Well, we all know that, on that one night when james and lily died,
lily was with harry, and james defended the door
ergo- james died first, then lily.
In GoF when the spirits of those voldemort had killed were coming from his wand, james came out before lily, meaning he died after her.
theres a few things i think about this.
maybe james survived the first aveda, like harry did, maybe its justa potter thing, making it possible for neville to be voldys bane.
why would it be a potter thing...well rumours are that harry is a decendant of slytherin, or gryffindor
being a decendant of one of these would prove a 'reasonable' sxplanation.
or maybe harry uses a timeturner, in his seventh year
being old enough, and being the double of his father, maybe witnesses saw harry at the door, harry dies, lily is killed, james discovers them and is killed.
therefore leading to a good reason for harry to die,
After all, even harry cant tell the difference between himself and his dad from a distance, POA remember, and he has seen his dad in photos and in the mirror of erised.
also the only witnesses would be from a distance, nobdoy is going to want to get too close to voldemort and the death eaters are they
Hmm, that's interesting... You mean the hardcover that was published first?
'_'
Seems like it was really just a mistake
Does the context also change in the paperbacks?
__________________ Life is complex: it has both real and imaginary components.
It was an editing mistake which the first publications of GoF are full of. This was corrected in subsequent versions. Lily really was killed after James, so she should have got the line, "your father's coming, it'll be all right. He wants to see you."