Throughout the series Harry keeps thinking of Snape as a villain partly because Snape holds a grudge against Harry because his father picked on him as a kid. Snape repeatedly gets onto Harry because he is acting just like his father which Harry feels pride at. However in the flashback scenes in the book Harry's father and friends are shown pretty much mercilessly picking on Snape for no real reason in much the same way that Draco Malfoy later picks on Harry. Is there ever any other flashbacks or mentions of Harry's father when he was a student that doesn't show him as anything but a mischievous bully?
Answer
TL;DR:
The ONLY two redeeming things stated about James before his last year was that
He always hated the Dark Arts. Everything else - 100% - confirmed that he was just as much a conceited bully as Malfoy.
And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts, and James — whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry — always hated the Dark Arts.'
He was a loyal friend. After all, he learned how to become Animagus to help Lupin.
Long version
Yes, James was a piece of work.
'I would, I just don't want you chucked back in Azkaban!' said Harry.
There was a pause in which Sirius looked out of the fire at Harry, a crease between his sunken eyes.
'You're less like your father than I thought,' he said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. 'The risk would've been what made it fun for James.'
In other words, James would have done something for enjoyment, and not care if his best friend was sent to Azkaban!
'Me too,' said James. He put his hand in his pocket and took out a struggling Golden Snitch.
'Where'd you get that?'
'Nicked it,' said James casually.
Stealing school property, too. Nice.
Your question is actually explored in the books, where Harry - after seeing Snape's memories - struggles with the idea.
Harry tried to make a case for Snape having deserved what he had suffered at James's hands: but hadn't Lily asked, 'What's he done to you?' And hadn't James replied, 'It's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean.' Hadn't James started it all simply because Sirius had said he was bored?
.
Harry remembered Lupin saying back in Grimmauld Place that Dumbledore had made him prefect in the hope that he would be able to exercise some control over James and Sirius . . . but in the Pensieve, he had sat there and let it all happen . . .
.
Harry kept reminding himself that Lily had intervened; his mother had been decent. Yet, the memory of the look on her face as she had shouted at James disturbed him quite as much as anything else; she had clearly loathed James, and Harry simply could not understand how they could have ended up married. Once or twice he even wondered whether James had forced her into it . . .
--
Harry tried to question Sirius about it in OoP. Basically, both Lupin AND Sirius confirm the pattern, though they see it as a more harmless youthful horsing around (especially Sirius, who was himself the same, and didn't have Harry's experience of what it's like to BE bullied).
According to them, James only became less of a bully when he changed in his senior year - either due to maturing, or beneficial influence of his feelings for Lily, or responsibilities of Head Boy office.
When he had finished, neither Sirius nor Lupin spoke for a moment. Then Lupin said quietly, 'I wouldn't like you to judge your father on what you saw there, Harry. He was only fifteen — '
'I'm fifteen' said Harry heatedly.
'Look, Harry' said Sirius placatingly, 'James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can't you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be — he was popular, he was good at Quidditch — good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts, and James — whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry — always hated the Dark Arts.'
'Yeah,' said Harry, 'but he just attacked Snape for no good reason, just because — well, just because you said you were bored,' he finished, with a slightly apologetic note in his voice.
'I'm not proud of it,' said Sirius quickly.
Lupin looked sideways at Sirius, then said, 'Look, Harry, what you've got to understand is that your father and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did — everyone thought they were the height of cool — if they sometimes got a bit carried away — '
'If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean,' said Sirius.
Lupin smiled.
'He kept messing up his hair,' said Harry in a pained voice.
Sirius and Lupin laughed.
'I'd forgotten he used to do that,' said Sirius affectionately.
'Was he playing with the Snitch?' said Lupin eagerly.
'Yeah,' said Harry, watching uncomprehendingly as Sirius and Lupin beamed reminiscently. 'Well . . . I thought he was a bit of an idiot.'
'Of course he was a bit of an idiot!' said Sirius bracingly, 'we were all idiots! Well — not Moony so much,' he said fairly, looking at Lupin.
But Lupin shook his head. 'Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape?' he said. 'Did I ever have the guts to tell you I thought you were out of order?'
'Yeah, well,' said Sirius, 'you made us feel ashamed of ourselves sometimes . . . that was something . ..''She started going out with him in seventh year,' said Lupin.
'Once James had deflated his head a bit,' said Sirius.
'And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it,' said Lupin.Sirius frowned at Harry, who was still looking unconvinced.
'Look,' he said, 'your father was the best friend I ever had and he was a good person. A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen.
He grew out of it.'
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