James Potter

''Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off —''"


 * — James stands between Lord Voldemort and his family

James Potter, an English pure-blood wizard, was born on 27 March, 1960 to Fleamont Potter and his wife Euphemia. Fleamont was an accomplished, yet retired cosmetic potioneer and entrepreneur best known for inventing Sleekeazy's Hair Potion in 1926. Both Fleamont and Euphemia were elderly even by wizarding standards.

Having been conceived so late in his parents' lives, he was raised in a doting household with little material limits, and pampered a great deal. Hence, it was no surprise that he grew to be proud, arrogant, and boastful, but deep down still a good person. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1971-1978 and was sorted into Gryffindor. While there, he befriended fellow Gryffindors Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, and together they formed a small gang known only to themselves as the Marauders. Though more mischievous than diligent, James proved to be a clever student. At some point during his education he became Chaser for his house's Quidditch team, in which he was completely aware of his talent. It is possible that he also collected Chocolate Frog Cards, as at an unknown time, the History of Magic teacher, Professor Cuthbert Binns, gave him the Circe card, which later came into the possession of Quirinus Quirrell, who kept it in Gringotts Wizarding Bank in Vault 998.

As second years, James, Sirius, and Peter figured out that Remus was a werewolf, but rather than abandoning him (James, in particular, insisted this monthly hazard did not mean Remus was truly abnormal), they spent three years learning to become Animagi in order to accompany Remus in his transformations. In his fifth year, James managed to perfect the transformation and become a stag Animagus, which earned him the nickname "Prongs". Using their new nicknames, the four friends created the Marauder's Map, which displayed the Hogwarts Castle area and everyone within it —including all staff, ghosts and students — in their current location at a given time, and thus made sneaking out of the castle and avoiding teachers much easier. For the vast majority of his time at school, James was somewhat an obnoxious youth with a love of showing off and exceptional self-confidence that bordered on arrogance. Severus Snape once said that he was so arrogant that "criticism simply bounced off him". This rebellious attitude was notably shaped by the negative qualities he developed, such as the habit of ruffling his already messy hair to make it even untidier to look as though he had just alighted from his broomstick. Also hexing innocent students for no other reason than because he could (especially Snape, a Slytherin in the same year as him). These qualities came about as a result of his pampered and spoiled upbringing.

James and Snape had a strong rivalry throughout their time at Hogwarts. To Remus and Sirius, the reason this rivalry began was due to Snape's jealousy over James' talent at Quidditch and his popularity, as well as Snape's interest in the Dark Arts, which James despised. However, it was later revealed that James and Sirius had got off on the wrong foot with Snape from the beginning: when they first met Snape during their first year on the Hogwarts Express, they insulted him (setting a solid foundation for rivalry), and their further interactions only served to make their rivalry intense and permanent — Snape followed the Marauders around, looking for reasons to get them expelled. James, in turn, used the hexes Snape himself had made up against him. At some point in their school years, Snape grew very interested in where Remus went every month, and saw Madam Pomfrey and Remus going to the Shrieking Shack using a secret passage under the Whomping Willow. Sirius had, as a joke, told him that the trick to getting past the Whomping Willow was to poke the knot at the bottom. Snape followed Sirius's directions, and was nearly at the Shrieking Shack when James pulled him back. At great risk to his own life, James saved Severus from certain death at the claws of the Remus in werewolf form, but Snape adamantly refused to believe that his old rival would have done him a favour, believing that James had only saved him in order to avoid expulsion, and despised being in his debt. James spent much of his academic career chasing after Lily Evans, an attractive Muggle-born fellow Gryffindor from Snape's hometown of Cokeworth who was secretly Snape's best friend and childhood crush since before they both started at Hogwarts. Lily was among those who were not so impressed of James, considering him arrogant and obnoxious. She once demanded James to quit jinxing Snape for fun. The former and his friends were in the middle of bullying Snape with a spell of Snape's own invention. Lily told him to stop and James responded with, "I will if you'll go out with me, Evans." When James took the jinx off, Snape in his humiliation and anger, called Lily a "filthy little Mudblood." James demanded him to apologise, but Lily responded that James was as bad as Snape and she would not date him "even if it were a choice between him and the Giant Squid". Snape's friendship with the vivacious and pretty Lily may have sparked envy in James and further fuelled the hateful enmity between the two.

At the age of sixteen, James's parents allowed Sirius to move in with them so he could escape his own horrible family, and Sirius soon became an unofficial member of their family. By the time he was at his seventh year, James had matured to the point that he lost the more mischievous aspects of his personality, and was even appointed Head Boy alongside Lily, despite the fact that he had not been a prefect. He stopped hexing bystanders for fun, though he still secretly hexed Snape, and in turn, Snape never lost an opportunity to hex him back, although it's implied that James was willing to stop for Lily's sake. He also finally managed to impress Lily, and began dating her at this time. In late 1977, Lily and James had a disastrous first meeting with Lily's sister Petunia Evans and her then-fiancé, Vernon Dursley, which presumably took place over Christmas break, as they were both still at Hogwarts. When Vernon tried to impress James with his car, the wizard in turn boasted of his own material wealth, and a row ensued. The evening ended with both Vernon and Petunia storming out of the restaurant and Lily bursting into tears, with James promising he'd apologise and make it up (which, due to his and Lily's untimely deaths, never happened). Petunia married by the end of that year. Though Lily and James were invited to the wedding, Petunia refused to have Lily as a bridesmaid, upsetting her deeply. At the reception, Vernon would not talk to James, but described him as "some magician" within his earshot.

James briefly appeared again in May 1998 through the Resurrection Stone. He appeared through it along with Lily (his wife), Sirius Black and Remus Lupin (his friends). After the Second Wizarding War, James posthumously had three grandchildren through his son: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna Potter, the first of whom was named after his grandfather and his father's godfather (and friend of the former).