Alright, so I was reading Philosopher's Stone the other day and I discovered that in Chapter Four ("Keeper of the Keys"), when Hagrid is telling Harry about his parents, he says:

"Now, yer mum and dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day!" (pg 55)

While I remembered that in Order of the Phoenix, (Chapter Nine, "Woes of Mrs. Weasley") when Harry, Sirius, and Lupin are discussing prefects, it is revealed that "[Harry's] father had not been a prefect either." (pg 170)

I was under the impression that there were 2 prefects chosen in each house in their 5th year, boy and girl, and in their seventh year the Head Boy and Head Girl were chosen from the 8 prefects from the 4 houses of that year. If James had not been a prefect, wouldn't this be impossible for him to be Head Boy? Or did Hagrid not mean it in a literal sense, but merely expressed what a talented wizard James was? Or is this a (gasp, dare I say it) writing error? :O

I'm not sure. I'm really confused. Anyone care to enlighten me?

wo no kidding im confused 2 like um dont you have to be a prefect to be a head boy plus james was jinx happy wasnt he??? whats j.k. playink at!


ist to post!!!!

I think that JK Rowling said something about this. HB and HG are usually chosen from the eight prefects, but not always. So, Remus Lupin was Gryffindor boy prefect in James year, but James was HB.

Oh james has to be the head boy. I done heard it to many times for him not to be.

I found this on Muggle.net - link

http://www.mugglenet.com/hogwarts.shtml

The following would explain how James got to be head boy but not be a prefect.

[CENTER]Prefects

Prefects at Hogwarts take on exactly the same role as those at any school: they act as a halfway house between ordinary pupils and teachers, taking on a certain amount of responsibility for maintaining order, and in return being given minor disciplinary powers. In practice these are limited to docking House Points from misbehaving students (and some Prefects – Ron for example – seem to have forgotten that they’re allowed to do even this). They certainly can’t hand out detentions or send anyone to see the Headmaster, and it’s doubtful whether they have the power to award points as well as removing them. One thing that’s for sure, though, is that they have the ear of their respective Head of House, and so a quick word with the teacher in question will go a long way to getting any action they want taken carried out.

Prefects are students in the fifth year and above, who are appointed by the Headmaster at the start of that year. It is not stated explicitly anywhere, but it can be assumed that Prefects keep their title through the 6th and 7th years. It’s hard to imagine wayward 18-year olds being brought into line by a little 5th year.

When choosing a Prefect, the Headmaster will usually look for someone respected by both the students and staff. They should have good leadership qualities, and be good enough students to be able to keep up with their school work in addition to their Prefect duties. This may sound like something of a burden, but the duties of any one Prefect should not be too onerous – best estimates suggest there are about 70 students per House at any given time, 6 of which will be Prefects. That is likely to be quite enough to maintain order without too much fuss (except perhaps if Fred and George Weasley happen to be in your House).

At the start of the 7th Year, a Head Boy and Head Girl for the school are chosen. In practice these titles are likely to fall to those who are already Prefects, but as James Potter demonstrated, it isn’t necessarily the case. If any other non-Prefects have ever been given the title except James it can’t have happened very often though. Percy Weasley and Lily Evans were also Head Boy and Head Girl respectively in their time, and they both graduated from the Prefect ranks.

The roles of the Head Boy and Head Girl are basically to be in charge of the Prefects, and of course to be a shining example of what the other boys and girls at the school should aspire to be (although why anyone would want to be just like Percy Weasley is a mystery). Whether it’s Head Boy/Girl or just Prefect, however, the appointment is always seen as an honour and is much sought-after by the students. And in the case of certain Slytherin students, it also gives them a chance to get their first taste of real power to bully other students and get away with it. Oh, and you get to use the nice bathrooms as well.

Ahhh, gotcha. Ok, problem cleared up. Thanks a lot, you guys! ^^

but why on earth would anyone want to pick JAMES POTTER AS THE HEAD BOY?!

did he really deflate his head that much?

some times giving students who misbehave a lot of responsibility calms them down and gives them something to do. Most trouble makers are simply bored and need something to do. I think thats the case with James Potter quite a lot.

That's true. i also thought you had to be a prefect

It shows how much Jame's attitude changed in order for him to become a Prefect. He went from a bully to a well behaved studnet. The change in his attitude was signifigantly for his head of house to appoint him as a Prefect.

Perhaps Lupin was a better influence than he thought. Or maybe James just really wanted to impress Lily. I'm sure since they were both Prefects they had plenty of time to get to know each other better and fall in love.

thanks for clearing that up
i thought JKR made a mistake or something.

I always figured that he settled down and started to show some leadership. Dumbledore would have probably have liked this and wouldnt have had much trouble in picking him

You are right on the mark. From my own experiance when I was in the Army I was kind of a cut up until someone decided to make me a SGT. Well things changed from there. I think it would be the same for James.

i think the one theory about how he wanted to impress lily is prolly the one that makes the most sense. james was prolly the popular kid who got everything he wanted cept lily. when dd decided to give him the head boy position he saw it as a way to straighten up and maybe get her attention. in a way james is like ron, i think just like ron no one really expected james to get it. ron was because he really wasnt all that popular, but james was because he was always up to no good and was kinda mean.

To answer this question, in book 6 Harry is given the same status as prefects when he was made Quiddicth captain, therefore he could be chosen for Head Boy.

well, i think james was headboy because he was good,brave and courageous.he musta had a liking to be the HB and torture snape a bit more.

He was headboy? Oh yeah, now I think about it I remember...wait...HOW?! How did James become head boy? I realise he was brave and talented and powerful but he wasn't exactly setting a good example was he?! He tormented Snape, sneaked out after hours, became an animagus illegally...he's a trouble maker! Shouldn't be possible! The world's gone mad...

maybe she did make a mistake hah, it's such a small detail that in the first book, hagrid was saying good things about harry's parents and just happened to say that, and you dont find out until the 3rd book that his father was a troublemaker, so maybe Rowling changed her mind about his character a little bit, but didnt think it mattered that much

We have based much of our opinion of James on Snape's worst memory. But this is how Snape saw it, and may not be the whole truth. James had the charisma and leadership qualities to be head boy.

James was a brilliant student, popular with the students, an ingeniou prankster and very cheeky.

Lily did not like James or his attitude at first. After he asked her out in their fifth year, she replied that she wouldn't go out with him if it was a choice between him and the giant squid and remarked that, "I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK!"

Most likely in an attempt to have Lily look at him in a different light and have her take his interest in her seriously, James started to tame down his wild ways. Only after James matured and changed his attitude, Lily started dating him in their seventh year, eventually falling in love and marrying him.

James may simply have become Head Boy by the seventh year because he had matured and become more responsible and sensible. His grades were always high. Also giving him a leadership role and more responsibility would only continue to support his change in behavior.

Look at Ron... he isn't who you'd expect to be Prefect either.

Also, Lupin was partly made Prefect to help tame down his friends - meaning James & Sirius. However, he had trouble disciplining his friends and Lupin being a Prefect really didn't effect their behavior very much.

I think that someone made a huge mistake somewhere and tried to cover it up. It just doesn't make sense. Even if dumbledore was trying to make James better I don't think it would've worked all that well. I'm sorry to say but he'd abuse his powers to full extent. But whatever you say......

kk people you don't have to be a prefect to be head boy or girl, and yes james was jinx happy but only in his early years i think he calmed down a bit after he saved snape

Hm...I don't think it's necessarily true that you have to be a prefect before you can be a Head Boy. I think it would be much harder to be picked as Head Boy if you weren't a prefect, but I think it can still happen.

I agree that you dont have to be a prefect in order to be HB or HG. I think Dumbledore primarily chooses them by their maturity, smarts, and leadership abilities. Now, we all know that James's maturity level may not have been up to par, but maybe during the later years of his Hogwarts life he became more mature (in order to win Lily's heart) =]
He was obviously smart, as he was VERY good at transfiguration, and just spells in general since he was a key maker in the Maurauder's Map. I think he was a good choice for HB, even though he wasn't a prefect.
(Oh, and I think that Dumbledore just wanted to help Lily and James's relationship:] )

Ron was right all along ) Dumbledore is brilliant, but mental Who in their right mind would make James Potter head boy? :O its like trying to imagine either Fred or George as head boy

poor Mr. Filch and Snape, they must have had a coronary when he found out that James became Head Boy