James Potter's Parents

[Lovemagic]

Dorea didn't have a child in 1920, she was born then.

Sorry, sorry, my mistake!

Jo Rowling did have Sirius mentioning Harry's grandparents and they're very relevant because that really builds the bond between Harry and Sirius and shows exactly how much Sirius longs to have Harry in his life. This is exactly the moment when he would say, 'Oh, and look, Harry, we're related.'

I didn't mean that this bit about Sirius and the Potters was irrelevant, but having the whole story of Harry's grandparents in there would have been, I think.

If Charlus and Dorea had been James' parents then I think James' name would have appeared on the tree- it's a glaring admission otherwise.

Voldemort was around the same age as Charlus and Dorea. A little younger, I think. His reign strengthened around the Marauder time and that's when true blood traitors would have been disowned. It was probably acceptable for Dorea, a Black, to marry Charlus Potter, whose family was most likely different from the main Slytherin families, because true separation and discrimination of the war hadn't begun. But then Charlus and Dorea died, and James began fighting in the war, so his name had been blasted off or had not even been added if Charlus and Dorea were disowned later on.

It's obvious from the books that blood prejudice had been going on for centuries before Voldemort turned up. It certainly wasn't an idea that rose with him. Remember what Sirius said about his family? In the beginning, his parents were all for Voldemort and the purification of the wizarding race, and the Blacks had been disowning people for marrying Muggles back in the 1800s and probably furthur back. They were pure-blood fanatics before Voldemort showed up, and so were plenty of others. That's how he got his support.

I wasn't talking about marrying Muggles and Mudbloods. Dorea and Charlus were both Pureblood. But after Voldemort got power, families like the Potters and Weasleys would have been called blood-traitors and would not marry people from Pureblood-fanatic families like the Blacks and Malfoys. And after Voldemort got power and the amount of people regarded blood-traitors grew, more portraits would have been blasted off the family tree.

Hayden

[Equinox Chick]

Dorea was 57. So she was born in 1920. Don't think about the world now, but the world of 1920. I think, according to people in that time, forty would have been an extremely long time. Didn't people used to have children not long after marriage, in their twenties? If you're writing a fic in the historical or marauder time period, age forty being "late" for a child would probably be acceptable.

Dorea didn't have a child in 1920, she was born then. If you think she's James' mother, then we're talking about 1960 and 40 was a normal age to have children It's not the 1860's, and dying at 57 is by no means elderly, unless you're living in the middle ages.

It was mentioned earlier that Sirius didn't mention to Harry who his grandparents were and what they were like. In the family tree scene in OotP, Sirius was talking about his past. Harry's grandparents are dead and irrelevant to the story. Either JKR was focused on telling Sirius's story, which mattered, or deliberately left out Harry's grandparents.

Read the scene from the book again, rather than remembering the film.

'You ran away from home?'
'When I was about sixteen,' said Sirius. 'I'd had enough.'
'Where did you go?' asked Harry, staring at him.
'Your dad's place,' said Sirius. 'Your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as a second son. Yeah, I camped out at your dad's in the school holidays, and when I was seventeen I got a place of my own. My Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold - he's been wiped off here, that's probably why - anyway, after that I looked after myself. I was always welcome at Mr and Mrs Potter's for Sunday lunch, though.'

-OOTP page 103/104 Bloomsbury edition.

Jo Rowling did have Sirius mentioning Harry's grandparents and they're very relevant because that really builds the bond between Harry and Sirius and shows exactly how much Sirius longs to have Harry in his life. This is exactly the moment when he would say, 'Oh, and look, Harry, we're related.' Molly isn't so far off the mark when she accuses Sirius of thinking Harry is James. That speech above illustrates the tie between Sirius and James. I would still stand by putting Mr and Mrs Potters' deaths after the Marauders left school - so past 1978, but before 1981.

Regarding the blood prejudice. As Sarah said, it did not begin with Voldemort. For one thing, what was Grindelwald fighting for, then? And why were so many Black family members behind things like Muggle Hunting. Why would Isla have been blasted off the tree if Muggleborn prejudice didn't exist.

~Carole~

[Sapphire at Dawn]

I wasn't talking about marrying Muggles and Mudbloods. Dorea and Charlus were both Pureblood. But after Voldemort got power, families like the Potters and Weasleys would have been called blood-traitors and would not marry people from Pureblood-fanatic families like the Blacks and Malfoys. And after Voldemort got power and the amount of people regarded blood-traitors grew, more portraits would have been blasted off the family tree.

That too was happening before Voldemort came to power. I don't think you can have one without the other. If a family is known to be sympathetic to Muggles and Muggle-borns, the pureblood supermasists are going to hate them. Cedrella Black was blasted off the Black family tree for marrying Septimus Weasley. We don't have a date of birth for Cedrella, but she was probably born between 1915 and 1919, since that's when her older sister and younger brother were born. Arthur, presumably their son, was born around 1950, and seeing as he is not listed on there, Cedrella was blasted off before he was born, probably, as JKR states, for marrying Septimus. Voldemort didn't start gaining power until the seventies, so Cedrella was blasted off for marrying a blood-traitor before then.

I find it unlikely that the concept of blood-traitors was a thing that started with Voldemort. Discrimination against Muggles and Muggle-borns had been going on for centuries. It makes sense if supremasists also hated people associating with them, and even more so people who they thought should be in league with them, like the pureblood Weasleys.

More portraits weren't blasted off the tree. The tree that Rowling drew is the tree that Sirius sees and describes in OoTP. Dorea and Charlus weren't blasted off, so we can assume that they're not known as blood-traitors, even though a relative of theirs, James, fought in the war. Same with Callidora Black, who married Harfang Longbottom, who again had relatives fight in the war. They weren't blasted off. Thus Walburga Black, who died in 1985 and would have known that James Potter and Frank Longbottom fought against Voldemort, didn't regard the Potters or the Longbottoms as blood-traitors.

Sarah x

[Essence_of_Lily]

I have a question about James' parents.

What kind of names would they have? Would it just be common names, like Laura and George Potter?

[Northumbrian]

There really is not much to go on. JKR has systems. The Blacks tend to use celestial names (Sirius, Regulus, Bellatrix, Andromeda, Castor, Pollux) although there are a lot of exceptions. The Weasleys are old-fashioned. But the only Potters named are James and Charlus.

Personally, I’d stick with simple and slightly old-fashioned names for Granddad Potter, and, because James and Charles (okay the spelling is different) are Stewart Kings I’d probably use the British Monarchy as inspiration, so George, or Albert or Edward or … would be fine.

For Grandma I’d go for something Dickensian. Esther, Clara, Rosa. But (IMO) there is nothing wrong with the names you’ve chosen.

-N-

[Rose Nym]

Northumbrian's advice is good; but I wouldn't recommend using those particular names because the first thng they made me think of is a certain American politician and his wife...

[coppertop1]

A think another reason against Dorea and Charlus is James has that judgemental attitude towards Slytherin. If his mother was a Slytherin, I think he'd be a bit more open (unless she was horrible, and all signs say she wasn't.)

It's possible Charlus and Dorea may be an aunt and uncle of James, but I have some doubts they were hisparents.