#5
Name: James Emerson Potter.
Birthdate: 27 March 1960.
House: Gryffindor.
Residence: Birmingham, England.
Appearance: James has always been on the tall end of the height spectrum, and although he could easily be considered lanky when he was younger, James has long since grown into his tall stature and has a rather impressive build. James stands at a respectable 6'1 and although James initially appears somewhat thin, he has a very fit, athletic build. James has thick, perpetually messy black hair that naturally sticks up in the back. Neither comb nor brush can tame James' hair, and that suits him just fine. James likes his hair in all its messy, shaggy, stereotypical teenage British boy glory and he even messes it up himself from time to time to make sure that it never looks too neat.
He has hazel eyes that shift from light brown around the pupil to a dark green on the outer part of the iris, though James' eyes are nearly always covered by a pair of square rimmed glasses. Without the aid of his specs, James is as good as blind and so he's scarcely ever seen without them residing on the brim of his nose. Though he lacks Sirius' care free good looks, James could easily be considered handsome. He has prominent and somehwat angular facial features and a quick, attractive grin that has helped him weasel his way out of trouble numerous times over the years.
Although James comes from a very wealthy family, he doesn't exactly dress like the rest of the pureblood elite, or as James likes to call them the pompous twats of the school. James' fashion sense is that of a typical boy; sort of messy and decidedly sporty. Although his clothing is up to par with the current trends of the time, James' attire always appears ruffled and somewhat untidy. When it comes to the uniform, James's shirt is always untucked and his tie is typicaly too lose and often off center. Over all, James is a good looking kid. He is naturally fairly attractive, but the real key to James' physical appeal is that he has a distinctive confident demeanor about him.
History: Susanna and Emerson Potter had long since given up on the hope of having children by the time Susanna became pregnant with James. In the years preceding James's birth, Susanna and Emerson's marriage had been riddled with failed attempts at having children. While they were young they tirelessly saw different healers and tried their best to overcome the problem they seemed to be having, but once they grew older they began to accept the fact that having children was simply not going to happen for them and learned to cope with the ridicule that ensured when individuals of their social stature were deemed incapable of having children; but then along came James. To be frank, James was a bit of a surprise, but for the elderly couple who were still very much in love with one another and had suffered through so many fruitless attempts at having children, he was a very welcome one. Susanna and Emerson were shocked, to say the least, when they found out that their suspicions were correct and Susanna was indeed pregnant. They were very anxious during the entire nine months leading up to James' birth, and were skeptical as to whether or not things would turn out for the better. Despite any doubts, Susanna gave birth to a healthy baby boy on the 27th of March 1960 who they named James Emerson.
Young James was raised in the city of Birmingham, England. He led a very pampered childhood and was, in fact, a bit spoiled. With two overly enthusiastic and rich parents there was little James was denied, and he developed a major only child complex. Growing up as an only child, James was the center of his parents' attention. Never having to compromise his room, his toys, or his parents' affections meant that James was never well versed in the world of sharing. However, James was not without discipline. From a very early age his parents instilled in him a sense of right and wrong. Susanna and Emerson raised their son in a way that was contrary to the upbringing of most young pureblood children. For instance, James was raised to reject the ideas of pureblood elitism, Susanna and Emerson taught their son to treat everyone equally, regardless of their blood and the word 'mudblood' was taboo in the Potter household. Of course, James was still a very mischievous child, but he was always punished accordingly when he acted up and would never dare refer to anyone was a mudblood.
At an early age, James developed a love for Quidditch. His father would always take him to games whenever he got tickets, and James considered those days when he was able to accompany his father to the matches to be even more exciting than his birthday and Christmas combined. Quidditch was the perfect sport for a boy like James. It was exhilarating, fast-paced, and above all else; exciting. In fact, Quidditch was possibly the only thing James would ever sit still for as a child. He grew up with the sport, and at the tender age of five he told his parents with all the certainty of an adult that he wanted to become a "Qwidditch" player.
Despite all the luxuries James enjoyed growing up, he began to grow restless as he got older. James often grew bored with so few kids his own age around. By the time James was born, the Potters were a very small family. James' had very few relatives outside of his immediate family, and they were all adults; most of whom even older than his parents. He grew up in an environment consisting of primarily adults, and as much as those adults would fuss over James and shower him with galleons and presents they could not compensate for the lack of kids his own age. This left James itching to get to Hogwarts. All throughout his childhood he had heard so much about the school from his parents. He spent his entire childhood hearing about the houses, the castle, Professor Dumbledore, and all the other fantastical features of the reknowned school. The way they raved on about the place left James eagerly awaiting for his turn to witness all these things for himself.
The months preceding his eleventh birthday felt like an eternity to James. The days passed slowly for the boy of such little patience, but at long last the 27th of March came around and James received his acceptance letter to Hogwarts. He was thrilled and promptly made his parents take him to Diagon Alley to get all his school things. With his robes, cauldron, wand, books, and owl all purchased and ready to go all that was left for James to do was survive another wait, a wait for the first of September.
Previously, James had never wanted to see the summer go, but in that particular year, September could not come fast enough; he was more than ready to make his mark at Hogwarts. Eventually the first of September did come. James' parents were reluctant to see him go, and in James' own eleven-year-old-boy way he was sad to leave them behind as well, but he was too excited to linger on the feeling for long. James bid his parents farewell and passed onto platform nine and three quarters with the confidence and self-assurance that was seldom associated with any other new student. On the train James, a living antonym of shy, he did not hesitate to talk to anyone willing to listen to him run his big mouth.
It was fairly obvious that James was headed straight into Gryffindor. The boy was made to be sorted into that house, and when Professor McGonagall reached Potter on the list of names, the Sorting Hat barely had to think it over before deciding upon Gryffindor. The house fit his personality like a glove, and within Gryffindor he made friends easily and quickly. By the end of the opening feast, James had already started talking to a boy named Sirius Black who was so like himself that they might as well have been brothers separated at birth. He began talking with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, and soon enough James dubbed them his friends as well.
As the weeks went by, it was clear that James was a far cry from being a model student. Although he seemed to have a natural talent for the subjects he studied in school, he was constantly late for class and soon enough was spending most of his nights in detention with Sirius. James became more and more of a trouble maker as first year went on, and he became very well liked amongst his classmates for this, that is, the ones he wasn't picking on anyway. The pranks James and his friends pulled were very elaborate for boys their age, and would only become more over-the-top as they grew older. An essential part of many of these pranks was the invisiblity cloak, a family heirloom of the Potters, that James' father had passed down to him. James' cloak granted them endless opportunities to sneak around the castle whenever they pleased, and James' favourite target for their pranks was a Slytherin boy in the year named Severus Snape who James was already developing a vicious rivalry with.
As second year came along, James became even closer friends with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. The three, although different in certain ways, all shared a very close bond. Because of this, James as well as Sirius and Peter couldn't help but take notice that Remus would disappear once a month and was a frequent visitor of the Hospital Wing. Whenever James would ask Remus what was going on, he would always blame it on sickness or family issues or Remus would provide some other believable, yet feeble excuse, and James wasn't buying it. The three decided to figure it out for themselves and eventually reached the conclusion that Remus was a werewolf. As farfetched as it initially sounded, everything seemed to be pointing in that direction. They confronted Remus and told explained their suspicions, which he eventually admitted were true. The three did not abandon Remus, as Remus seemed to fear they would, but rather James, Sirius, and Peter decided they would become unregistered animagi in order to help Remus during his transformations. Of course, that was a goal that took a very long time for them to actually fulfill.
It was that same year that James joined the Quidditch team. Ever since he was a kid and his father told him that Hogwarts had their own Quidditch teams James knew that he wanted, no, had to be on his, so James tried out as soon as he possibly could. The odds were against him, given that he was much smaller than the other students on the team, but James proved to be a decent chaser with a lot of promise to improve, and so he made the team and joined as their new chaser. James couldn't have been happier to be on the Quidditch team, and it now seemed as if James had it all. He was smart, funny, well-liked, a member of the Quidditch team, and James willingly let this all go straight to his head.
In fact, James encountered little to no difficulties in Hogwarts until the end of his fourth year. Prior to his fourth year James had everything he could possibly want at Hogwarts, but once June of 1974 came along he wanted more. James began to develop an interest in a girl in his house and year named Lily Evans. He had known her for years, naturally, but before then he had never really noticed just how pretty she was. What started as a mild interest turned into a full blown crush on James' part, but Lily didn't care much for James at all, on the contrary, she didn't seem to like him one bit. James was completely thrown for a loop when he began to flirt with Lily and all he managed to accomplish by doing so was annoy the hell out of her. James wasn't accustomed to people not liking him and he certainly wasn't used to not getting his way. It put him in a really odd position, but he didn't give up. James continued to pester Lily into going out with him despite her best attempts to tell him to bugger the fuck off (in more eloquent words, of course, but that's how James interpreted it).
Fifth year was a monumental year for James. Right from the beginning of the year it was obvious that James and his mates were all getting very close to becoming animagi. James had been working tirelessly at perfecting his stag transformation ever since his second year, and in his fifth year he finally managed to flawlessly transform into a great stag and Sirius and Peter both perfected their dog and rat transformations as well. James was exceedingly proud with himself and his mates, and he was glad that they know had a way to help Remus through his transformations so that he wouldn't have to go threw them alone. Not to mention, the fact that he was an animagus (albeit an illegal one) gave him just one more reason to inflate his already oversized ego.
However, a few months after they became animagi, Sirius planned a dangerous prank that James knew nothing about until it was already in action. Sirius tipped Snape off as to where exactly it was that they all disappeared once a month, telling him that if he wanted answers all he would have to do was press the knot in the Whomping Willow. When Snape showed up in the shrieking shack, he very well may have died that night if James hadn't jumped in front of Snape and pushed him out of the way, risking his own life in the process. James and Severus could have both very easily been killed by Remus' werewolf form, but miraculously the pair managed to escape. Not only did James and Severus walk out relatively unscathed, but somehow James, Peter, Remus, and even Sirius received no serious repercussions for their very severe rule breaking. James was furious with Sirius. The two had a big fight shortly after the prank, and James refused to speak to Sirius for some time after that, until he ultimately cracked and forgave Sirius; restoring the friendship they had before as if nothing had happened.
O.W.Ls proved to be a cinch for James who was obnoxiously good at nearly all his subjects, despite the very minimal work he put into his classes. He and his friends officially became "The Marauders" and gave each other their infamous nicknames. James was Prongs, Remus was Moony, Sirius was Padfoot, and Peter was Wormtail. James was back on speaking terms with Sirius, and he pulled one of his more infamous pranks on old Snivellus by magically dangling him in the air and revealing his graying underwear to the surrounding crowds of students; nearly all of whom found the prank very amusing. Everything seemed to be going very smoothly for James, except for Lily. He could not, for the life of him, get her to go on a date with him. She accused him of being arrogant, pigheaded, selfish, and all these other "ridiculous" things. James had no idea what her problem was, and he refused to accept the fact that she clearly didn't like him and he should just move on as a solution to his problem. He stood his ground and stubbornly decided to not give up on Lily.
James's life changed quite drastically at the end of his sixth year. Although the majority of the year passed by as usual, James's father fell ill mid-February of the year 1977 and his failing health eventually led to his death that following June. James was quite literally forced to grow up the moment they buried his father who James had spent his entire life admiring and looking up to. Although Mr. Potter was really quite old when he died, James was not, and his father's death had a huge impact on him. James changed a great deal that summer, and once could rightfully say that his father's death pulled him into reality. He became aware of the fact that since he no longer had his father to rely on to teach him how to grow from an immature teenage boy into a man, he was going to have to figure it out himself. That summer really humbled James quite profoundly, and although he is still quick to laugh and goof around, there is an undeniable change in James's personality and outlook on life. He was also named Head Boy that summer, though in respect to everything else that had been going on that summer, it wasn't as much of a big deal to James as it might have been. He didn't complain about it, as he most certainly would have under other circumstance, and really he was just glad that his mum was excited by the letter.
Personality: James is the type of person that once you meet him you're not likely to forget him any time soon. He has an overwhelmingly extroverted personality that has a tendency of making a long and lasting impression on those he encounters; an impression that is either very positive or very negative. James Potter is the kind of person you can easily love or easily hate, and there's usually very little middle ground. He's dominant, exuberant, bold, and above all else, talkative; characteristics that people either find endearing or very annoying. The word 'quiet' isn't exactly in James's vocabulary and he seldom ever shuts up. In fact, it's a rare occasion to find James not either talking, making facial expressions that so blatantly give away what he's thinking that he might as well be talking, or when he is forced not to speak, using some other sort of method to communicate with others. He is ambitious, strong willed, positive, and self-confident. From spending just a day or so with James, you'll begin to wonder if he has ever doubted himself. Truth be told, James isn't always as sure of himself as he appears to be, especially now that he's matured a bit, but this isn't something that he will readily admit to. A born leader, James is always quick to take charge of any and all situations. He's at his best in a position of command, and has just the right sort of personality to make a group of people listen to what he has to say and make them do what he wants them to do.
Relatively speaking, James is an uncomplicated person. He's very open and comfortable with who he is and there's not much about himself that he bothers to hide from others. At this point in time, most of the Gryffindor seventh years know everything they'd ever need to know about James Potter, whether they like it or not. Although, this isn't to say that James doesn't harbor his fair share of secrets. A part from the things he keeps secret out of necessity (the fact that he and his friends are illegal animagi and Remus is a werewolf), James likes people to think he has a very devil may care attitude about life when really he's very ambitious. However, those who know James well can tell by now that James is more ambitious than not. It's no secret that James absolutely hates losing or being shown up by someone else. He's been known to get into terrible moods if his ego is hurt in even the slightest way, though in all fairness this attitude of his isn't entirely out of vanity; James honestly does have a strong desire to excel, which can hardly be held against him even if he does take it a bit too far.
James acts and thinks bigger than others would normally dare; the ambitiousness of his schemes and idealism sometimes daunt others. His practical hardheadedness and ability to go straight to the heart of any problem reassures those who depend on him, however. James never flees away when he finds himself faced with a setback, and he thrives on adversity. Although James has always had the capability to use this strong personality of his for good, in the years preceding his seventh he had always been too immature to really live out the more favourable assets of his character. While he has always been nice to some people, James could rightfully be seen as a bully for the first six years of his Hogwarts career. He has a wicked sense of humour, and whenever he involves people in his jokes or pranks it is rare that James would ever show much remorse for any wrong he might have done.
However, James has sobered up a considerable amount over the summer between his sixth and seventh year. The death of his father humbled James greatly, and although it's plain to see that James still posseses that familiar edgy, wicked side of his character, it's becoming much easier to see the more redeeming qualities of James' persona. For instance, he's very idealistic, humane, and beneficent. James is also very loyal, he's about as allegiant as they come. Once you have made a friend out of James, you've made a friend for life. Though, it is admittedly not so easy to become James' friend if there's something about you he doesn't like. In fact, such a thing is practically impossible. Once James has made up his mind about a person, he seldom changes it, and just as James makes a great friend he makes a horrible enemy. However, for those who he does befriend, though he may be a goofball, you can count on him for anything. When it comes down to it, James would die for the ones he loves if it came to that extreme. He's also a somewhat heroic figure, or at least he's developing into one. He is highly intelligent, and uses this innate brilliance of his as a compensation for his nonexistent work ethic. James is quick on his feet, and works well under pressure. He handles challenges very well, and can pull off the whole "leaping first, looking after" thing very well.
As exciting and amiable of a person as James may be, his faults can be as large in scale as his virtues. When James finds himself in a bad mood, he is quite possibly the most unpleasant human being on the face of the planet. He can be extremely arrogant and also has an autocratic sense of pride. James can be perceived as haughty, and rightfully so. To top off his character flaws, he has an exceptionally hasty temper. If he should become jealous or suspicious of rivals, James will not hesitate to use cunning, lies, and trickery to discredit them. James can easily be seen as self-centered. He has a greed for flattery and a tendency to be very boastful of his accomplishments. He can be bombast, pompous, and has a snobbish sense of superiority.
In his relations with others James is open, sincere, genuine, and trusting. Outgoing, spontaneously warm hearted and plain spoken; though never lacking in kindliness, James is more disillusioned than the average if let down by those he trusts. James is not a good judge of character and is inclined towards favouritism and an exaggerated faith in people which too often ends in disappointment. James is so trusting of others because he himself is deeply loyal to his friends and his family and assumes others to be equally as loyal. Sadly, this way of thinking doesn't always prove true.
RP Entry: A log
sample from a game where I most recently played James :D.
