Potter family

The Potters are an old wizarding family. They were once pure-bloods, but James Potter married Muggle-born witch Lily Evans, thus their son Harry and his three children are half-bloods.

Recent Generations of Potters
James Potter I was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Potter. They may be Charlus Potter and Dorea Potter née Black, although, alternatively, these individuals may have been relatives of James' parents. James and Lily Potter had one child, Harry Potter, who famously defeated Lord Voldemort. He eventually married Ginny Weasley, and they had three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna Potter.

The Potters are related to the pure-blood Black and Weasley families, as well as the Muggle Dursley family.

Family Tree
It is unknown who James Potter's parents were. They may, however, be Charlus Potter and Dorea Black, who are shown to have had one son on the Black family tapestry. J.K. Rowling has said that James' parents were older when they had him, and Dorea would have been forty years old when she had a child if James was her son. However, Rowling has also said that the Potters died of natural causes when they were old in wizarding terms, but Dorea Potter was only fifty-seven years old when she died.

If Charlus and Dorea Potter were James' parents, James and his best friend Sirius Black would have been first cousins, once removed. Harry and Sirius, his godfather, would have been second cousins. Also, Harry's friend and wife Ron and Ginny Weasley would be his third cousins. Harry would also be related, albeit distantly, to the Malfoys, Longbottoms, and Lestranges.

First Wizarding War
Harry Potter was born during the height of the First Wizarding War. His parents belonged to the Order of the Phoenix, an organisation created for wizards who wanted to battle Lord Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters. This organization was created and led by Albus Dumbledore. In 1981 Dumbledore witnessed a prophecy made by Sybill Trelawney that predicted that a child with the power to defeat the Dark Lord would be born to parents who had defied him three time "as the seventh month dies". Voldemort was told part of the prophecy by Severus Snape, who had been caught outside the door after the prophecy was heard. Although both Harry and Neville Longbottom matched the description, Voldemort went after Harry, resolving to kill him. The Potters went into hiding through use of the Fidelius Charm, first choosing their close friend Sirius Black as Secret-Keeper, but persuaded by him to use Peter Pettigrew instead. Pettigrew betrayed the Potters to Voldemort, who attached the family in Godric's Hollow on Halloween night. Voldemort killed James and then Lily with the Killing Curse, but he first gave Lily the opportunity to save herself, at the request of Snape, who had been in love with Lily for years. When she refused, Voldemort killed her, unknowingly invoking ancient magic that protected Harry when Voldemort then attempted to murder him. The Killing Curse rebounded, leaving Harry the only known survivor and Voldemort temporarily defeated.

Sirius soon discovered what had happened and pursued Pettigrew, who faked his own death and escaped. Sirius was imprisoned in Azkaban for Pettigrew's crimes. Harry, who became known as The Boy Who Lived for his miraculous survival, was taken in by his mother's sister and her husband, Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Harry was raised in the Muggle world by the Dursley, who treated him poorly and never told him about his wizarding heritage. Because they were blood relatives of his mother, however, Harry benefitted from magical protections as long as 4 Privet Drive was his home.

Second Wizarding War
Despite his relatives' efforts to force him to be "normal", Harry was a wizard, and was informed of this fact by Rubeus Hagrid when it came time for him to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1991. He entered the wizarding world, learned his family's history, and once again became a target of Lord Voldemort, who was still alive but in non-corporeal form and seeking to return to power. Voldemort's inability to touch Harry, due to the lingering protection from his late mother, continued all the way up to his resurrection in 1995. Professor Quirrell, acting as host to Voldemort's soul, attempted to attack Harry to gain the Philosopher's Stone in 1992, but was prevented from stealing the Stone when he came into contact with Harry's skin, leaving Voldemort forced to return to his non-corporeal state.

Voldemort eventually overcame this by using Harry's blood to regenerate his own body in 1995. Unbeknownst to Voldemort, this act also anchored Harry's life to his own. This was brought to light when Harry and Voldemort had their final confrontation in 1998. Harry had spent almost a year destroying Voldemort's Horcruxes with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, only to discover during the Battle of Hogwarts that he himself was a Horcrux Voldemort made accidentally that fateful Halloween night in 1981. Harry willingly stood before Voldemort and was struck with the Killing Curse. Because of this, the part of Voldemort's soul within him was destroyed. Because Voldemort had taken some of Harry's blood -- and thus Lily's blood, with its magical protections for Harry -- within himself, Harry survived the Killing Curse for a second time.

The two dueled one last time, and Harry defeated Voldemort once and for all.

After the War
After the end of the Second Wizarding War, Harry Potter became an Auror and married Ginny Weasley. The couple had three children, and thus a new generation of Potters was born into a more peaceful world.

Family Heirloom
The Potters descend from Ignotus Peverell, whose Invisibility Cloak was passed on from generation to generation until it reached Harry Potter, who discovered that it was one of the Deathly Hallows. Harry temporarily became the "Master of Death" in 1998, as was in possession of the Invisibility Cloak, the Resurrection Stone, and the Elder Wand. The last item's loyalty to Harry was crucial to his defeat of Lord Voldemort, as the Elder Wand refused to harm its true owner and caused Voldemort's Killing Curse to backfire. Of the three Hallows, Harry only kept the Invisibility Cloak for himself, as it is rightfully his.

Through the Peverells, Harry and Voldemort are distantly related, as the Gaunt family descended from Cadmus Peverell, who passed the Resurrection Stone to his descendants in a ring.

Notes and References
Famille Potter