James Potter

Disclaimer: Disclaimer is at the bottom this time.

A.N.: Today it is my best friend's birthday. Although we tend to agree on everything, the one thing we have always agreed on is our love for James Potter. Happy birthday, Dan! I wish you all the best, today and forever, because you deserve it! I love you! ;D

Please, leave him a 'Harry birthday' on a review. Oh, and I'm sorry this isn't betaed... I'll do it eventually.

If there's one thing that most people can agree about James Potter, it is the fact that he had an excellent childhood. I guess even James himself would agree on that, on the risk of being called arrogant for the nth time. It makes it all much more believable if we compare his childhood to the others that we have any knowledge of. Harry grew up mistreated and without love, Sirius hated his own family (the feeling was apparently mutual), Remus was afflicted by Lycanthropy, Ron was continuously shadowed by his brothers and sister, Snape had to deal with an abusive father and Neville had to deal with his grandma's expectations and his parents' condition.

But James' childhood wasn't exactly perfect. It was just... better than the rotten ones we saw.

His parents had him when they were older. Okay, it is easy to say that, but can you actually see the complications created by that? When you have older parents, things work on a different pace. First and foremost, James was said to be a small miracle, considering his parents' ages. But, if that was to be considered a miracle, it's safe to say that they had tried before, right? Most couples who have their only child when they are a bit advanced in age did try before, but sadly didn't manage to do so. It's actually sad to think of couples who don't have the same luck as the Potters, who kept trying but didn't manage to do it before the biological sand on their hourglass ended.

So, when James was born, he was loved. Man, was he adored by his parents! I mean, even if they had loads of gold, excellent careers and a powerful family name, none of those would allow them to have a piece of them glued together, a token of their love for each other. So James was the gift they got late in their lives, when they had nothing more to conquer but him.

The first thing James was taught was love. The first thing he was given was love, and love was the first thing he learned. He was taught that family means love, and love means sticking together, helping each other and believing in each other.

Elderly parents are able to show love much more easily. It's probably an experience thing, if we pay attention to the fact that grandparents normally shower their grandchildren with love. That doesn't mean that James' mum did not educate him. In fact, much the contrary, James was taught to be respectful, principally considering the name he carried. Pureblooded families, no matter how light or dark, cared a lot about this.

The thing is, elderly parents don't have as much time or patience to children's antics. And let us not forget that this is James Potter we are talking about. The kid must have been hyper! And, considering the size of the Potter family, James didn't have cousins to play with, probably. And, as his parents were quite old when they had him, their friends' children were either finishing Hogwarts or getting married when James was still a child.

That means that James spent a lot of time alone when he was growing up, his only companions being the elves or his parents, when they could be around. He craved for the attention of someone closer to his age, someone to play with, but there wasn't anybody. He grew up without really knowing the things we learn after we have friends, such as how it is sometimes easier to just listen and not reply, or how to try not to be too hasty when dealing with others. Younger parents would teach their children such things, but older parents simply forgot they weren't born with this little pieces of information. So, not learning those made James naïve, it made him childish when dealing with others.

James spent so much time alone that his parents became his only escape from the solitude he lived in. So, he admired his parents, his father was his hero and his mother was his everything. He heard every single story they told him, rapidly storing them as a means to try to be closer to his parents, to try to be like his parents. One thing we can agree is that Gryffindors are a proud bunch. James' father told him all that being a Gryffindor meant, and that's why James had such a high concept of the 'Hogwartian lions'. On the other hand, his parents taught him their view of the world. The view of what's right and what's wrong. They told him about Voldemort and his followers. And their former school house.

So, on a naïve boy's head, things became black and white. You either want to be good, or you choose to be bad. It doesn't really mean that James was prejudiced, it just means that, once the person voiced their expectations, this person ended up in one of two the categories. But James gave them the benefit of doubt, that much is true. How would he have kept Sirius' company during the first journey to Hogwarts if he didn't? But when someone voiced their expectations to become a Slytherin (and you know about whom I'm talking), James concluded their choice was clear. And their mockery towards what James believed to be plight of goodness only closed the case.

Going to Hogwarts propitiated the human contact that James craved for so deeply. He finally had friends, the best friends ever, Sirius, Remus and Peter. They did everything together, and James was finally able to let his childish side shine, blending in with Sirius' need to be a bad boy, Remus' need to fit in and Peter's need to... follow somebody, really.

James was not disrespectful to his professors. He might have been cheeky a couple of times, but he never kept on his act, and he apologized if necessary. Sirius didn't care about their professors' opinions, but he cared about James', so he also didn't go too far. Remus was too grateful for the opportunity to be at Hogwarts to be cheeky. Peter lacked the balls to do it.

One might think that the professors at Hogwarts didn't like the Marauders, but that's quite the opposite. They were fun students who, despite their antics in and out of the classroom, cared about their professors' opinions and actually listened to them. They were sincere, if they thought something, they made sure their opinions were heard, but respectfully. When you are used to teenagers who act as if they cared in front of you just to say terrible things behind your back (normal stuff, who doesn't do it?), the Marauders were a nice change. Not to mention they (minus Peter) were top five in basically every subject, often competing amongst themselves.

James was a lively student who liked to participate a lot. He was never scared of performing the spells when their professor wanted someone to demonstrate in front of the class. He (much like Remus) had the amazing ability of having whispered conversations with his friends and still listen to whatever their professor was saying. This saved Sirius and Peter quite a few times, by the way.

He was, hands down, the best student at Transfiguration. He had always been the first one, and sometimes the only one, who managed to successfully transfigure things during their first practical class. McGonagall would never admit it to anybody, but he soon became one of her favourite students since she had started teaching at Hogwarts. He was also the best student at Ancient Runes and one of the best at Dueling and DADA, mainly because his father taught him quite a lot about them. He was also excellent at Charms, Arithmancy and History, subjects that his mother was proficient at. Not to say he was perfect, he sometimes had a hard time at Care of Magical Creature and at Herbology, as he had always been an indoor-raised child who only got to know the freedom of the woods once he was at Hogwarts, which made him not that interested in animals and plants. He was decent at Potions, but not as good as his future wife Lily and his rival Snape. He also didn't care much about Astronomy, using Sirius' knowledge to pass until the subject could be dropped.

Needless to say, he was a fantastic flier. He made it to the Gryffindor Quidditch team on his second year and became the Quidditch captain on his fourth. He got to the team as a chaser, but, during his fifth year, as he couldn't find a decent seeker, he played as seeker, putting another student to replace him. When he played as seeker, he managed to catch the snitch before the mark of half an hour of game, successfully getting the Trophy and a medal with his name. On the following year, as one of the chasers had finished Hogwarts and he managed to find a good seeker, he went back to the position he liked best.

James always cared a lot about his family and friends. In fact, he considered one part of the other. For him, it was the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends. But that didn't stop him from seeing when his friends were hiding, or even trying to hide something from him. The thing is, he never believed they were doing something bad, he almost always thought they needed help but didn't want to ask. James, being utterly curious, borderline nosy and extremely concerned about his friends, always managed to find out what was wrong.

He was the one who discovered Sirius curled up on his bed crying his heart out on their second day at Hogwarts. It took him seconds to make the math and discover that the Blacks had sent a letter to their oldest, and it wasn't congratulating him on making it to Gryffindor. Quite the contrary, in fact.

"Sirius?" he had said, his voice low even though there was nobody else there in their dormitory. It was during lunch, and first years tended to not try to go back to their common rooms during their first weeks out of fear of getting lost. James only went there because he saw the look on Sirius' face after breakfast and during the first classes. When James saw Sirius hadn't gone to the Great Hall to have lunch, he himself didn't get any food, making his way alone through the castle to find his friend. It was his luck that made Sirius head to the Gryffindor tower, otherwise he would never have found his new friend.

When Sirius heard James' voice, he moaned loudly, trying to hide his face under the pillow. He felt rather than listened when James opened the curtains around his bed.

James' heart broke when he saw the state of his new friend. It was the first time that James hated the Blacks, but it wasn't the last. He didn't say anything, he just sat on the bed, and, out of the lack of experience he had on comforting people, did the same thing his mother did when he had a nightmare: started rubbing his friend's back. He felt Sirius tense the moment his hand touched him, but that didn't stop James. He kept there, rubbing, until Sirius relaxed and started crying even more profusely. James was scared to hell, thinking that he had, somehow, made it all worse, but it was then that Sirius shifted, no longer caring how pathetic he would look, and threw himself on his new friends arm, soaking his chest with his tears within minutes.

It took Sirius more than one hour to calm down, and almost half an hour to feel up to going back to class, but James stayed there, holding his friend, who he had met the day before but felt like they had known each other their whole lives. Sadly, lunch break was long gone and they had missed most of the double classes they had after it. Even more sadly, it was their first classes of transfiguration, and McGonagall wanted to rip them apart for skipping classes on their first day. But it was then that Sirius deified James Potter and chose him to be his best friend forever.

The second friend that James noticed that was trying to hide something was Remus Lupin. The quiet boy lacked the confidence that James had extra. He barely ever spoke up unless asked to do so, even when it was just the four of them (the Marauders were the only boys in Gryffindor in their year). At first, James thought that his family had a somewhat poor health. There was always somebody sick! Then, he started feeling like the Lupins were just very unlucky, as Remus' pets and distant family members started dying. But on the last full moon before their holidays after their first year, he noticed that something was not right. After discussing the matter with Sirius when he went to Potter Manor to spend part of the holidays, they made a list of events that happened to Remus during their first year. The realisation was almost automatic. Almost one month apart exactly, always on the full moon.

Once again, James' heart broke into tiny pieces. His friend was a werewolf. He found a book on their library and read as much as he could about werewolves, and the description of how painful the transformations were made the little James cry himself to sleep afterwards. A boy who had been brought up covered with layers of love didn't understand, didn't accept good people like his friends suffering pain. When he arrived back at Hogwarts, he could barely look at Remus without feeling his heart crack painfully.

The confrontation came after the first full moon of their second year. They told him that they knew and since when they knew and Remus cried.

"I knew you wouldn't want anything to do with me if you found out." Remus had said between sobs. "James doesn't even look at me anymore!"

James felt like kicking himself. He sat on the bed and held his crying friend (do you see a pattern there?). He explained to Remus how painful it was to imagine him going through that, and how he was sorry for it, and how he was going to find something to make it better. At that, Remus stopped crying and looked at him with wide eyes. "Why?" he asked, his voice rough from crying.

"Because you're one of my best friends, silly!" James said with a teary smile. "And that's not going to change because of this... furry little problem of yours."

James and Sirius came up with the idea of learning how to become animaguses ('or is it animagi?' Sirius usually asked), and James spent the next three years learning how to transform himself into a stag, helping Sirius a little to become a dog and basically transforming Peter into a rat himself.

Of course James didn't have only good characteristics. Being considered one of the most handsome boys at Hogwarts, an excellent student, a funny and good friend and a top-notch Quidditch player made him cocky and a bit arrogant. He was proud of his achievements and his friends. He loved the attention he got from everybody and was over the moon when he found out some girls had create a fan club to him. He thought he could do no wrong, and that he could have everything he wanted. His spoilt childhood didn't help either, so, what James Potter wanted, James Potter got. There was just one thing, or rather, one person who proved him wrong: Lily Evans.

Lily Evans was a beautiful red-haired girl from Gryffindor. She studied with them and she was a muggleborn. And James had a crush on her from the first moment he looked at her. Sadly, she didn't like the overbearing boy at all. In fact, she acted as if she despised the boy, from his toes to the tip of his messy haired head. James didn't understand why she didn't like him. He tried to show her how good at Quidditch he was, how funny he could be, but she just looked at him with disdain.

At first, he thought it was a matter of time. Later, he thought it was because he wasn't trying hard enough, oblivious to the hard looks she gave him and to the slightly embarrassing situations he put her through. After fifth year, though, he concluded that the problem was him. Her words kept getting harsher and harsher, but he took them without letting them in too much. Unfortunately, there is a limited number of times that a person can be called nasty names before these names start affecting them.

What few people knew about James Potter was that, behind the whole arrogant and smug façade, he was insecure. Afraid that if he wasn't the best, nobody would even look at him twice and he would be left alone again, like he had spent the biggest part of his childhood. And his confidence in his looks wavered quite easily. Once, a girl told him his nose was a bit too pointy. He felt devastated, like no other girl would ever like him because his face was 'utterly asymmetric' (his words, not mine). Thankfully, a couple of weeks later another girl told him his nose was cute, and this nose insecurity was over.

When he was young, he used to feel sad because he didn't like his hazel eyes. He kept staring at his own eyes through a mirror, asking why he had such a dull colour for his eyes while his father, who looked almost like him but with different eyes, had blue eyes and his mother the characteristic grey eyes that her family had. His father had told him that his grandfather had had chocolate brown eyes, so he reckoned that's where hazel came from. This time, it was Sirius who told him that his eyes 'were quite beautiful, as if they belonged to a bird'. James wasn't so sure it was a good thing at first, but he chose to go with the underlying compliment.

He also didn't like the fact that his skin was milky white. After spending his whole childhood inside the Manor, James had little to no contact with the sun, as the times he actually played Quidditch were always either too early or too late for him to get sunlight, as he could only play before or after his dad's working hours. When he got to Hogwarts, he saw that, while the other boys got a tan after some time under the sun, he got red. Thankfully, the long hours at the greenhouses and playing Quidditch eventually gave him a healthier, more tanned look.

After being called a 'toe-rag' and a 'vermin' so many times by the girl he had come to discover he loved, he started to feel depressed. He loved her, he discovered so during his fourth year. Of course he went out with other girls, but it was only a couple of dates, at most, and it never went past a good snog. They weren't Lily, he thought. After fifth year, he didn't believe in himself anymore. The very few dates he had, stopped. He didn't want to try to get to her anymore because he felt she was too good for him. At first, he tried to, but after a while he couldn't even pretend that everything was okay. By the end of their sixth year, he had grown quiet and silent. He denied that it had anything to do with Lily. He always said that it was because his mother was sick, and even if that was the major reason behind his change, the Marauders knew better.

James still acted like himself with his three friends, but they could see his eyes didn't sparkle the same way anymore. He stopped playing as many pranks as he used to, only participating in those in which all four Marauders took part. It was then that, weeks before the end of their sixth year and mere days before Sirius' 'prank' on Snape, something big happened.

"Hey, Evans, why don't we..." James started saying to her during lunch. Lily was not having a good day. She had gotten a letter from her sister calling her names and Snape had tried to guilt her into being friends with him again. She forgot he hadn't asked her out for the last months, and that he had been kinda nice (or as nice as James Potter could be, she thought) the last few months. She was just seeing red at that moment and took it all out on him. She stood up while she said things she had never said to him before, refusing to go out with him because he would never be good enough for her. She called him names she had never before, her voice loud enough to make it seem like she had cast 'sonorus' on herself.

When she was done, she was panting, her face red and contorted with anger. Her face might have been red, but it was nothing compared to James'. His whole face and neck were dark red, his mouth was gaped and his eyes were wide, but the first thing that Lily registered were the tears forming in them. She didn't register Snape's scandalized laugh or the smirks on a couple of Slytherin students' faces, nor did she saw the embarrassed faces of pretty much every Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and professor. She absolutely didn't see the angry looks on her fellow Gryffindors. She just saw the first tear escaping one of those big, beautiful hazel eyes.

"...change places so I can talk to Remus" he croaked, finishing his question, but that ended up sounding like a sentence. He jumped up and ran out of the Great Hall, hiding his face with one of his arms and throwing the door closed after him. The silence that reigned in the Great Hall only wasn't absolute because Snape was still laughing as if he had seen the funniest thing in his life.

Before she could process what had happened, McGonagall took her to an empty classroom, docked some points out of Gryffindor and gave her a detention. She said, and I quote, 'I'm disappointed, Miss Evans. He might have somehow offended and embarrassed you lots of times, but he only ever called you pretty and asked you to go out with him. The awful things you threw at him in front of everybody... you should be ashamed of yourself'.

Soon, she left, and soon after this, Lily got the first wave of grief and the first need to cry. She didn't have time, though, because Sirius and Remus got to the classroom, or rather, to her, first. What they screamed at her was precious. I've been told that you could hear it from the floor above, and that, when they finished, she had been reduced to nothing more than a puddle of Lily. But that's for another story, this is getting long as it is.

Please, don't think ill of Lily. She was having a rough day, and Remus and Sirius later apologized. She also apologized to James and said, for the first time, that she was wrong, and he wasn't what she had called him, and that he was good enough for anybody he wanted, and that he was a pretty nice guy when he wasn't treating anybody bad.

Ah, this should be addressed as well, of course. James did treat some people badly sometimes. But it wasn't something he did for pleasure, or out of nothing to do, like some people prefer to think.

During their time at Hogwarts, there was a war brewing. Lord Voldemort's poison was trying to claim people, either by making them his personal slaves or by killing them. More and more Death Eaters started to show themselves, even if people didn't know how they were called sometimes, and more and more people put themselves against Voldemort's beliefs.

Inside Hogwarts, the same movement was starting. Those students who felt sympathy for Voldemort's agenda acted as if they were Death Eater already, studying Dark Arts and practicing them on muggleborn or halfblood students. Those who were contrary to the Blood Supremacy fought against those students, protecting those who couldn't defend themselves.

James, whose black and white view of the real world was already mentioned before, soon brought it to him and to his friends to defend those who couldn't defend themselves, and to attack those who offended them. The thing is, James already knew that Snape dealt with Dark Arts. And Snape's friendship with Lily flamed his loins with jealously. The result? James hated the guy. More than he hated every other Death-Eater-Wannabe in the school. That's why Snape became, of course, his victim. James mistreated Snape mercilessly. Some (most) might even say it was bullying, and they may be correct. The thing is, Snape was not an angel himself, so he gave as good as he got. Or tried to, considering James was an excellent duellist. One on one, though, they were matched, considering James didn't know that much about Dark Arts, only what was taught in DADA (frankly, that's not even much, considering the class isn't solely about duels), while Snape studied them as much as he could. What really unbalanced the fight again was the presence of the Marauders. While Snape was friends with the other Death-Eater-Wannabes, they weren't exactly close. They were... united by a common belief. They surely wouldn't enter a fight against James, Sirius and Remus just to save Snape's ass. They weren't hasty Gryffindors, after all.

Still, James wouldn't let Sirius, Remus and Peter to help. He said he would take Snape down alone. So, normally, it was one against the other. If James caught Snape inattentive, he hexed Snape first and the duel started. If Snape caught James inattentive... Well, he ensured the bespectacled boy was sent to the Hospital Wing with one nasty curse, otherwise hell would break loose.

The Marauders started hexing students they felt that were up to something evil. And they hexed students to prank them, of course. This is where Lily's argument that James hexed other students just because he could came from. And she was right, he did it, and he was, at first, too childish to notice what was wrong with it. Granted, he didn't bully other students, only Snape, but he didn't notice the discomfort he caused to the random targets of their pranks. He never hurt anybody physically, he just embarrassed them. Death-Eater-Wannabes, on the other hand, did it to hurt. To break bones, to make the other students suffer. Poor Mary Macdonald was probably scarred for life because of what some of those did to her. Do you see the difference there?

Eventually, not long after his worst act by the end of the fifth year, he finally noticed how hurtful he had been. He limited his (and the others, much to Remus' happiness) pranks to harmless, generic ones. He apologized to those he had pranked who hadn't done anything bad before, making his best to somehow compensate for what he had done (kisses and fake dates were common. He even had to take Gilderoy Lockhart on a 'date' once, much to his horror). James Potter's fan club had never been so big. He continued to be harsh on the Slytherins who showed they were going to the Dark Side of The Force (sorry. During the summer between their sixth and seventh years, the Marauders watched the Star Wars movie and loved it). He reduced the assaults to Snape, but they continued, as neither of them would ever stop hexing each other.

James Potter finally finished growing up when he saw rather than thought about the possible consequences of reckless acting. After Sirius' terrible mistake at the end of their sixth year, he realized that terrible things could indeed happen if he wasn't careful and thought before acting. He felt really angry at Sirius for having done that, principally considering he had almost killed another person, which would also thrown Remus out of Hogwarts and into Azkaban, at best. He pitied his brother in all but blood, because he had to deal with the severe consequences of his acts alone, but James thought it was better if he gave him the cold shoulder for a while. 'It might knock some sense into him', James thought. It wasn't until Sirius begged for forgiveness, crying and saying he needed them that James accepted his apology, but not before he and Remus telling him off properly. They became friends again, but it wasn't exactly the same thing, because James and Remus still somewhat feared what Sirius had done.

It wasn't until the beginning of summer that they were back to normal. It was a rainy night when Sirius showed up at Potter Manor, bloodied and freezing cold, starving and in pain. James barely had time put his best friend inside before he collapsed. The stag animagus had to carry his brother in all but blood (in all but blood he was, too) to his bedroom, laying him on his bed. James, his mother and his father had to work overnight so that Sirius got better. They fed him, sheltered him and gave him a home. And James gave him the one thing he craved for, his friendship back.

Seventh year met a way more mature James. A head boy who actually honored his badge, who followed the rules and who prepared himself for the future ahead. In fact, the only moments in which he showed the old, unimpressive version of himself was when he was among the other Marauders, while he was on the Quidditch Pitch and when he and Snape got into a hidden hexing match. In the end, he showed the world who he was, leaving behind the arrogant, smug, childish boy to become an important, valuable, correct man. And Lily Evans saw that. She asked him to go to Hogsmeade with her, and they never spent another day apart since then (no, seriously, they didn't even wait for the Hogsmeade weekend, they kissed there and then, in the middle of McGonagall's class. She was not impressed- on the outside, that is).

James met Lily's family, but it wasn't a happy occasion. He still didn't know a lot about muggles, and the Dursleys (even if Petunia wasn't one at the time) hated wizards. Vernon tried to upset James, and sadly he managed to do so. James didn't really realize the game the whale was playing, so he kept on turning his questions into ones he could answer about his world. Of course, the Dursleys found a reason to 'be offended' by their 'freakiness' and stormed out, making both Lily and James feel terrible. James never told Lily, but he sincerely thought it all had been planned before. He was quite right. Petunia didn't even speak to Lily anymore, why would she go on a dinner with her and her abnormal husband?

Soon before they finished Hogwarts, James lost his mother, and soon after they finished Hogwarts, James lost his father. 1978 was a terrible year for him, but, luckly, 1979 was probably the best year of his life. He got married to the woman he had loved his whole life, he began the preparations to become an Auror, he fought for the Order and, most important of all, right when the year was ending, he found out he was going to become a daddy.

James screamed with joy, he cried, he kissed Lily, he kissed Padfoot (luckily in dog form), he span Remus and Peter, he danced. His whole life he waited for that moment. One of the first things said in this text (and if you're still reading this, you, sir or madam, rock, capital R) was that the first thing James knew was family love. This was the constant thing he carried throughout his whole life, and he was starting his own family, with his wife, his brothers and his child. That's the funny thing about James. It wouldn't matter what happened to his family. It wouldn't matter if there were Slytherins, famous people for supposedly defeating a Dark Lord, weird quiet people, or anything at all. James would NEVER, EVER treat them differently or bad, nor would he neglect one of his children, consciously or unconsciously. First and foremost in his life, there was family love, and there was nothing that could overcome that. He could have ten children, all of them different, some of them famous, some of them evil, some of them whatever, he would love them equally, because that's what he knew, and that's what he was.

Sadly, 1980 was a bittersweet year. His precious baby boy was born, and he had the best day of his whole life. But then, his world came tumbling down when he was told that his child, his perfect Harry, had been targeted by Lord Voldemort. James cried, shouted, pleaded, begged for someone to say it wasn't true, but nobody told him that lie. So, in 1981, he, his wife and their beloved son where trapped inside one of their houses. They depended on his friends, on his brothers. But, as you all know, there was one of them who was not a real friend. But again, to James, mistrusting a friend would be the height of dishonor.

When James saw Voldemort walking towards his house, he felt himself fill with sadness. This was it, then. He didn't really care if he was going to live, he just wanted to give his Harry and his Lily some time. He sent them upstairs and faced, without a wand, the monster that many wizards couldn't face without a whole army behind them. And mind you, he didn't even quiver. He stood tall and proud. He was going to die, yes, but he was going to die so his family had a change, even if a small one. He dodged a few curses and he even managed to say: "You will die, Voldemort.", his voice powerful and proud. When he saw the curse that he knew he couldn't dodge, right at the end of the stair way, he smiled. He knew that death was coming to claim him. But he knew it all would end ok.

He died for his family. He died because he would rather be dead than without his Harry and his Lily. He died and stayed behind, waiting for what he hoped would be long years before his wife and son joined him and they passed on to their next adventure. He felt sad when Lily joined him, but he cheered when Harry survived. He patiently waited, right next to his wife, until they both could hug their son and welcome him back to their family. He had to welcome his real brothers too, and quite some other friends, but in the end they were all happy, because they were all together.

And there, right there in the middle was James Potter. Smiling. There he was, James Potter, with all his flaws, with all his glory. There he was, James Potter. A hero. His wife's, his son's, his brothers' hero. My hero, until the very end.

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, and Harry Potter belongs to her...

This is how I see James Potter, though. He has been my (our, considering Dan agrees with me) favorite character since I read the third book for the first time, way more than 10 years ago. That doesn't mean I think he is perfect. I don't think he is, as I believe nobody is perfect. This is what makes every character from J.K. so real and believable: Even if she didn't focus on them, you are bond to see that they are not perfect, nor are they totally imperfect. She captured the essence of what it means being human.

Sadly, James hasn't been very explored yet. We have little information on him, most of which is based on speculation and conclusion. But I still have hope (and fear) that, one day, Pottermore will bring us a little bit more of background to him. Hope, because I would love to see more canon stuff about him. Fear, because there's always the fear that people will misrepresent whatever they find there to just criticise him more.

This text, which has been written a while ago, is just an attempt of showing you how we, James Potter fans, see him. It's not totally canon, but it is possible conclusions we can make considering what we do know about him (except how Lily treated him. Even if that is a possibility, I don't really believe that hahaha).

There's a lot of James Potter hate out there, but I like to believe there are more people who enjoy him other than hate him. I really hope this made you see him a little bit better. I know that, if you don't like him, this text won't change much. But if you at least give him the benefit of doubt, I'll be happy.

And I can't shake the hope that I have in my heart that, if one day J.K. sees what I wrote on this, she nods and says 'that's pretty much the character I had in mind'...