Harry's father. Though James was a self-important and pompous young person, he grew up to be a beloved resistance fighter and sacrificed himself trying to protect Lily and baby Harry from Voldemort. His last living best friend (who isn't working for Voldemort, as Wormtail is), Lupin, offers Harry insight into the kind of loyal and trusting person that James was. Harry uses the Resurrection Stone to conjure James and Lily to walk him to his sacrifice to Voldemort.
James Potter Quotes in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows quotes below are all either spoken by James Potter or refer to James Potter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Scholastic Inc. edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows published in 2007.
Chapter Sixteen
Quotes
"'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death'..." A horrible thought came to him, and with it a kind of panic. "Isn't that a Death Eater idea? Why is that there?"
"It doesn't mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it, Harry," said Hermione, her voice gentle. "It means...you know...living beyond death. Living after death."
Related Characters:
Harry Potter (speaker), Hermione Granger (speaker), Lily Potter, James Potter
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows LitChart as a printable PDF.
James Potter Character Timeline in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The timeline below shows where the character James Potter appears in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Five
...trust people, but Fred and George cheer Harry. Lupin says that Harry is just like James, who would've been disgusted at the idea of not trusting his friends. Lupin and Bill...
(full context)
Chapter Ten
...plastered in Gryffindor hangings, motorcycles, and Muggle girls in bikinis. There's one photo of Sirius, James, Lupin, and Wormtail, but it's stuck to the wall with a Permanent Sticking Charm.
(full context)
...Harry for his first birthday. She writes that Bathilda came for birthday tea and that James is going stir crazy since Dumbledore has his Invisibility Cloak and he can't sneak out....
(full context)
Chapter Eleven
Lupin insists that James would've wanted him to protect Harry, but Harry says that James would've wanted Lupin to...
(full context)
Chapter Sixteen
As they start across the square, the memorial transforms into a sculpture of James, Lily, and baby Harry. They continue to the graveyard and start to look through the...
(full context)
Chapter Seventeen
...appears, reading that the house has been left a ruin as a monument to Harry, James, and Lily. Harry reads graffiti on the sign wishing him luck. The happiness Harry feels...
(full context)
...As Voldemort, Harry walks through the village, scowling at children dressed as pumpkins, and sees James and Lily playing with baby Harry through the window. James doesn't have his wand and...
(full context)
Chapter Thirty-Three
...tries to cheer her up by saying that she should be in Slytherin, but young James taunts Snape. Sirius joins in, and Lily leads Snape away. Harry then watches Snape be...
(full context)
...Lily hates Snape's friends, who are interested in Dark magic, but Snape points out that James pulls crazy stunts and that something is off with Lupin. Lily says she heard about...
(full context)
Chapter Thirty-Four
...The Resurrection Stone sits in the two halves, and Harry turns it over three times. James, Sirius, Lupin, and Lily all greet Harry. They say that dying is painless and praise...
(full context)
Chapter Thirty-Five
...and Dumbledore confirms this. He says he had the Elder Wand and the Cloak when James died. Dumbledore says that Harry should despise him and reminds him of what happened to...
(full context)