head. Harry closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands, so that the glowing red of his eyelids grew dark and cool. But somebody screamed as Voldemort lowered his wand again; somebody yelled and fell sideways off a hot desk onto the cold stone floor. (OoTP)

The repeated mention of sunlight shining on them is a reference to Lily and Harry as Deadalus and Icarus, because Harry flew too close to the sun - and now their wings are melting and injured, now they’re about to fall from the sky and drown in the sea of despair, because the man both Lily and Harry love - Sirius - is about to die.

Harry dived behind a marble angel to avoid the jets of red light and saw the tip of its wing shatter as the spells hit it. Gripping his wand more tightly, he dashed out from behind the angel — (GoF) It was only then that he realized that Hedwig’s feathers were oddly ruffled; some were bent the wrong way, and she was holding one of her wings at an odd angle. “She’s hurt!” Harry whispered [...] “Look — there’s something wrong with her wing —” (OoTP) Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide, and swallowed the jet of green light whole. He burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled, and flightless. (OoTP)

2.0 Associations with all flying things

Now I’ll go through all the times Lily is associated with flight - this will circle back to the laugh in the last section, because it ties into how Lily is laughing as her son "flies from death", and laughing at Voldemort as Voldemort himself "flies from death" aka is forced to "fly from death" because he's nearly murdered. (Her associations with flight of course also symbolize her as a God figure and angel)

2.1 Fawkes

Note: Since exact wording really matters when analyzing Lily, it's important to use the first original version of Priori Incantatem, where Lily comes out of the wand last instead of James.

In addition to the above reference - Fawkes swallowing the Killing Curse that was about to kill Dumbledore and then “dying” symbolizing how Lily took the Killing Curse for Harry - an important thing to realize is that the graveyard scene in GoF, where Harry and Voldemort’s phoenix wands connect, is in many ways entirely about Lily.

Lilies represent Christ's resurrection, and are said to have sprouted from the ground where Christ's blood and tears fell during crucifixion.

Harry's tied to the tombstone of Voldemort's father, Peter takes Harry's blood for Voldemort's rebirth, then Voldemort brings up Lily:

“You stand, Harry Potter, upon the remains of my late father,” he hissed softly. “A Muggle and a fool... very like your dear mother. But they both had their uses, did they not? Your mother died to defend you as a child... and I killed my father, and see how useful he has proved himself, in death...” (GoF)

Voldemort mentions Lily's death/sacrifice like 4+ times through this scene. And then when their spells connect:

And then — nothing could have prepared Harry for this — he felt his feet lift from the ground. He and Voldemort were both being raised into the air, their wands still connected by that thread of shimmering golden light. They glided away from the tombstone of Voldemort’s father and then came to rest on a patch of ground that was clear and free of graves... (GoF)

It first lifts the both of them from that ground by Tom Riddle Sr's grave and places them somewhere else - because flight from death, lilies are sprouting from the ground where Harry’s blood was spilt for the ritual and where Voldemort mentioned Lily, etc. (This comes full circle in DH, where Hermione leaves a wreath of Christmas roses on Lily’s grave as Harry cries on it, so here roses sprouted on the ground where "Christ's tears" fell.)

Which brings me to this passage in OoTP which references it in coded language:

Then a burst of fire in midair illuminated the dirty plates in front of them and as they gave cries of shock, a scroll of parchment fell with a thud onto the table, accompanied by a single golden phoenix tail feather. “Fawkes!” said Sirius at once, snatching up the parchment. “That’s not Dumbledore’s writing — it must be a message from your mother — here —” He thrust the letter into George’s hand, who ripped it open and read aloud, “Dad is still alive. I am setting out for St. Mungo’s now. Stay where you are. I will send news as soon as I can. Mum.” (OoTP) And then an unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air. . . . It was coming from every thread of the light-spun web vibrating around Harry and Voldemort. It was a sound Harry recognized, though he had heard it only once before in his life: phoenix song.It was the sound of hope to Harry... the most beautiful and welcome thing he had ever heard in his life... He felt as though the song were inside him instead of just around him... It was the sound he connected with Dumbledore, and it was almost as though a friend were speaking in his ear... Don’t break the connection. (GoF)

“Your mother’s coming…” he said quietly. “She wants to see you… it will be all right… hold on…” And she came… first her head, then her body… a young woman with long hair, the smoky, shadowy form of Lily Potter blossomed from the end of Voldemort’s wand, fell to the ground, and straightened like her husband. She walked close to Harry, looking down at him, and she spoke in the same distant, echoing voice as the others, but quietly, so that Voldemort, his face now livid with fear as his victims prowled around him, could not hear... “When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments... but we will give you time... you must get to the Portkey, it will return you to Hogwarts... do you understand, Harry?” (GoF)

Harry associates the phoenix song with Dumbledore, but this isn’t Dumbledore’s doing, it’s a message from Lily, it’s Lily coming to save Harry.

Notice how the wording echoes - Harry hears a voice saying “Don’t break the connection” and Lily’s shade says “When the connection is broken”; Voldemort calls Lily’s blood magic “lingering protection” and Lily’s shade says "we will linger". Voldemort says “My curse was deflected by the woman’s foolish sacrifice, and it rebounded upon myself. Aaah… pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have prepared me for it” and when Priori Incantatem lifts Harry and Voldemort into the air the wording is “And then — nothing could have prepared Harry for this — he felt his feet lift from the ground”. These details consistently connect this all back to Lily.

Harry also goes from thinking “There was no hope… no help to be had" and "His mother was not there to die for him this time”, losing faith in Lily, to “It was the sound of hope to Harry” - and lilies are called the “white-robed apostles of hope”, another giveaway.

The OoTP passage about Molly’s letter continues, with more coded connections to the GoF graveyard scene:

[...] George looked around the table.“Still alive...” he said slowly. “But that makes it sound...” He did not need to finish the sentence. It sounded to Harry too as though Mr. Weasley was hovering somewhere between life and death. (OoTP) “My curse was deflected by the woman’s foolish sacrifice, and it rebounded upon myself. Aaah... pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have prepared me for it. I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost... but still, I was alive.” (GoF)

Voldemort here is represented by “Dad” because he, like Mr. Weasley, is presented as a father figure to Harry.

This comes full circle in the graveyard scene in DH, where Harry mistakes Voldemort’s magic for that of Dumbledore’s, just like he mistook Priori Incantatem for Dumbledore’s magic when it was actually Lily’s magic:

Was it possible that she had been waiting for them all these long months? That Dumbledore had told her to wait, and that Harry would come in the end? Was it not likely that it was she who had moved in the shadows in the graveyard and had followed them to this spot? Even her ability to sense them suggested some Dumbledore-ish power that he had never encountered before. (DH)

Then we have Fawkes healing Harry right as he mentions Lily:

Harry described how the figures that had emerged from the wand had prowled the edges of the golden web, how Voldemort had seemed to fear them, how the shadow of Harry’s mother had told him what to do, how Cedric’s had made its final request. At this point, Harry found he could not continue. He looked around at Sirius and saw that he had his face in his hands. Harry suddenly became aware that Fawkes had left his knee. The phoenix had fluttered to the floor. It was resting its beautiful head against Harry’s injured leg, and thick, pearly tears were falling from its eyes onto the wound left by the spider. The pain vanished. The skin mended. His leg was repaired. (GoF)

The other time the phrase "beautiful head" is used is for the doe patronus: "She stepped toward him, her beautiful head with its wide, long-lashed eyes held high." // "She turned her beautiful head toward him once more"

2.2 Hedwig

Just as he limped past the window, Hedwig soared through it with a soft rustle of wings like a small ghost. “About time!” Harry snarled, as she landed lightly on top of her cage. “You can put that down, I’ve got work for you!” Hedwig’s large round amber eyes gazed reproachfully at him over the dead frog clamped in her beak. (OoTP)

Hedwig here is meant to evoke Lily - described as a “small ghost", the reference to her eyes, and the beak full of dead frog may be a reference to Lily having her “pockets full of frogspawn”.

Hedwig dies during the Battle of Seven Potters in DH - when Lily's magic saves Harry from the Killing Curse a second time, while Harry and Voldemort are both in flight - much like how Fawkes falls dead and flightless after swallowing the Killing Curse, Hedwig dying here represents how it took Lily’s death to make Harry "fly from death". Likewise, Harry first heard Lily’s murder and deflection of the Killing Curse in PoA while he was in flight - because flight from death.

2.3 Lily as the Golden Snitch

“Did you ever discuss codes, or any means of passing secret messages, with Dumbledore?” “No, I didn’t,” said Hermione, still wiping her eyes on her sleeve. “And if the Ministry hasn’t found any hidden codes in this book in thirty-one days, I doubt that I will.” “I notice that your birthday cake is in the shape of a Snitch,” Scrimgeour said to Harry. “Why is that?” Hermione laughed derisively. “Oh, it can’t be a reference to the fact Harry’s a great Seeker, that’s way too obvious,” she said. “There must be a secret message from Dumbledore hidden in the icing!” (DH) He had drawn a Snitch and was now tracing the letters L. E. What did they stand for? (OoTP)

There's a reason that DH includes this bit about Dumbledore leaving secret codes in a book and the Snitch cake potentially containing a secret message - JKR is being incredibly meta here, because when James writes Lily's initials beside the Snitch in OoTP, this is JKR giving readers a secret message: that Lily is the Golden Snitch.

What do we know about the Snitch? The Snitch is tiny, golden, very difficult to see, and notably the only ball in Quidditch that has wings - like how Lily is constantly associated with flight, and an allusion to Lily as an angel to Harry. Snitches have flesh memories - only opening at Harry's touch, as Lily's touch is emphasized, and her blood magic keeping Voldemort from touching Harry.

Harry's the Seeker and Lily is the Snitch - because Lily's playing hide-and-seek with her son through the narrative and Harry has to seek her.

Most celebrated of these half-magical dwelling places is, perhaps, Godric’s Hollow, the West Country village where the great wizard Godric Gryffindor was born, and where Bowman Wright, Wizarding smith, forged the first Golden Snitch. The graveyard is full of the names of ancient magical families, and this accounts, no doubt, for the stories of hauntings that have dogged the little church beside it for many centuries. (DH)

It was invented where Lily died and vanquished Voldemort, where Lily Harry and Voldemort all had their "flight from death".

The long game was ended, the Snitch had been caught, it was time to leave the air… The Snitch. His nerveless fingers fumbled for a moment with the pouch at his neck and he pulled it out. I open at the close. Lily waited until Petunia was near enough to have a clear view, then held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster. (DH)

It’s time for Harry to leave the air - to fly from death yet again because of Lily's lingering magic and Lily having conquered death.

Lily is playing hide-and-seek with him, and where does Harry find her? Inside the Golden Snitch, where the Resurrection Stone is hidden, and as I said the previous part to this meta, that was Lily’s soul creating the versions of James, Sirius, and Remus just as Riddle’s soul in the locket created Riddle-Harry and Riddle-Hermione.

That Harry’s excellent flying is actually about his “flight from death” is why his Quidditch skills are often mentioned when he faces Voldemort.

Voldemort raised his wand, but this time Harry was ready; with the reflexes born of his Quidditch training, he flung himself sideways onto the ground (GoF) And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. (DH)

2.4 Charms

“You have your mother’s eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work.” (PS)

Lily having a wand good for Charms has significance tying to this narrative thread. The very first spell they learn in Charms (or at least, the first one the text points out iirc) is the Levitation Charm - in other words, how to make something fly, which they then practice on a bird feather.

Hermione is the one to do it perfectly and teach Harry and Ron how to successfully do it - and Hermione performs the part of Lily. Again see this meta.

They learn this spell specifically on Halloween - the same day Harry had his “flight from death” in 1981.

On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try […] “Now, don’t forget that nice wrist movement we’ve been practicing!” squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. “Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. ” (PS)

In general the stuff they learn in Charms is often associated with making things fly - Levitation Charm, Hovering Charm, Summoning Charm, Banishing Charm, etc. Likewise, Flitwick's section for the Stone protections also have to do with flight - they're winged keys that remind Harry of birds and also evoke a Snitch, and Harry uses his Seeker skills to catch them.

2.5 Flying out of a window

The action of flying through the window is repeated by those associated with the Elder Wand and therefore the Master of Death thread in DH.

Lily as represented by the doe patronus:

“For him?” shouted Snape. “Expecto Patronum!” From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe: She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears. (DH)

Harry and Hermione escaping from Voldemort in Godric's Hollow, with Hermione playing the role of Lily:

Glass cut his cheek as, pulling Hermione with him, he leapt from bed to broken dressing table and then straight out of the smashed window into nothingness, her scream reverberating through the night as they twisted in midair... And then his scar burst open and he was Voldemort and he was running across the fetid bedroom, his long white hands clutching at the windowsill as he glimpsed the bald man and the little woman twist and vanish (DH)

Voldemort as he meets Grindelwald to question him about the Elder Wand:

— and he rose into the night, flying straight up to the window at the very top of the tower — [...] — The window was the merest slit in the black rock, not big enough for a man to enter... A skeletal figure was just visible through it, curled beneath a blanket... Dead, or sleeping...? [...] — as he forced himself through the slit of a window like a snake and landed, lightly as vapor, inside the cell-like room — (DH)

Grindelwald as he steals the Elder Wand:

Gregorovitch burst into the room at the end of the passage and his lantern illuminated what looked like a workshop; wood shavings and gold gleamed in the swinging pool of light, and there on the window ledge sat perched, like a giant bird, a young man with golden hair. In the split second that the lantern’s light illuminated him, Harry saw the delight upon his handsome face, then the intruder shot a Stunning Spell from his wand and jumped neatly backward out of the window with a crow of laughter. Harry could still see the blond-haired youth’s face; it was merry, wild; there was a Fred and George-ish air of triumphant trickery about him. He had soared from the windowsill like a bird, and Harry had seen him before, but he could not think where... (DH)

Snape as he flies with the Elder Wand in his hand:

When Harry looked up again, Snape was in full flight, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout all thundering after him: He hurtled through a classroom door and, moments later, he heard McGonagall cry, “Coward! COWARD!” […] Harry dragged her to her feet and they raced along the corridor, trailing the Invisibility Cloak behind them, into the deserted classroom where Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout were standing at a smashed window. “He jumped,” said Professor McGonagall as Harry and Luna ran into the room. “You mean he’s dead?” Harry sprinted to the window [...] With a tingle of horror, Harry saw in the distance a huge, batlike shape flying through the darkness toward the perimeter wall. (DH)

3.0 1981 Memory

Onto the laugh, there are multiple possibilities - one is that since the memories Harry hears near the dementors are blurry, Harry simply heard the laugh and Lily's death out of order, and what he heard was actually Voldemort laughing as he murdered James. It's also possible that it just got left out/implied.

But that doesn't change the fact that the text emphasizes this laugh very specifically in relation to Lily's murder continuously.

As I said before, Voldemort and Lily as a duo parallel Sirius and Bellatrix, and the way Sirius, Bellatrix, and Harry echo each other in this Department of Mysteries sequence (expanded on in my meta "When Lily Cast Her Life As A Shield": Analysis of the Shield Charm) is mirrored by the Voldemort, Lily, and Harry trio:

“Laughed,” said Stan. “Jus’ stood there an’ laughed. An’ when reinforcements from the Ministry of Magic got there, ’e went wiv ’em quiet as anyfink, still laughing ’is ’ead off. ’Cos ’e’s mad, inee, Ern? Inee mad?” (PoA) “Get it himself?” shrieked Bellatrix on a cackle of mad laughter. Only one couple were still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix’s jet of red light: He was laughing at her. “Come on, you can do better than that!” he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room. " [...] And he knows!” said Harry with a mad laugh to match Bellatrix’s own. “Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it’s gone! He’s not going to be happy with you, is he?” (OoTP)

Remember all the instances of Lily laughing related to flight - in fact every instance of Lily laughing in the series has something to do with this narrative thread. And it's the same thing in the memory of her death:

The child was laughing and trying to catch the smoke, to grab it in his small fist... “Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off!” Hold him off, without a wand in his hand!... He laughed before casting the curse... “Avada Kedavra!” he looked up into the intruder’s face with a kind of bright interest, perhaps thinking that it was his father who hid beneath the cloak, making more pretty lights, and his mother would pop up any moment, laughing — (DH)

Lily is imagined as laughing right before Voldemort casts the Killing Curse on Harry - right before the curse rebounds on and (nearly) kills Voldemort, just as Voldemort laughed before he murdered James.

Note that this echoes Sirius and Bellatrix laughing specifically right before they’re killed - as Voldemort and Lily both laugh as they’re both dying in 1981 (or in Voldemort’s case, his near-death).

How and when did Lily laugh like that and Voldemort not hear it? There are several options. Remember, there are multiple instances where Lily is mentioned to have said something that Voldemort couldn’t hear:

She walked close to Harry, looking down at him, and she spoke in the same distant, echoing voice as the others, but quietly, so that Voldemort, his face now livid with fear as his victims prowled around him, could not hear... (GoF) A door opened and the mother entered, saying words he could not hear, her long dark-red hair falling over her face. (DH)

This may be a deliberate clue to Voldemort not hearing the laugh that Harry can.

It’s possible Lily laughed soon after screaming when Voldemort was still climbing the stairs, knowing she was luring him to his death, or that she laughed hovering between the boundary of life and death right before she died, much like Bellatrix and Sirius are said to have known what happened in the second before they died (“Molly’s curse soared beneath Bellatrix’s outstretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart. Bellatrix’s gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: For the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled”).

It’s also possible Lily was laughing after she died, from behind the veil, and Harry could hear it because of the magical connection between them, sort of like he can hear her whispering to him from the Veil in OoTP.

Lily knew that in killing her, Voldemort sealed the agreement, sealed the "binding magical contract" that would destroy him when he broke it (more on that here) - the agreement to take Lily's life instead of Harry's. And therefore, in one way or another, she was laughing triumphantly at Voldemort.

That Bellatrix is a clue to Lily is further implied in the parallel here:

“Yeah,” said Harry, tearing his eyes away from Bellatrix Lestrange’s face to glance up and down the High Street. “Yeah, it is weird...” (OoTP) How long he stood there, he didn’t know. The reflections did not fade and he looked and looked until a distant noise brought him back to his senses. He couldn’t stay here, he had to find his way back to bed. He tore his eyes away from his mother’s face, whispered, “I’ll come back,” and hurried from the room. (PS)

The way the language around Voldemort, Lily, and Harry and their movements and actions mirror each other in general in addition to the laughs in the 1981 memory is another big clue.

And then his scar burst open and he was Voldemort and he was running across the fetid bedroom, his long white hands clutching at the windowsill as he glimpsed the bald man and the little woman twist and vanish, and he screamed with rage, a scream that mingled with the girl’s, that echoed across the dark gardens over the church bells ringing in Christmas Day... And his scream was Harry’s scream, his pain was Harry’s pain... He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear He was nothing, nothing but pain and terror, and he must hide himself, not here in the rubble of the ruined house, where the child was trapped and screaming, but far away (DH)

Again Hermione here is representing Lily - most evident in this scene, where it’s her spell that saves Harry from Nagini-Bathilda and lets them escape as Voldemort comes, just like Lily saved Harry in 1981, so Voldemort's scream mingling with Hermione's alludes to it mingling with Lily's. (The locket soul piece is also described as "trapped and screaming" later).

He forced the door open, cast aside the chair and boxes hastily piled against it with one lazy wave of his wand... and there she stood, the child in her arms.  The child had not cried all this time: He could stand, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked up into the intruder’s face with a kind of bright interest  And now he stood at the broken window of Bathilda’s house, immersed in memories of his greatest loss (DH)

Additionally the three of them aren’t named in the memory, while James is named 4 times, again tying Voldemort, Lily, and Harry as a trio with identical “twin” (or triplet) movements.

As explained in part 1, Voldemort and Lily are both described as “hooded figures”, both are Death, both enter through a doorway (because as in the Cain and Abel passage in Genesis 4, sin is crouching at the door), and the wording here echoes:

A door opened and the mother entered, saying words he could not hear, her long dark-red hair falling over her face. The gate creaked a little as he pushed it open, but James Potter did not hear. His white hand pulled out the wand beneath his cloak and pointed it at the door, which burst open. (DH)

All of which is to say, if everything else echoes - then so must their laughter. On first glance, Lily laughing seems to be only Voldemort's imagination, but once we put together all the clues, we can see how that's meant to hint at Lily actually laughing in this scene.

The green light flashed around the room and she dropped like her husband. The child had not cried all this time: He could stand, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked up into the intruder’s face with a kind of bright interest, perhaps thinking that it was his father who hid beneath the cloak, making more pretty lights, and his mother would pop up any moment, laughing — He pointed the wand very carefully into the boy’s face: He wanted to see it happen, the destruction of this one, inexplicable danger. The child began to cry: It had seen that he was not James. (DH)

The above passage is the situation flipped. While Voldemort believes that Harry thinks he's James, baby Harry actually thinks Voldemort is Lily, because it's Lily whose face is covered by her hair as a dementor's is hidden, resembling the hood of a cloak or the Veil of Death, while James's face is seen clearly. Basically, while with the laugh Harry mistakes Lily for Voldemort, here he’s mistaking Voldemort for Lily. Harry, looking carefully into Voldemort's face, presumably sees Voldemort's eyes, realizes it's not Lily, and starts crying.

He approached one of them, then saw the whiteness of his own long-fingered hand against the door. He knocked. He felt a mounting excitement. . . . The door opened: A laughing woman stood there. Her face fell as she looked into Harry’s face: humor gone, terror replacing it. . . . “Gregorovitch?” said a high, cold voice. She shook her head: She was trying to close the door. A white hand held it steady, prevented her shutting him out. . . . He raised the wand. She screamed. Two young children came running into the hall. She tried to shield them with her arms. There was a flash of green light — (DH)

This clearly evokes Lily - "The door opened: A laughing woman stood there" parallels the language of 1981 - "A door opened and the mother entered", "There she stood", and Voldemort forcing his way in also parallels "He forced the door open".

Then the rest evokes Lily’s scream, her spreading her arms and “shielding” Harry from Voldemort’s sight, the flash of green light always connected with her murder. Note again how the language echoes to draw certain connections.

So, if this represents Lily, the fact that she's described as a "laughing woman" is significant - this is another clue that the laugh was Lily.

4.0 Conclusion

To summarize, Lily is constantly associated with laughter, and constantly associated with flight, and the two link together in her laughing at others in flight and, finally, laughing at Voldemort because she and her son are the superior "Flight from Death".

If you read this whole thing, please let me know if you were convinced by this theory.

Thank you to @regheart, @keepmycandleburning, and @remus-poopin for reading this over for me!

[capriddle]

Bellatrix doesn't yell at Harry when he says Voldemort is a half-blood because the Death Eaters don't know it but because Voldemort doesn't like to remember it and Bellatrix tries to defend him.

[iialethi]

[meemoop]

The Substitute

Cissy steps up to the plate

[ellemisc]

The Black Sisters, as girls

[aezran]

Slytherins are written to be the opposite of what jkr considers “good” and “appropriate”.

You know what that means?

happy pride

[spookyasmr]

[hiancii]

The Ace of Spades

[lilyerida]

Narcissa, Bellatrix and Andromeda

[auroradiation]

"I killed Sirius Black."

[vidalswife]

Witches Are My Weakness

[oregano-stars]

My favourite thing about this fandom is that the canon story has so many characters that are just bad guys - no explanation, no questions, they’re just bad. But this fandom takes those characters and loves them and adds backstory and reasons why those characters mad those “bad” decisions because no one is born a “bad guy” right? Not Reggie, not Barty, not Bella, not even Tom :) And the idolized and well-renowned characters like Dumbledore? We take them down a notch, because no one is born perfect either. I love that. It makes it all feel so much more human and approachable and accepting.

Reblog if you feel the same! I feel like this aspect of the fandom needs some love :)