Harry Potter

Harry potter’s story opens in 1981 with the conspicuous celebration of a normally secretive wizarding world (Wizarding world is a fictional universe and the setting of the Harry Potter series. The term “world” is, however, not entirely correct, as, at least geographically, the series’ world is our own. The plot of the series is set in contemporary Great Britain, but in a veiled and disparate shadow society in which magic is real, and those who can use it live in enforced seclusion, hiding their talents from the mundane world. The term is used to refer to the society where wizards and witches live, and by extension all magical things, in sharp contrast to the society and the things of the non-magical, people. Although the terms “wizarding world” and “Muggle world” are used, they refer to different perspectives rather than separate planets or universes.).

On November 1, Hagrid, a ‘half-giant’, delivers Harry to his only living relatives, the cruel and non-magical Dursleys, consisting of Uncle Vernon, a bad-tempered uncle with hardly any neck; Aunt Petunia, a long-necked woman who appears to absolutely loathe Harry; and Dudley, their spoiled, overweight son. They attempt in vain to rid him of his magical powers, hide his magical heritage, and severely punish him after any strange occurrences.

However, as his eleventh birthday approaches, Harry has his first contact with the magical world when he receives letters from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which are delivered by owls. However, his uncle intercepts the letters. On his birthday, Hagrid, Hogwarts’ gamekeeper, appears and informs Harry that he is a wizard and has been invited to attend the school. Each book chronicles one year in Harry’s life, which is mostly spent at Hogwarts. There he learns to use magic and brew potions. Harry also learns to overcome many magical, social, and emotional obstacles as he struggles through his adolescence, Voldemort’s second rise to power, and the Ministry of Magic’s constantly denying Voldemort’s return. After facing many obstacles, making countless friends, and losing loved ones, Harry Potter confronts the Dark Lord for the last time.

Harry Potter’s Father : James Potter

On the night of the Potters’ murder, James was the one who saw Voldemort coming, and sacrificed his life so Lily could attempt to escape with Harry. Rowling describes James as having hazel eyes, a slightly longer nose than Harry’s, but otherwise the same thin face, same hands, same untidy black hair sticking up at the back, and (nearly) the same height as Harry during their school days. He was born 27 March, 1960 and attended Hogwarts 1971 to 1978 where he was in Gryffindor. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban it is revealed that his best friends were Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, and that the four were known as The Marauders. They gave themselves nicknames: Remus was “Moony”, Sirius was “Padfoot”, James was “Prongs”, and Peter was “Wormtail”. They illegally became Animagi to keep Remus company when he transformed into a werewolf in the Shrieking Shack. Sirius became a black dog, James became a stag, and Peter became a rat. Harry’s patronus takes the form of a stag, clearly a likeness of “Prongs”.

Characters in the book have commented on the personality of James. Severus Snape considers him “exceedingly arrogant” whereas Remus calls him “the height of cool” and Sirius as “sometimes an arrogant little berk”. Scenes from James’s time at Hogwarts have shown him behaving as a bully towards Snape. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, after seeing Snape’s memories of James within a pensieve, Harry agrees with Snape’s assessment of his father’s arrogance, and the revelation leaves Harry deeply depressed and disheartened. However, James saved Snape’s life after Sirius had attempted to goad Snape into the Shrieking Shack, where Lupin was transforming. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry witnesses James meeting Snape (and Sirius) for the first time when they board the Hogwarts Express in one of Snape’s memories. James displays clear dislike for Snape’s hopes that he and Lily would both be placed in Slytherin (coming from the fact that James hated all Dark Arts). Even so, he thought that Sirius was “all right”, even though he finds out that the entire Black family was in Slytherin. Snape, for his part, thinks that James is silly to want to be in Gryffindor, since he believes that students in that house are all “brawny but not brainy”.

Harry Potter’s Mother: Lily

While at Hogwarts, James met his future wife Lily Evans (30 January, 1960 – 31 October, 1981), who was also in her first year. Lily’s wand was 10 1⁄4 inches, made of willow, swishy and excellent for Charms. She was described as having startlingly green, almond-shaped eyes and thick, shoulder-length dark red hair. According to Professor Slughorn, Lily had a natural and intuitive ability at Potions and was very brave, very funny and very charming; he could not imagine that anyone who had met her would not have liked her. She became a member of the Slug Club, which was run by Slughorn for promising students (and people with prestigious connections). Lily was also very pretty, and it is evident that James was very taken with her, at least since their fifth year.

Lily was Muggle-born, and at home, her sister Petunia despised her for being a witch and viewed her as a “freak.” In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Petunia tells Harry that, “But for my mother and father, oh no, it was ‘Lily this’ and ‘Lily that’, they were proud of having a witch in the family!” The reader learns that Petunia was actually jealous of the manner in which their parents favored Lily (and later that she herself had wanted to attend Hogwarts).

Petunia also did not care for James, as demonstrated by her snide remarks and references to him throughout the series. However, there is one remark that Petunia made about Lily and a young male wizard that was misinterpreted by Harry to mean his father rather than her Lily’s childhood friend, Severus Snape. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Petunia hears someone ask what a Dementor is, to which she responds, “They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban”. When Harry and the rest of her family look at her strangely for knowing this magical information, she responds that she heard “that awful boy” telling Lily about them years ago. Harry angrily retorts that if she’s going to talk about his parents, she could at least use their names, but she does not respond. It was, in fact, Snape who told Lily that “Dementors guard the wizard prison, Azkaban”. Petunia overheard the exchange and remembered Snape’s explanation.

It is revealed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that Lily and Severus Snape had been friends before they were enrolled at Hogwarts, with Snape harbouring unrequited romantic feelings for Lily from the beginning. Rowling revealed that Lily might have returned the feelings if Snape had not dabbled in the Dark Arts. During their first years at Hogwarts, Lily expressed her concerns about Snape’s attraction to these arts and about his choice of friends. Already strained, their friendship came to an end in their fifth year at Hogwarts, when Snape, in a moment of humiliation, called Lily a “Mudblood” without thinking after she had defended him from James and Sirius. After that, Lily ended their friendship, despite Snape’s attempts to apologize for the incident, pointing out that Snape’s other friends felt similarly about her parentage.

Snape refused to use the word “Mudblood” afterwards and severely disliked hearing it used, as shown in book seven when Phineas Nigellus refers to Hermione Granger as a “Mudblood”. After the parting, Snape became a Death Eater and informed Lord Voldemort of a prophecy, which Voldemort took to refer to Lily and her son, Harry. Snape subsequently joined the Order of the Phoenix as a spy for Dumbledore, in exchange for protection by Albus Dumbledore for Lily and her family. After Lily’s death, he was persuaded by Dumbledore to devote his life to protecting Harry in order to honour the sacrifice of the woman he never ceased to love.

Lily was Head Girl in her final year at Hogwarts. For most of the time they were students, Lily regarded James as an arrogant bully, and she and James addressed each other only by their surnames. However, James was shown doodling Lily’s initials during an examination in their fifth year, and Sirius recalled that he couldn’t resist showing off (and making a fool of himself) whenever she was around. Lily herself expressed contempt for his behaviour, looking at him with “great dislike” and calling him “an arrogant bullying toerag”. After he asked her out in their fifth year, she replied that she wouldn’t go out with him if it was a choice between him and the giant squid and remarked that, “I’m surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK!” From this, Harry gathered the impression that Lily hated James, but Sirius and Lupin assured him that she didn’t hate her future husband, they “simply got off on the wrong foot”.

source: Wikipidea