paradisa application
NAME: Taryn
JOURNAL: buries
EMAIL: wheresthepillow@gmail.com
AIM: wheresthepillow
WIKI NAME: buries
CHARACTERS: Piper Halliwell (moleculars)
CHARACTER NAME: James Potter
FANDOM: Harry Potter (book)
CANON: Right after Voldemort attacks and kills James. :’(
WHAT THEY LOST:
Memories of his family. He won't remember marrying Lily or having Harry. I chose this because I believe that this is one of James’ happiest moments (and I’m rather cruel). I think family is important to him - as he builds his own extension of family with his best friends at Hogwarts - and that he sacrifices a lot for them. Despite the fact that the notion of family isn’t stated specifically as one of the things James values the most, I think it can be said in his actions and choices. I think that they ground him very much.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER:
James Potter is a Pureblood wizard - meaning both his parents are wizards and he comes from a line of wizards. He’s an only child of wealthy and elderly parents (whose names are unknown). He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and was Sorted into the house of Gryffindor - the house known for its courage and bravery. And he’s the father of The Boy Who Lived - Harry Potter. This last bit, however, comes at a sacrifice on James’ part. He dies at the age of twenty-one in 1981 with his wife. (His death isn’t exactly a sacrifice - it’s Lily’s love and choice to die for her son that gives Harry that title. James’ sacrifice can be seen as him not choosing to side with Voldemort’s campaign - that the Wizarding World should rid itself of Muggleborns and Halfbloods. He defied this message by loving Lily Evans and befriending Remus Lupin, a werewolf.)
For seven years at school, James would earn a reputation as a troublemaker. He had three friends - Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew - who were dubbed as the ‘Marauders’ for their mischief. He inherited an Invisibility Cloak (which would later be recognised as an actual Deathly Hallow) which assisted James in his troublemaking. During his early years of growing up, James was rather cocky and cruel, as seen with his torment of fellow classmate and Slytherin, Severus Snape. An example of his bullying his the nickname he branded him, “Snivellus”. Nonetheless, he was a popular student. He played the position of Chaser in the Gryffindor Quidditch team; James can be quite a showoff.
James is a loyal friend. When he found out that Remus was a werewolf, he, Sirius and Peter taught themselves how to become Animagi - to be able to transform into animals - in order to join Remus during the full moon where he turned into a werewolf. This was successful in Fifth Year. James is considered to be an illegal Animagi as he is not on the registration list at the Ministry of Magic. By turning into Animagi, the three were able to tame Remus and keep him preoccupied so that he didn’t wander into Hogsmeade and hurt anyone. As his Animagus form was a stag, he earned himself the nickname ‘Prongs’.
As he is an only child, he formed a close relationship with Sirius Black. Sirius would eventually come to live with the Potters during the remaining school years. Along with these three boys, James was a creator of the Marauder’s Map. This map showed the location of everyone at Hogwarts. This proved rather useful for sneaking out of the castle and avoiding the caretaker, Mr Filch, and his cat, Mrs Norris.
Despite his dislike and bullying ways towards Severus, James saved his life in Sixth Year after Sirius decided to play a prank on Severus by sending him to where Lupin, in werewolf form, was hiding out in the Shrieking Shack. James intervened and saved Severus’ life, as it was most likely that Remus, as a werewolf, would’ve killed him.
James was infatuated with Lily Evans, a fellow Gryffindor who happened to be Muggleborn. Despite blood prejudice, James pursued Lily Evans and eventually married her a year after their graduation. However, this pursuit was not easy. Lily rejected his advances and even called him an “arrogant bullying toerag” (albeit, this particular statement was not to his face). After he lost some ego in Seventh Year, Lily turned around. They soon began dating sometime during this year.
James was Head Boy and a Prefect, showing his intelligence. His best class was Transfiguration, evident by his success at becoming an Animagus.
After graduating from Hogwarts, James proved his loyalty to Albus Dumbledore and became a fulltime member of the Order of the Phoenix. The Order fought against Voldemort’s campaign to rid the Wizarding World of Muggleborns and keep the Purebloods from marrying and creating families with them, in other words, to stop the Wizarding World from ‘tainting’ itself. With Lily, James defied Voldemort three times. (What three times are, however, not specified within the series.)
A prophecy by Sybill Trelawney marked James’ son the death of Voldemort. This was the catalyst for Voldemort coming after the Potters. Thus, James and Lily went into hiding in a cottage at Godric’s Hollow. They hid using the Fidelius Charm, which required a Secret Keeper (who was to know their location). Instead of going with Sirius, the Potters changed their minds at the last minute to Peter. However, Peter betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort, who found the couple and murdered them. James was the first to die; he went to distract Voldemort and allow Lily enough time to run and save Harry. He was murdered using the Killing Curse.
James has a habit of running his hand through his hair as though to give himself the appearance of just having stepped off a broom. He wears glasses; has thick, black hair that has a life of its own. His hair becomes a defining trait of his.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
James slipped his hand into his front pocket and pulled out a tiny piece of folded parchment. Unfolding it, he grabbed his wand from his back pocket and tapped the blank parchment. “I solemnly swear I’m up to no good,” he whispered. He pulled away his wand, waiting for the ink to slowly rise up onto the paper, swirl and take shape to form the opening line of the Marauder’s Map - the greeting from Messers Prongs, Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail.
It never came.
James stopped walking the castle corridor, and tapped the parchment again, as though knocking once more on a door that went deliberately unanswered. “I solemnly swear I’m up to no good,” he said a bit louder, and he tapped the parchment three times after he spoke.
Still, the ink did not rise and form the words of greeting.
“For Merlin’s sake, Padfoot. You stole the ruddy Map when it was my turn,” he frowned, glaring at the map as though that simple gesture will make it bounce into life. It didn’t.
He smacked his wand against the parchment several times, punctuating “I solemnly swear I’m up to no good” against it. Usually, when Sirius stole the Map, the replacement would form a message such as ‘Eat Flobberworms, Prongs!’ He unfolded the parchment to see if the castle map - which was usually replaced with a rude drawing by Sirius - was there at all. It was blank. This was peculiar and strange.
Heart pounding, James folded the parchment, gripping it tightly that it started to crease, and held his wand out. Constant vigilance Mad-Eye Moody had told him, and that was what he was going to do. With his back straight, hair a mess, and wand ready for a duel, James stalked down the corridor that was reminiscent of Hogwarts, but held no warmth or ghostly life.
Once he had managed to travel the entire length of the corridor, James had determined that this castle shared no resemblance to the one he had spent seven years growing up in. “Goodbye, you ruddy castle,” and with that, he spun on the spot, closed his eyes, and thought of Godric’s Hollow and Lily Evans-
-And opened his eyes to see the same blank wall staring back at him.
“Well, at least I haven’t appeared to splinch myself.”
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
You know what, mate? I may have a reputation for mischief, but it doesn’t mean I am the creator of all mischief. Lily blames me for the lounge falling to bits. I did nothing to the bloody lounge. It was all Padfoot. [sighs] I get blamed for bloody everything around here. The future missus blames me for the door of the Head Boy and Girls’ common room for being stuck. Moony blames me for his losing at chess - it isn’t my fault he sucks at it - and Padfoot’s pissy at me for not wanting to sneak out last night. Sometimes, mate, homework may come before the mischief. And it isn’t my fault that Miss Evans was around and I was trying to impress her.
Being Head Boy sure is hard when you’ve got everybody up your ruddy arse for things you haven’t done. McGonagall’s got it out for me, too. For some reason, she thinks some charm that caused all the parchment to fold into birds and fly around the classroom was my fault. I’m not that great at charms … and I hate birds.
You know what? Stuff it. I think I might go catch Padfoot before he makes his way to Zonko’s without me. [grabs the Map. Clearing his throat] I solemnly swear I’m up to no good.
INTENT:
James and Lily’s fates slay me. They die at the young age of twenty-one. I quite like James and the notion of his character growth - from immature swine to this loyal, confident man who sacrifices everything for his family. He’s a Pureblood who can quite easily fall into the ranks of Voldemort but chooses not to. He hates Snape but he saves him from a gruesome fate in Sixth Year. He trusts his friends - not just Sirius - and puts his faith in Peter Pettigrew who doesn’t deserve it. Despite James’ cocky nature in the Pensieve flashbacks in the books, I find him so intriguing and so interesting because of what we see and don’t see in the series. We see this cocky, immature boy in the books, and we hear about this mature man who grew out of that and became the man Lily Evans could actually see herself with. I love character growth like that and I find it even more interesting that it happened in such a short space of time (from, for example, fifteen to twenty-one).
In Paradisa, I want to give him a life. He died at twenty-one and never got to experience life and see what fighting for his cause would really do. And he never got to experience life after the War. He never got to experience life without War. I think I want to pursue CR and just have James live a little without his family as well without the War with Voldemort. Let him breathe a bit, find his way on his own, and maybe have some fun.