James Potter I

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

- James Potter stands between Lord Voldemort and his family

James Potter (March 27, 1960 - October 31, 1981) was the father of Harry Potter. A talented and mischievous wizard, James was a popular student during his time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with his close friends, who together called themselves The Marauders. They all fought in the First Wizarding War as members of the Order of the Phoenix. James married his childhood sweetheart Lily Evans, and both Potters were murdered when trying to protect their son Harry from Lord Voldemort.

Childhood
James Potter was born into a pure-blood wizarding family of considerable wealth. Both his parents were elderly, even by wizarding standards, and both died under normal circumstances when he was around twenty. Because he was their only child, arriving later in life, James' parents pampered him a great deal, so he grew to be arrogant, boastful and proud, but inside a good person.

Hogwarts Years
James started to attend Hogwarts in 1971 and was sorted into Gryffindor house. While there, he befriended Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, and together they called themselves the Marauders.

Though more mischievous than diligent, James was a very bright student. He had great talent on the Quidditch pitch as a Chaser for his house team, and he knew it. He was something of an obnoxious youth for the majority of his time at school; he liked to show off and was exceptionally self-confident. He habitually ruffled his hair to make it even untidier, to look as though he'd just got off his broomstick.

James had a habit of hexing innocent students for no other reason than because he could, especially Severus Snape, a Slytherin in the same year. James and Snape had a strong rivalry throughout their time at Hogwarts. Remus and Sirius later said that 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, James and Sirius insulted Snape from the moment they met him in their first year on the Hogwarts Express. 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.

James spent the majority of his academic career chasing after Lily Evans, a fellow Gryffindor. Lily was perhaps the only student in the school, aside from Snape, who was completely unimpressed by James, considering him arrogant and obnoxious. He repeatedly made a fool of himself while she was around, trying to show off. Snape's friendship with the vivacious and pretty Lily may have sparked jealousy in James and may have fueled their emnity.

Animagus
"Sometimes you remind me a lot of James. He called it my ‘furry little problem’ in company. Many people were under the impression that I owned a badly behaved rabbit."

- Remus on James' attitude towards his lycanthropy

As second years, James, Sirius and Peter figured out that Remus was a werewolf. Rather than abandoning him (James in particular insisted this monthly hazard didn't 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."

In the Marauders' fifth year, Snape saw Madam Pomfrey and Remus going to the Shrieking Shack using a secret passage under the Whomping Willow. Snape was very interested in where Remus went every month, and Sirius told him that the trick to getting past the Whomping Willow was to poke the knot at the bottom. Snape followed Sirius' 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 a werewolf. Snape, however, always believed that James only saved him in order to avoid expulsion.

At the age of sixteen, James' 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 his seventh year, James had lost the less savory aspects of his personality and was even appointed Head Boy despite the fact that he hadn't been a prefect. He also finally managed to impress Lily Evans and began dating her at this time. He stopped hexing bystanders for fun, the exception being Snape, who in turn never lost an opportunity to hex James.

First Wizarding War
"…I think you’re like James, who would have regarded it as the height of dishonour to mistrust his friends."

- Remus Lupin to Harry Potter

After graduation, James married Lily, and Sirius was best man at the wedding. The three of them, along with Remus and Peter, joined the Order of the Phoenix in the fight against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. In 1977, he and Sirius were involved in a motorbike chase with two policemen. Although the chase started off as a bit of fun, it turned slightly more serious when the pair were attacked by three men on broomsticks. Sirius and James used their wands to raise the police car that had been chasing them, and the their attackers crashed into it. During the course of the next three years, James and Lily defied the Dark Lord three times as the conflict continued. James inherited vast fortunes from his rich parents, and was able to comfortably support his family without the need for a paying job. James also used his wealth to support Remus Lupin, who was unemployable due to his status as a Werewolf.

On July 31, 1980, Lily gave birth to their son Harry James Potter, but it wasn't long before Albus Dumbledore found out that they were in danger. Young Harry had become a target of Lord Voldemort because of a prophecy concerning the one who could ultimately defeat the Dark Lord. Voldemort himself would learn of the propecy through his follower and an old enemy of James, Severus Snape. In October 1981, Dumbledore told the Potters that their best chance of remaining safe against Voldemort was the Fidelius Charm. James insisted on using Sirius as their Secret-Keeper, even though Dumbledore offered to fill the position.

Hiding and Death
"It's been fourteen years, and still not a day goes by that I don't miss your dad."

- Sirius Black to Harry Potter.

Sirius, however, had a different plan. He convinced James and Lily to use Peter as their Secret-Keeper, with Sirius as a decoy. They agreed and the charm was cast in secret, but this attempt at a double-bluff ended in tragedy. The only people to know about the switch were James, Lily, Sirius and Peter; even Dumbledore and Lupin were kept in the dark. Less than a week later, Peter betrayed Lily and James to Voldemort.

When the Dark Lord arrived at Godric's Hollow, James told Lily to take Harry and run, and stood to face the darkest wizard in a century on his own in order to give his wife and child time to escape, but leaving his wand in the living room where he had been entertaining his young son with it. Voldemort murdered him with the Killing Curse.

Post-Mortem
After James and Lily's death, their son was raised by Lily's unloving sister, Petunia Dursley, and her grumpy husband, along with their glutton of a son. Despite not remembering his parents, Harry held them in great esteem. This faltered slightly where his father was concerned when he learned that James had been something of a bully in his youth, witnessing a memory of Severus Snape's in which James and Sirius picked on and humiliated Snape simply because they were bored. Snape, who switched sides after Lily's death and became Potions professor at Hogwarts, treated Harry with disdain throughout his academic career, perceiving him to be "arrogant as his father, a determined rule-breaker...attention-seeking and impertinent".

Harry saw a vision of his parents in the Mirror of Erised and as spectral forms during Priori Incantatem with Voldemort in 1995 and through the Resurrection Stone in 1998. He eventually named his oldest child after his father.

James would also become a father-in-law to Ginny Weasley and a grandfather of James Sirius, Albus Severus and Lily Luna Potter.

Personality and Traits
James was a tall, thin boy with untidy black hair and hazel eyes framed by glasses; his son Harry was noted to look very much like him, but with the same shape and colour eyes as his mother.

James was a clever and talented wizard, but very mischievous when he was younger. He could be arrogant and boastful, and even bullied other students on occasion, particularly long-time rival Severus Snape. However, he ultimately grew out of this, becoming enough of a responsible student and leader to be Head Boy in his final year, and later a member of the Order of the Phoenix, though he never entirely lost his rebellious side. James died bravely sacrificing himself for his family.

Lily Evans
James' relationship with Lily Evans was initially a rocky one. While James was a popular student, well-liked by most, Lily was unimpressed with him; this likely had a great deal to do with James' hostile relationship with her closest friend, Severus Snape. James developed romantic feelings for Lily by his fifth year, always going out of his way and making a fool out of himself to try to impress her, but Lily still regarded him as an arrogant bully. In their seventh year, however, James was Head Boy to Lily's Head Girl, indicating that he was not as egotistical and more mature, and the two began dating. Their marriage followed soon after graduation, and their son Harry was born in 1980.

The Marauders


While at Hogwarts, James gained best friends in Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, and the group called themselves "The Marauders". He met Sirius on the Hogwarts Express in their first year, and they seemed to bond quickly. In their second year, when the group discovered that Remus was a werewolf, they refused to ostracize him, as most would, instead learning to become Animagi in order to keep him company during his transformations. James insisted that Remus was not abnormal because of his condition, and later used his wealth to support Remus when anti-werewolf legislation made it difficult for him to get a job. The four friends enjoyed great popularity while at school, and particularly liked playing pranks together; they also invented the Marauders' Map and all joined the Order of the Phoenix after graduating from Hogwarts.

Although he was very close to all of his friends, James was probably closest to Sirius, whom he chose to be his best man at his wedding to Lily as well as his son's godfather. When the Potters became Lord Voldemort's targets in 1981, James was adamant about Sirius being their Secret-Keeper, though he agreed to Sirius's plan to make Peter the Secret-Keeper instead to throw off the enemy. James' unshakable trust in his friends would be his undoing, as Pettigrew betrayed James, Lily and Harry to Voldemort, something Sirius and Remus later attempted to kill him for.

Severus Snape
James met Severus Snape on the train ride towards their first year at Hogwarts, and the two immediately got off on the wrong foot. James scoffed at Snape's desire that he and Lily Evans would be Sorted into Slytherin house, while Snape sneered at James' hope that he would follow his father's footsteps and end up in Gryffindor. He and Sirius bestowed the mocking nickname of "Snivellus" on Snape at this first meeting.

This enmity would continue for the rest of their school years, and, on Snape's part, well after James' death. According to Sirius, Snape envied James' popularity and Quidditch abilities and always tried to get him and his friends in trouble, while James despised Snape's fascination with the Dark Arts. The fact that both wizards were in love with Lily Evans also likely played a role in their animosity. Although James disliked and even outright bullied Snape at times, he also risked his life to save Snape when Sirius played a potentially lethal prank on him by sending him to the Shrieking Shack when Remus Lupin was there transforming. Snape despised being in James' debt and felt, even twenty year later, that James only saved him to avoid expulsion. Most of his dislike of James' son was motivated by seeing his old rival in Harry.

Behind the scenes

 * There has been some confusion about whether James played Seeker or Chaser (the books say Chaser, but the movies say Seeker), but in the second Scholastic interview, J. K. Rowling confirmed he was indeed a Chaser. It is possible he could have played both in different years, seeing as he was mentioned to have been playing with a stolen Golden Snitch in Chapter 28 of Order of the Phoenix.
 * The name James is derived from the Hebrew name Jacob, meaning "grasps by the heel"; the Biblical Jacob was born grasping his brother's heel, symbolically his birthright. Many kings and nobles of England and Scotland have been named James.
 * To date, the Harry Potter Prequel is the only story to feature James while he was alive. All other appearances have either been as a ghost or as a flashback.
 * There has been some speculation that James parents were Charlus Potter and Dorea Black, who appear on the Black family tree and are said to have had one son, though it has never been confirmed. If they were his parents, this would make James' best friend Sirius Black his first cousin once removed. It would also mean that Harry and his friend and wife Ron and Ginny Weasley, respectively, are third cousins.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter Prequel
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Notes and references
James Potter (Sr.) James Potter