Lily and James are the parents of Harry Potter. Throughout the Harry Potter book and film series, they are already deceased and have only appeared either in flashbacks or as ghostly or magical apparitions. In life, Lily and James were two of the most talented wizards ever to come out of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry and would pass on their natural magical affinity to their son Harry. Sadly, when Harry was barely a year old, his parents were struck down by the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, a practitioner of the Dark Arts who saw the Potters as a threat to his plans. Voldemort personally invaded the home of the Potters in Godric's Hollow on the night of October 31st 1981, slaying both James and Lily with the forbidden Killing Curse. In their last moments, the Potters stood valiantly in defence of their infant son Harry, who had been marked for death by the Dark Lord. Sacrificing their lives out of love for their child left Harry marked with a protective enchantment that shielded him from Voldemort's Killing Curse, which rebounded off of him and destroyed the Dark Lord's body. Since then, Lily and James have been recognised as heroes to the wizarding world and Harry has been dubbed as The Boy Who Lived.