going stag

Lily can’t keep the joy from her face as she takes in the sight of the now-familiar castle rising into the skyline. Home, she finds herself thinking, finally. Not that she’s ever been the type of person to resent the summer holidays and spend every waking minute counting down the days until she could get back to Hogwarts, but Petunua had been as hostile as ever this year, and a certain person’s presencse was noticably absent to soften the blow. 

Shaking her head, she resolves not to think about her failed friendship with Severus. She looks down momentarily to straighten the Prefect’s badge on her uniform, and nearly collides into someone else entering the Great Hall. “Oh!” she says in surprise, managing not to knock the person completely flat over. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there!”

James had been, to his surprise, one of the first few people to enter the Great Hall, which meant he was left alone at the Gryffindor table, stretching his neck over the hordes of students, searching for a certain redhead he had been itching to speak to ever since the end of last year. He had resisted the urge to send her an owl over the summer, because he wanted to discuss the “Snivellus” Snape incident in person. 

When he caught a glimpse of the familiar, shiny red hair above a group of overwhelmed second years, he immediately stood up and made his way over to her. Before reaching the end of the table, he stumbled through a group of fourth year girls, who bombarded him with giggly statements like “Hiii, James,” and “Can’t wait to watch you on the field this year.” 

“Hi, uh, thanks,” James said sharply, shifting his eyes back to the door and losing Evans’s whereabouts. Damn, James thought, before turning around in defeat and running straight into someone’s elbow. He turned his neck, laying eyes on the Lily Evans. “H-Hey, Evans.” This was the part where James was supposed to be smooth as ice. Unfortunately, the sight of Lily’s breathtaking face, well, for lack of a better phrase, took his breath away. “H-How was your summer?” He started massaging the nape of his neck as he stared into her bright, green eyes. 

JAMES POTTER II SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD II GRYFFINDOR II SIXTH YEAR

“Bravery is being the only one that knows you are afraid.” - Franklin P. Jones

↳ BIOGRAPHY: 

Charming, handsome, and a Quidditch star, James Potter is the stuff of legends. Hogwarts legends, at least. James grew up in a rather lavish lifestyle, never really wanting for anything. His parents were very affectionate and very present, constantly doting on him. The second he could walk, his father bought him a toy broomstick. As soon as his hand didn’t shake, his mother put a quill in his hand and taught him how to write. His bedroom was decorated gold and scarlet the second that his mother found out she carried a child. It was a given that James would attend Hogwarts when he turned eleven, and it was almost as sure that the Sorting Hat would call out “Gryffindor” when placed upon his head. James was incredibly proud to carry on the Gryffindor legacy of his parents and he probably would have sat on the stool all day if it had dared to call out a different house.

On his first trip on the Hogwarts Express, James found himself in a compartment with two other boys his age. The first was one James had heard of before - Sirius Black. The Blacks, like the Potters, were one of the Sacred 28 Pureblood Families. However, where the Potters were nearly always placed in Gryffindor, the Blacks were always sorted Slytherin. James had grown up trained to wrinkle his nose at the thought of cruel, blood-purist Slytherins, and he might have left the compartment if it wasn’t the only one with seats left. As it was, James was forced to give Sirius a chance, and thank Merlin he did. Sirius was nothing like the Blacks James’ father spoke of. He scoffed at the notion of blood purity - though it should have been ingrained in him - and, like James, he told the two boys all about how he wished to be sorted into Gryffindor. 

The other boy was certainly more timid than the first two, and at first James doubted that he’d ever see Peter Pettigrew after the train ride. But the smaller boy spoke of adventure and Quidditch and dreams of being in Gryffindor almost as adamantly as the others, and the three became fast friends. Not an hour after they stepped off the train, the three sat across from each other at Gryffindor table, and James knew they were now inseparable. 

Their little group, however, was incomplete until joined by one of their roommates - and resident brainiac - Remus Lupin.  The four boys started to call themselves “The Marauders” and before the end of their second year, they were the most talked about people at Hogwarts. That same year the boys found out a life changing secret about the final Marauder. James, Sirius, and Peter often wondered why Remus missed so much class, especially when he was the one who enjoyed it the most, and spent so much time in the infirmary. It didn’t take long for them to put together the clues and confront their friend. Of course, Remus denied being a werewolf with a petrified look on his face. His three friends quickly calmed him though, they were a team and one little hairy situation wasn’t going to come between them. 

James couldn’t just sit around and watch his friend go through this every month, so the boys spent all their free time (and class time) researching animagi and before long they were running beside their friend as a rat, a dog, and a stag. This only grew the bond between the boys and they started to feel more like brothers than friends. Though he dearly loves each of his friends, if pressed, James would say that Sirius was his best friend. This was further solidified in their fourth year when life at the Black house finally became too unbearable and James’ mother welcomed Sirius into the Potter home. 

In truth, it was never difficult for James to attract female attention. He was good looking, he was athletic, he was mischievous, and he was popular. These combined to be something that made nearly every girl at Hogwarts eye him as he walked down the hall. Unfortunately for him, and the other girls, the one person he was interested in seemed unaffected by these charms. The second her name was called at the sorting ceremony their first year, James’ vision became pretty Lily Evans centric. At first, she was just the prettiest face in a sea of pretty faces. Then, she became a challenge. A girl who didn’t fall at his feet, who didn’t care who he was, who insulted him at every turn and rejected his every advance. Over time though, she became more than just a pretty face or a challenge. Lily was one of the kindest people James had ever met, she was brilliant beyond her years, rivaling the likes of Remus, and - when he wasn’t vying for her attention and she wasn’t hanging out with Slytherins - they truly had some good conversations. 

However, there was one very big Slytherin shadow hanging over them, by the name of Severus Snape. On principle, James wouldn’t have liked Snape anyway. He was in the wrong house, he hung out with the wrong people, and he didn’t seem to know what shampoo was. But his real flaw was that he’d been friends with Lily Evans since before she even knew she was a witch. James wasn’t sure why Lily couldn’t see that Snape hung out with blood purists and was clearly only talking to Lily because he was in love with her. This became the biggest struggle in James’ fight to win Lily over. The pranks, insults, and occasional hex thrown Snape’s way always gained him a glare from the redhead and he could practically feel himself sinking lower in her good graces. Eventually, things with Snape went too far, and his friendship with Lily ended. It’s clearly a sore spot with Lily, and James would give anything to see Snape pay for the glassy look Lily gets over her eyes whenever the word “mudblood” is uttered.

Luckily for him, Lily’s other friends don’t seem to have the same disdain for him as she does. He’s always gotten along with Dorcas Meadowes, who seems to have a certain way with the Marauders that the other girls in Hogwarts haven’t yet mastered. As far as witches go, however, he’s closest to Marlene McKinnon, another of Lily’s inner circle. Marlene, a fellow Gryffindor Chaser, is the only person James can’t fly circles around on the Quidditch field, Quidditch being James’ truest passion. Even if it weren’t for the Marauders, James would be well known at Hogwarts as the star and Captain of his quidditch team. Likely, he’d be welcomed onto his choice of a professional team when he graduates, but he’d have to turn them all down. Secretly, James has wanted to be an auror since he read about one in the Daily Prophet when he was seven and realized how much he could help people. He’s worked exceedingly hard to improve his grades, though he wouldn’t let his fellow students catch onto this.

↳ CHARACTER STATS:

✗ Blood Status → Pure-Blood ✗ Family → N/A ✗ Friends → Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes, Mary MacDonald, Lily Evans, Molly Prewett, Aditya Patil  ✗ School Functions → Captain and Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Dueling Club ✗ Future Information → Father of Harry Potter, Husband of Lily Evans, Member of the Order of the Phoenix ✗ Face Claim → Alex Fitzalan