#desi potters

[siriusblack-the-third]

Hey I absolutely adore your Indian James headcanons can you do some for Harry too please <33

Okay this got too long so it's only Harry's first year at Hogwarts. At some point I might do the rest of his years but yeah. Here you go, i hope you like it :)

The first time Harry noticed his skin was darker than the people on Privet Drive was when he was four. The first time he noticed people sneered at him for it was when he was five and a half. He didn't understand it; why did they think the colour of his skin meant that he was inferior to them? He heard the words chee-chee and brownie thrown around like Dudley threw his food, and quietly pulled his shirt tighter around himself.

When Harry is eight, Dudley and his gang throw him in a ditch and throw dirt and soil on him till he's coughing and tears are running down his face. "You blend right into the mud," Piers laughs at him. The next day, the boy turns up to school with black skin. Harry sits in the corner and turns his face away, a secret grin playing on his lips.

He comes to Hogwarts, and there are so many colours. He is approached by Parvati on the second night, and she asks him if he's excited for Ganpati Chaturthi. He stares at her, and then says, "I'm sorry, but I don't know what that is." She gets offended, but they haltingly talk it out, awkward and stilted like most eleven year olds. When she realises that he's been kept from his heritage and his magic, she flies off the rails with anger. "That's it," she says, "we're friends now. No arguments."

Harry loves talking to Parvati. She's the one that tells him his father was from India. She's the one that tells him the names of his grandparents, that tells him of the importance of heritage in the magical world. They talk about religion and food and all sorts of things, and within two weeks Harry is asking her to teach him Marathi. It's hard at first; the grammar structure is more like French than English, the alphabet sequence is weird and complicated and has too many letters, but he keeps practising his svar and vyanjana and kana and matra. He will do this, he tells himself. (He doesn't tell Ron. He wants this for himself, he thinks. His family, his heritage. He wants to learn before he shares, and so he doesn't tell Ron. For now. He will, when he knows enough.)

Slowly, he starts talking to other Indian kids at Hogwarts. Padma, a seventh year Slytherin named Aarzoo who's Muslim and always has the prettiest hijabs, Gryffindor Kalyani from fourth year and Hufflepuff Rushabh from the third. Kalyani is from Maharashtra just like the Patil twins and Harry, Rushabh is from Gujarat and Aarzoo from Punjab. Harry finds it fascinating that India has so many different cultures and religions, and demands knowledge from them. Aarzoo laughs, and tells him he should have been with the 'Claws.

Harry disagrees. He was supposed to be in Slytherin, he knows, but he is in Gryffindor, where his family had been. His family had been Indian. He wants to know everything about it. If he couldn't have his parents, he would have that which had been a major part of his father's life. And so he reads and observes and studies and asks questions— hesitating at first in case they yell at him (Aunt Petunia hated questions and he feared these people would be the same), but slowly he asks more and more. He talks for hours with Kalyani and Rushabh, and they tell him about Garba and Dhol Tasha, Ganpati Chaturthi and Diwali, Eid and Gudi Padwa. They talk about the languages of India, and Harry immediately asks Aarzoo to teach him Urdu and Hindi. She laughs, and says he should focus on Marathi first. He pouts, but nods.

The Mirror of Erised shows him his father, and he can't take his eyes off. James Potter is a tall man, bulky frame covered in muscles and warm brown skin that seems to glow with happiness. His eyes are light brown, and the bold black lines drawn under them make the green specks stand out. He's dressed in what Harry knows is called a kurta, white and gold threads woven to form images of peacocks and elephants and other intricate designs. The next day, Harry asks Padma what she lines her eyes with, and she promptly hands him a little round metal box and a tiny wooden stick. "It's called kajal." She tells him the differences in pronunciation between Hindi and Marathi, and shows him how to apply it. Harry wears it everyday. It makes his eyes look bright, brighter than they already are, and he falls in love with it. Kalyani presses a kajal covered finger behind his ear every morning. "For good luck," she tells him, a grin playing on her pretty lips. Harry flushes, and smiles back shyly.

For Christmas, Aarzoo gives him perfume. It's chandan and mogra with hints of rose, she says, "and your grandfather made it. His name was Fleamont Henry Potter, and he was an exceptionally talented potioneer." Harry wears it religiously. Padma and Parvati band together and get him books on the Potter family and their historical importance, and he almost cries. Rushabh promises to teach him how to play Garba, and Kalyani gives him a cookbook for everyday Indian foods— breakfast and lunch and a few fancy stuff. Harry hugs it to his chest and thanks her with shining eyes. (he may have a bit of a crush on her. He can't help it— she's really smart, and she's pretty.)

Throughout the year, all of them work to introduce him to Indian food. At first, he thinks it will be easy. It is not. There is no such cuisine named Indian, Parvati tells him sternly. There is Punjabi, South Indian, Mughlai, Maharashtrian, North Indian, Bihari, Bengali and so many more. "The food in India changes with every twenty kilometres of travel," Aarzoo says when he mock complains about it. "It's never the same, and that's what makes it so special." He agrees.

The end of the year arrives, and Harry is still weak from his tryst down the trapdoor. When Ron and Hermione aren't present, his friends from home (because that's what India is, isn't it? His home. The home he never got to see, but is no less a part of him.) crowd around his hospital bed and have long talks with him, filled with banter and laughter. His Marathi is so much better now than it was in September, and he blushes when Kalyani compliments him on it. Rushabh winks at him, and Harry throws a pillow at him, feeling the blood rush to his cheeks at being caught out.

On the last day of school, he hugs Aarzoo around the waist and cries into her stomach. It's the first time he calls her "Aarzoo Tai", and she smiles widely, her own eyes dripping tears. "You will write," she says sternly, "okay? This might be the end of my Hogwarts years, but you are my little brother." He cries harder and nods, refuses to let go until the very last minute.

Harry goes back to Privet Drive with a heavy heart and a proud smile. He isn't inferior to the people there, he knows. He's special. He's Indian. He's James Potter's son, and he's going to live up to it.

[litsetaure]

So…one of my favourite headcanons is that the Potter family are Indian. (Those of you who’ve read my Grindeldore/Wolfstar dancer fic might recall that Fleamont Potter, James’ father and the UK Prime Minister, is Indian in that. Funnily enough, our real life Prime Minister is a British Indian Hindu who became PM last year. On Diwali. Yeah, that was an…interesting day in the family. Still not entirely sure how I feel about it.)

Anyway - here are some headcanons about James Potter being Indian, some of which are based around how I actually grew up. (Note: there will probably be more as I think of them!):

When Holi comes around, James wakes the others up by pelting them with coloured powder. He does it every year and every year they fall for it. They also pelt everyone with coloured powder throughout the holiday. It took weeks for the paint to be cleaned fully. (Some people suspected Dumbledore deliberately let it stay like that because he liked the colours.)

Sirius got really angry the first time he heard someone call James a Paki. He doesn’t know what it means, but he never wants to see that look on James’ face again. He absolutely lost it when James told him what it meant. (For those of you who don’t know what it means, it’s an incredibly racist slur towards south Asians; along similar lines of using the n-word to a black person. This is also why James gets so angry whenever anyone uses the word Mudblood - because he knows how that shit feels.)

Sirius helps James create magical rangoli patterns during Diwali. They also take over the kitchen for an evening trying to make Indian sweets. The results are mixed-looking, but they all taste good, and the house elves get some great new dishes.

Every time a festival falls on a full moon, they always celebrate a few days after so Remus can join in. (He hugely appreciates the sweets.)

James initially wasn��t thrilled that his Animagus form is a stag, since a deer is the form one of the bad guys took in the Ramayana when he triggered the events that led to Rama’s wife being kidnapped.

When James’ father died, he had a traditional Hindu funeral. Traditionally, the eldest son leads the proceedings, but when James broke down, Sirius stepped in to continue. In that moment, James loved Sirius more than he could put into words.

James also taught the Marauders some Hindi so they could talk privately, as well as some Indian magic.

James, Lily and Sirius actually go to india for their wedding outfits. Lily also has magical mendhi patterns done by James’ aunts and cousins. James also had to gently explain to Lily that wearing white is associated with funerals.

Petunia showed up to James and Lily’s wedding in a white dress to try and upstage the bride. She’s very confused to realise a) Lily is not wearing white, and b) a lot of James’ relatives are looking at her weirdly, because she’s wearing a funeral colour.

At James and Lily’s engagement party, James’ aunties kept trying to set Sirius up with their daughters and teasing him about getting married. They shut up when Sirius snogged Remus in front of everyone. James wasn’t even mad that his engagement was briefly upstaged.

James has a book of Indian tales and legends passed down from his father. He read them to Harry at bedtime. Lily would smile and watch from the doorway. He also taught his friends some classic Indian songs to sing to Harry.

Every year on Raksha Bandhan, James ties a rakhi on Sirius’ wrist and charms them so they’ll never come undone. One night, Sirius noticed the threads of one of them coming loose. That night was October 31st, 1981.

[4uru]

Fleamont and Euphemia Potter (WIP)

"Ishq ki dhooni roz jalaaye,uthta dhooyan toh, kaise chupaaye?"

[darkchocolatedimples]

just here to remind you the movie action replay is definitely about james fleamont and euphemia potter in a different universe

[padfootastic]

Sunday Snippet

tagged by by @narcissa-black-supermacy and since i’m incapable of anything except our first cousins au rn, here’s a lil sneak peak.

“Now, I realise Walburga has a—different style but—“

“You can say gaudy, Atta, it’s okay,” Sirius adds cheekily.

“—but it isn’t right that you’ve not been taught how to take care of all this,” she runs a gentle hand down Sirius’ tightly braided hair. “A girl’s hair is, after all, one of her most precious possessions.”

“Take care of all this?” Sirius echoes, wondering what she meant by that. Of course, she knows that most of the reason her hair is the way it is for convenience’s sake. Tying your hair in a loose ponytail or a messy bun only works if you’re a white girl with silky straight hair. Less than ten minutes of keeping her hair unbound and it became pricklier than a thorn bush. She also knows that there’s ways, if she so chooses, that she can look different. She’s seen the other brown girls in her schools noticed their intricate styles that looked nothing like her own strictly ordered, slicked back hair.

Euphemia cups Sirius’ chin with her thumb and forefinger, guiding grey eyes to brown. “You’re beautiful as you are, Sirius, but you shouldn’t have to fight your body, not now nor ever. It’s an extension of yourself, don’t forget treat it as such.”

And as Sirius sits there, still horribly confused, over the course of the next hour, she gets a crash course in the art of taking care of curly hair. Not waves, like she’d always thought, but curls. She’d never realised how similar their hair types were—Effie atta preferred clipping it in the back, daringly open—but after the time they spent together, Sirius was amazed.

Because her aunt was right—she had been fighting parts of her body for her entire life. Hair too unruly? Shove it into a brain or bun tight enough to cut off circulation. Breasts not cooperating? Squeeze into an extra sports bra on top, no matter the strain on her shoulders. Pimples? Popped on sight, no mercy. Not one thing was easy, or gentle.

She never realised her body could be made for gentleness, that she could learn to be so. Sirius had to grow up strong—kids were both cruel and thoughtless, a terrible combination for anyone who looked the way she did and spoke in the accent she had. Mama tried, but she had to spend so much time on her own self that it left little for her. Besides, she’s glad she didn’t learn from her mama; no one wants to be like Walburga, not if they didn’t severely hate themselves. What Sirius knows, she scraped together herself.

open tag for anyone who wants to show off a lil ;) go for it!

[anauro]

does anyone care about my fancasts? no

will that stop me from saying them? absolutely not

effie and fleamont my beloveds

Babe pls, I always care about your fancasts! (Still salty about that skam Darkrose edit tho)

I like Anne Hathaway, but I really, really like the poc James.

I really like Hamel Patel and Varun Dhawan as Effie and Monty.

Or even Varun’s actual wife, Natasha Dalal, because they’re super cute together 🥰

[causereyna-artie]

Just incase you're having a bad day, I want you to know that in some universe Fleamont Potter is probably throwing it back Desi drunk dad style at a jegulus wedding

[multiimoments]

Happy birthday James Potter!

🎂 𝐈𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 [𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧] 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 ✨

Since last year, James (especially the versions from these fics) has helped me understand myself, make sense of life, and manage changes more than I can adequately express. ILY James and thank you to all of these authors 💛

Also, I love all Jameses, but I am partial to desi James bc I am also desi 💌

Fics mentioned:

📖 Art Heist, Baby! by @otrtbs

📖 Crimson Rivers by bizarrestars

📖 Shelf Awareness by @ghostofbambifanfiction

📖 The Long Game by @lackadaisicallizard

📖 Kill Your Darlings by messermoon

****

P. S. Kindly do not come at me for liking Jily. I have been reconnecting with them & I do not find them boring & don't care to hear about it any more than I already have in this fandom. pls and thanks 🥰

[moonyandtoasts]

Desi James anyone? 👀

[mydeadgaywizards]

i've been in the marauders fandom for so long i genuinely forget that james potter is canonically white💀

[siriusblack-the-third]

hellooo with your permission, i am coming back to bother you with the Indian James headcanons 🙏

assuming they're from Maharashtra and they speak Marathi (and Hindi? i'm assuming most families know more than just one language) at home, what would he call his parents? and what would they call him and each other? I've heard "jaan" a lot but I'm not sure how accurate that is and whether that works for Marathi too. are there any other endearment terms they could use? like love, sunshine, darling etc in English.

also i've been wondering if there's any exclamations/expressions etc that can be used within English speech without making it sound unnatural. like in Arabic we say "basmala/mashallah" for good luck or "inshallah" when we hope that something happens etc and it's integrated in English speech very naturally. wondering if there's anything of that sort?

Okay imma go step by step here. In India, especially where I live (Maharashtra yay hehe) it's pretty normal to know like three or more languages. I myself— plus my family— speak Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Marwadi, and even though we can't speak them we understand Punjabi and Bengali. So you assume correctly that they speak more than one language at home. Especially my family, where we know a bunch of non Indian languages as well, for business purposes.

Assuming James is Maratha, he would call his mother Aai (pronounced Aa-ee) and his father Baba (Mum and Dad). I have this headcanon that when he wants to annoy them he calls them Matoshree and Pitashree lmao (formal terms for Mother and Father in Hindi/Sanskrit).

"Jaan" means "life", and it's pretty accurate even if it's Urdu tbh, a lot of parents call their kids stuff like jaan, hayat (which you already know the meaning of), laadli (darling in Hindi), maajha baal (my baby- Marathi). If you wanted nicknames in Marathi you'll be good to go with bubdi (bubba), laadkaa or laadki (darling in masc and fem), or sonpari (golden fairy, usually for girls) and Sonu (dear, used for children).

Exclamation sounds can be "arey!" (uh-ray) which is "hey!" and "aai ga!" (aa-ee guh) which is like "oh mother!". They're just one word each, but they can be used in like 50 different situations lmao. Arey can be used for calling someone's attention ("arey come here a second will you?"), to express frustration with someone ("areyyy, why are you like this?"), exasperation ("arey yaar!" yaar is slang for friend) and a bajillion other stuff. Aai ga is used as an exclamation mark for when you're surprised, or got hurt, and in place of "oh God!". We don't have specific phrases that mean good luck or inshallah, but Urdu still uses both mashallah and inshallah so you'll be okay i think. But James probably wouldn't use them bc he's not a Muslim yk, and Hindu people usually use the name of the god they're praying on on swearing on, so there's that. We say stuff like "hay bhagwan" ("oh, Vishnu". Bhagwan is one of the innumerable names of the Lord Vishnu). Or "har har Mahadev" ("glory be to Lord Shiva". Maha-dev literally translates to Great God, but it is one of the well known names of the God of Destruction). We do use "arey deva" (oh god) as well. "Jai shree Ram"(hail to the Lord Ram) or "jai shree krishna" or "jai shree ganpati" (ganpati is what most marathi people call Lord Ganesha) is used when we're beginning something and we want to make the start auspicious. The phrases are kind of used as "may this go well and end well" ykwim? This is hard to explain I hope you get what i wanna say lol.

Anyways, this is it, I hope this helps, and you can ask me anything and i will answer. Not always so quickly but I will. Have a good day!

[litsetaure]

Strictly Speaking - Chapter Five

In which Gellert attends a Diwali party and has an unexpected, but extremely pleasant, encounter. (Also…in which a certain someone enters the building!)

I had so much fun with this chapter; it brought back a lot of memories from when I was a kid. (Plus I’ve always wanted to do a fic with desi Potters, and the opportunity presented itself!)

[4uru]

Colored rendition of the one and only transmasc!Lily Luna Potter (Remy)

" I'm less of a lily and more of a dandelion ....get it? Dandy...lion...."

"......"

"Honestly, my geniuses are wasted on you arseholes"

(From 'Let Sleeping Dogs Lie')

[winnienora13]

This is mostly concerning James but it applies to every character ever:

Ethnicities are not just aesthetics

There is a cultural significance to them

I’ve seen so so many people just make James desi by making him darker, making him eat desi food and making him call Regulus hindi pet names

there is so much more to desi culture than just that

Same with latino James

They just make him darker and speak Spanish

If we’re going to make people darker to be inclusive at least do it well

[ecstarry]

im so so so tired of seeing people use james latin identity as an accessory but NEVER doing the actual research to make him even slightly accurate to ANY latin american country.

STOP USING OUR CULTURE AS A FUCKING COSTUME IN YOUR FICS. IF YOU DONT HAVE ANY LATINX FRIENDS TO HELP YOU, THERE ARE ENDLESS RESOURCES OUTSIDE OF GOOGLE TRANSLATE FOR YOU TO WRITE HIM RIGHT

[moonage-daydreamy]

'kay hear me out:

james would be an airpods guy - because his adhd ass cannot deal with the wires and their mess. needs his music without any interruptions. nevertheless has lost countless pairs or ones while flying with regulus. it became a thing with them for who could find more with reg being a seeker and all.

sirius would be a wired earphones bluethooth guy (the ones that have a neck thingy) because otherwise he would keep losing them. he couldn't deal with wired ones because they would keep getting them tangled and would lose his mind untangling them. he liked the idea of being tethered but not bound.

regulus would be a headphones guy - because blocking the world out and all that. has the best noise cancelation headphones out there that he religious charges each night to ensure he doesn't have to tolerate idiots; unless it's his idiot (he'll only take down his headphones for james).

remus would be a wired headphones guy because he would always forget to charge them. plus untangling them would give him an out to direct his frustration before moony nights. but trust me they are barely hanging on for dear life. one of the buds got chewed out by padfoot and the wire is like exposed at least three different points. remus likes to think if it works it w o r k s despite sirius begging him to get new ones.