Lily's Riches?

[Gypsy]

In the chapter 'Cornelius Fudge' in CoS, on pg 192 in the UK version, it says 'Harry inherited only one thing from his father. But what about all the money at Gringotts which Harry inherited from his parents. Does this mean that all that money was in fact Lily's, suggesting she either had a higher paid job than James or that she inherited that money from her parents. Of course JK may well have meant that it was the only possesion which Harry inherited from his parents, not counting money, but if she didnt this could be an interesting new lead as to the Potters' professions.[/u]

[fred]

u know come to think of it they never wrote about what lilly and james did. i mean there is just a big vault of money with harry's name on it with no explanation.

[Gower]

I have a feeling that might be explained in the next book. I read that somewhere

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

I know what they did!! They sold bootleg firewhisky!

[Jotomicron]

LOL!!!
I heard it would be explained in the fifth book... and it wasn't
Anywy, I hope (and rather think) it will be exaplined in the sixth, now... Hope so!

[Athena Appleton]

First off, Joto, hope you had a very happy birthday, Birthday Buddy!

Okay, I think that passage means something other than money. Besides, Harry did inherit a few things from his father: his looks, his talent as a wizard and his talent for getting into trouble, the invisibility cloak... I think that passage only means that Harry didn't receive much from his father.

There are a few other threads around here regarding James and Lily's jobs. I still think they were Untouchables (or at least she was) and that she knew that if she died protecting Harry, he would have protection. Just my little pet theory, you're right, there's no real proof to anything.

It can be assumed that James is from an old wizarding family (most think he's an heir of Gryffindor's) but the Weasleys are an old wizarding family, too, so that doesn't mean much. James's parents were kind (unlike the rich uppety old wizard families) - they welcomed Sirius like a son.

If you follow this timeline, you'll see that it's quite likely James and Lily worked outside the home, at least until Harry was born.

James, Lily, the Marauders, and Snape are all the same age.

They would all be about 35 when Harry is 11 (if they'd all lived; Rowling has said that in P/SS, Snape is around 35 or 36)

The finished school at Hogwarts when they were seventeen, and Harry wasn't born until Lily was about 24 (35 minus 11), so there were about seven years between the time Lily finished school and Harry was born. Sometime in there, she and James married.

I personally feel like after Harry was born, Lily stayed home with him (I know I would, especially in dangerous times... besides, how many babysitters have you heard of in the wizarding world?) So, while I don't really think all that money was Lily's, because I don't take the line about "the only thing Harry inherited from his dad was...." literally, I do think they both worked hard to save up in case anything happened to them, their son would be provided for.

[menotyoo]

I think a good guess for Jame's profession would be whatever Sirius' job was before Azkaban. They would definately have chosen the same career, especially since they were so intelligent and they would have their pick of jobs after Hogwarts. That said, when we are given the list of jobs available straight out of Hogwarts(this includes Aurors, because if you went into training then that means you do indeed intend to become an auror) in OotP, the jobs seemed so varied that it seems unlikely that a couple could manage not to be separated if they do not choose the same line of work, unless they both worked literally in the ministry. This is probably not the case, but it makes me feel strongly that james and lily had the same job. Assuming that women are not descriminated against in the wizarding world, this job would pay the same to both lily and james, as they would have the same level of seniority, as they are the same age. This would mean, and now I finally get to my point , that the money in the vault can be said to be 1/2 lily's and 1/2 james'. This does not include, however the likely possibility that James inherited the wealth(if there was even a small amount of money) of his his parents, because as far as we know he was an only child. Lily on the other hand, may have inherited half or none of her dead parents' wealth, as half could have gone to petunia and half to her. Or, petunia, in closer contact to her parents, for she was not away at wizard school and living with wizard after school(which is another question-did the potters live w/ muggles or wizards, i guess wizards is way more likely) so she had more control over her parents and got all of the inheritance. Whooo...i said a lot, hopefully not a lot of nothing...

[Athena Appleton]

Well...

I think you're kinda jumping to a lot of illogical conclusions.

Why would Sirius and James have "definately" had the same job?
Where did you get the idea that in order for two people to live together, they would have to have the same job? There are a LOT of jobs within the ministry and other places, and with floo powder and apparation, a person doesn't have to live anywhere near the Ministry of Magic to work there (as evidenced by both Arthur Weasley and Amos Diggory.)

[highsorcerer]

Actually, there are really only two ways to explain the Potter's wealth - inherited, or earned. It's a fair assumption that all of Harry's grandparents are dead. It's been stated several times Petunia is his only living relative. The Dursley's, while not poor, are certainly not rich. In addition, they are (apparently) ignorant of Harry's wealth. This would indicate that the Evans did not leave to either Lily or Petunia an amount of money (or gold) on par with the amount Harry has in his vault. Thus, the evidence indicates that Petunia neither inherited a lot of money from the Evans, nor was Petunia aware of her parents having riches that, by default, would have passed to Harry if she had been disinherited by her own parents.

This leaves the money coming from either the work of James and Lily Potter, or inherited wealth from James Potter's family. The only real direct evidence of the Potters having some wealth is the invisibility cloak - a rare and valuable item. It certainly indicates a long time wizarding family; newcomers are unlikely to have artifacts such as these. There is also evidence James had the cloak during his time at Hogwarts as early as his fifth year. Even successful entrepenaurs such as the Wealey Twins would be unlikely to earn enough to buy a cloak.

We can guess the approximate (relative) ages of James and Lily Potter by various clocks. Dudley Dursley and Harry Potter are roughly the same age (Dudley has about a month or so on Harry). Petunia Dursley is probably within 7 years of her sister, and probably less (enough for sibling rivalry and clear memories of Lily's summers away from Hogwarts). James and Lily are close in age; at most a few years apart (Lily started going with James in his 7th year, and was around in his 5th year, and were probably in the same year).

While James Potter was clearly a skilled and talented wizard, there are not many career paths that could net him the kind of money Harry inherited in such as short time. Not MANY, but one of them was probably open to James - professional Quidditch Player. That kind of occuaption was not exclusive for him doing intelligent work for the Original Order of the Phoenix either; professional athlete has been the cover of more than one spy (a good book on the subject: The Catcher was a Spy). However, it does seem the money had to come from the Potters, one way or another.

[Athena Appleton]

James a professional Quidditch player? I don't think so...

First of all, you really don't have any idea the pay that can be expected from any job in the Ministry, or really what all the jobs are available to wizardkind. Therefore, drawing the conclusion that "one of the few" jobs that would net a large amount of money in a small amount of time is Quidditch Player. Don't you think someone would have mentioned that Harry's dad was a professional Quidditch player at some time? In all the times people have compared Harry to his dad, while it's come up that both of them were good at Quidditch, it's never come up that James played professionally.

For all we know, there are wizarding insurance policies and that's how Harry got his money.

Unless you have a secret source the rest of us don't have, you also know virtually nothing about Lily's family. Is it possible that they did bequeath (:lol: sorry, I doubt I spelled that right, just wanted to try out a new word) a large sum of money to Lily or Harry before they died, and that's one reason Petunia never mentions them? Is it possible Lily's parents gave her a large sum of money, "under the table" so to speak, because she was the clear favorite, but to avoid Petunia finding out about it?

This is an interesting subject to talk about, but the fact remains: there is NO evidence whatsoever as to how Harry got his money or what Lily and James's careers were.

[Dumbledores Master]

Sorry Athena but I agree with highsorcerer on this one. Lets just assume there was no magic involved in this for a moment and that they were muggles. What job would earn you a large amount of money say 50,000-100,000 (ballpark figure) in 7 years. If James was with a pretty low down football/soccer team for that period of time then he would get maybe 75,000-125,000 (ballpark figure). Now lets insert magic back into it all, quidditch is the magical popularity equivalant of football in that its known by everyone. So simply convert that amount to galleons and *ta-da* you get a small fortune.

[Alice I]

I see your point Abe and DM but Athena makes a lot of sense pointing out the fact that James Potter more than likely was NOT a professional Quidditch player.
He has never been mentioned in that light, while Ludo Bagman a older washed up player everyone seems to know.
I just don't see that James was a player professionally because
1. No mention of him ever doing so when that would be the most natural thing especially from Ron who has followed the sport his whole life.
and
2. James was said to be most interested in fighting the dark arts. Sirius states that in OOTP about James.

I also don't picture Lilly wanting to marry some famous quidditch player. She seemed somewhat un-impressed with that aspect of his personality in the pensive memory.

[Athena Appleton]

I completely agree, Alice.

DM and highsorcerer, the fact remains that you don't know how much any wizarding jobs pay, or if the amount of money in Harry's vault came exclusively from the money earned by James and Lily after Hogwarts (no inheritence, gifts, insurance, etc.)

I just don't see Harry never finding out that his dad was a pro Quidditch player, considering that he is surrounded by people who are REALLY into Quidditch. There are just too many opportunities that it would have come up otherwise (when Ron met Harry, when Harry got onto the House Quidditch team, the World Cup, in any of the conversations with Sirius or Lupin about James...)

[Dumbledores Master]

Can you really see James not doing something with Quidditch and besides, I said one of the lesser known teams and if i didnt then well I want to change to that. The Dursleys could be rich, simply because Vernon owns a Drills company and I think I read he went to floor ... and the movie just wasn`t that accurate although you could say JKR had a big influence on the films. Hmmm *strokes long beard thoughtfully*




post edited by Paintballdecoy**

[Athena Appleton]

What tha.....

*sigh*

My whole point in this thread is that there is no evidence to give us any clear idea of what James and Lily did, so therefore, no, I can't give you the name of a job that would net them a certain amount of money in approximately seven years. I just doubt it was Quidditch, for the reasons listed above.