harry potter - Are qualifications for Head Boy and Head Girl different from qualifications for prefects?

I was under the impression that the Head Boy and Head Girl were always chosen from among the prefects, however...

"No one would have made me a prefect, I spent too much time in detention with James. Lupin was the good boy, he got the badge."

— Sirius Black to Harry, Order of the Phoenix

So James Potter was not a prefect. But...

"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head Boy an' Girl at Hogwarts in their day!"

— Hagrid to Harry, Sorcerer's Stone

How does one get to be Head Boy without first being a prefect? If James' time in detention disqualified him from being a prefect, why did it not disqualify him from being Head Boy?

Answer

We know that James Potter was a talented Quidditch player. It is a bit far-fetched, but we might assume that he was a Quidditch Captain as well, which is almost like being a Prefect:

The day after this rather gloomy birthday tea, their letters and booklists arrived from Hogwarts. Harry's included a surprise: he had been made Quidditch Captain.
"That gives you equal status with prefects!" cried Hermione happily. "You can use our special bathroom now and everything!"
- chapter 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Perhaps not only Prefects but also Quidditch Captains (or even all Hogwarts students in general) were considered by Dumbledore when there was a time to choose a Head Boy and a Head Girl.

Other versions:

[real world] J.K.Rowling changed her vision of James' character when writing the books. In the first book, James was a role model for Harry, but this idealised vision couldn't last long.

James was not actually Head Boy; it was a Hagrid's mistake / tongue-slip / exaggeration.

Comments

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