James Potter
From Canonwars
James Potter (born 3 December 1959) is from the book series Harry Potter. He is most known for his EXCESSIVE capslock, his OBNOXIOUS approval of his son, and his INABILITY to TURN OFF the capslock option when he SHOULD HAVE done it already.
He is also not writing this. Really.
He loves his wife faithfully and she is EVERYTHING to him. He also loves his son. And Sirius Black (Elder). Truthfully, James is one big bucket of love. And arrogance.
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Information
Background
The Potter line is excessively long and old—not as old as the Malfoys’ line, or the Blacks’ line, but it’s long enough to have received some attention. However, throughout the years, the Potters also managed to acquire a reputation for being a little more capable of tolerating Muggle-borns and Half-bloods. Though they didn’t marry “these sorts” into the family for fear of what could happen to them, the Potters were wise to not have any unneeded prejudices running through their veins. This eventually padded James Potter when he came into the world.
James’ father was named Alexander and he was born in the year 1899, ten years before his brother Charlus was born. Alexander and Charlus’ mother happened to be French, and thus, she managed to give her younger son the name Charlus after her childhood home. Alexander’s father happened to be William Potter, who descended from a long line of Potters, as mentioned before. By time Alexander and Charlus were born into the world, the boys were made aware of certain prejudices, but they weren’t as evident while they were growing up (as the great war in Alexander’s teenage years was more about wizards just wanting to fight than anything else). However, after the war, things started to change. The world started shifting. But the world was shifting and Alexander wasn’t shifting with it, though his brother was influenced by it (and this was probably why he married Dorea Black later on).
As for Alexander, he was a Gryffindor in school who eventually did very well and became Head Boy. When he finished school, he surprised his family by not going on to play quidditch for a big team, but instead, he went into the Ministry of Magic to work with the Department of Magical Game and Sports. Three years after he worked in there, he acquired a decent rank, and he met Elizabeth Baddock. Elizabeth and Alexander talked for three years after this until they ended up marrying one another. It was also around this time that William Potter died, leaving all the family riches to Alexander, and very little to the younger son, Charlus.
However, for many years, Elizabeth and Alexander had difficulty conceiving a child. It wasn’t until February of 1959, when both of them were very old and seemingly incapable of having more children when Elizabeth found that she was pregnant. It was a miracle, and it was this time that Alexander decided he wanted to give his son everything. When James Alexander Potter was welcomed into the world, he received just that. On the other side of the family, Charlus and his wife, Dorea, had a son as well (and in 1977, because of complications, both Dorea and her son, Phineas, were murdered, leaving Charlus alive). James didn’t really know about his Uncle, who had been eventually sorted into Slytherin, while he grew up. Alexander decided he wanted to shield his son away from all the bad in the world.
Thus, James grew up receiving everything he wanted. He understood pomp and circumstance, having everything given to him on a silver platter—and he didn’t really learn about anything negative in the world. His parents taught him about what was right, what was good, and neglected to tell him that there were other people. Now, before the age of eleven, he ran into some people who weren’t very good, but by that point, he didn’t have the ability to see anything from another angle. It was so ingrained in his very being to be accepting of other people that he had a hard time seeing people who weren’t that way. Sure, he was arrogant and spoiled, but he was also good, even if he was young and not completely mature (nor would he be for a while).
At the age of eleven, James, like his parents’ expected, received a letter from the Hogwarts School of Magic regarding his acceptance. Undoubtedly, his parents knew he would have to go, and though he showed some brilliance, his parents also had no doubt that he would actually end up as a member of Gryffindor like they had. On September first, nineteen-seventy-one, James Potter ended up entering Gryffindor in order to have the sorting hat placed on his head. It was there for not even a full second before the hat shouted Gryffindor. Unlike his son twenty-years later, James didn’t have an ounce of Slytherin in him (which probably said a lot about his ambitions in life).
In this house, James ended up befriending the people that would come to be the most important people to him for the rest of his life. The first person he made friends with was Sirius Black (younger). Sirius had the natural ability in him to cause trouble just as James did, something that ended up making the two boys stick together like two people covered in superglue immediately. They were inseparable almost immediately, even if the two of them came from rather different backgrounds. After all, Sirius came from a background that would make him dislike someone like James—a Pureblood that cared little about his line, and only by pure luck had managed to have the title of ‘Pureblood,’ unlike many other people that sought out to keep that title throughout the years.
During James and Sirius’ very first year at the school, the boys managed to make a name for themselves as the main pranksters in the school. They caused trouble, made a point of making everyone else know this, and generally enjoyed themselves as much as possible. After all, if they couldn’t live up things, who was going to? As time progressed, the pair shared quite a few detentions with one another, but it made sense as they both needed to become known as the stop pranksters in the school. Of course, they barely made a name for themselves in that year, though, because of the fact that there were other people that were far more important than them in Slytherin. But James vowed that they would rule the school one day, and since they were clearly the most brilliant first years—which is still arguable—their dreams weren’t too far-fetched.
It was also this year that James ended up befriending Remus Lupin, a strange boy that didn’t seem to have any interest in their antics around the school. He found it odd that Remus was sick once a month, and gradually came to start constantly asking him questions about why he had to leave once a month, only to come back with a bunch of scratches on his face. It concerned James that someone could have this happen to him, and he even threatened a few scary looking Slytherins that if they were hurting Gryffindors, that he would have them in a spot of trouble (as he already felt a fierce amount of loyalty to this boy that had been placed in his room).
By his second year, however, James and his friends—who, by this point, included Peter Pettigrew—figured out exactly why Remus took off once a month. While James knew he should have been very bothered by the fact that Remus was a werewolf, he wasn’t. Rather, he believed that it was proof that good people could come in all different shapes and said that Remus wouldn’t hurt a fly if he could help it. He pointed this out while reasoning with the situation—as he always tried to be the logical one, even if he didn’t have the best grasp on logic—and ended up making it so that Remus was still accepted (though it was difficult). He cared for the fourth part of the group, and when they informed Remus that they knew about his ailment, they also decided to come up with a plan to end up helping their roommate with his lycanthropy.
It was the third year that they came to a conclusion about what they would do—they would become animagi. It would be illegal, yes, but the Marauders had to do what the Marauders had to do.
As the Marauders grew closer throughout the years, they worked hard together to eventually reach their full potentials as animagi. Eventually, the three boys were capable of joining Remus as a rat, a stag, and a large black dog that looked suspiciously like the grim from the legend. James was, of course, the stag, the kinglike figure of the bunch. With them capable of taking this form, the boys started going out every night with Remus on a daily basis.
However, as they continued sneaking out, the boys came to realize that sneaking out wouldn’t be so easy without the aid of something. It was because of this that James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus came up with the Marauders’ Map. The map itself was titled as a Marauders’ creation, set forth so that the boys would always know every passage in the school, as well as who was moving in the school. It was handy for all of their escapades, not only the time of the month for Remus, and it enabled them with the ability to pull the best pranks in the school without most of the Slytherins—who were usually their targets—ever knowing how they managed to attack them. Of course, James’ handy invisibility cloak aided them, too, and with the two, the boys were unstoppable.
Sixth year started as normally as possible, but there were things changing on the outside of the world. On the inside, James’ mother and father were starting to take notice of the things going on around the world, and though they didn’t want James involved in them, they took notice of them and warned their son to be careful. As carefree as he tried to be, he rarely listened to his parents’ warning, only worried about his friends, school, and quidditch.
By the end of that year, he had more things to worry about, including his friend Sirius. Sirius proved himself to be particularly vicious when he informed James that he was going to get the old grease-ball back for everything he ever did. James wanted to be in on this, but he wasn’t, and in the end, he ended up finding himself coming to the rescue of the Slytherin on the night of Remus’ transformation. Although James disliked Snape, he didn’t like the idea of scaring him in a position that could possibly lead to his death. Sure, Sirius didn’t mean to kill him, but James was still not certain about the whole ordeal afterward (though Sirius apologized and that did enough for James, who would forgive any of his friends for even the worst of crimes).
Over the summer, despite this event, James gladly took Sirius and ended up having an excellent time with him. Once school started, James jumped into the position of Head Boy with ease—but not exactly a lot of maturity. He spent the first month and a half abusing his power and generally being obnoxious until he realized that this wasn’t going to work. Lily wasn’t going to be impressed with him just being Head Boy. She did, however, become more impressed with the way he started to become more mature. He grew up quite a lot, and by the end of his seventh year, the two of them were dating.
Soon out of school, Lily Evans became Lily Potter and both of them entered the Order of the Phoenix. It was while serving in the Order that an old adversary of James’, Severus Snape, heard the prophecy that would inevitably make James’ son, Harry, into a target for Voldemort for years to come. This Prophecy was one that Dumbledore acted on, especially since James and Lily ended up thwarting Voldemort three times. Their son was born as the seventh month died and it was the sign that Harry would end up having to come up against Voldemort.
But James did not live to see this happened. Peter Pettigrew, who was chosen as the Secret Keeper for the Potters, ended up “ratting” about the location. Voldemort showed up and killed James. Soon after, the Dark Lord went after Lily and Harry.
In Purgatory
James arrived in Purgatory with capslock in hand and a cheerful mind. He was loud but slightly irresponsible because he just came back to life without expecting that he would. He immediately ended up with Lily, his dashing and beautiful wife who he lives unconditionally, and he flawlessly continued his friendship with Sirius Black. He also met his son Harry Potter for the first time in his life and this meeting led him to having a very loud but excited meeting with his son. It wasn’t long before Harry was living with them, even though James could tell that Sirius still needed someone around.
Since being on the island, he ended up living with Harry and Lily in the Chinese restaurant, but he’s also had some fun attacking Death Eaters. The most notable ones happen to be Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, who both received rather harsh and disrespectful words from the Potter male. To others, however, James has always been very loud and nice—but still very arrogant, as if he’s better than everyone else.
When the Chinese Restaurant he lived above was destroyed, James found his large family (including Sirius) a place to live. This was a house and it was at this time that James acknowledged the true greatness of Harry’s girlfriend. Meaning: she, too, had red hair. He did know of the Oedipus connotations, but James is the type to acknowledge something internally but not say anything externally.
He helped Harry defeat Voldemort to an extent and he is currently forcing Harry (and it seems, through him, his best friend, Ron Weasley) to get a job and become social. After all, James was very social in school. It makes sense that Harry would be, too.
For the record: James loves Lily. Only Lily.
Player Information
James is played by Alison at brashly.
