A Simple Twist Of Fate
This article concerns A Simple Twist Of Fate version of Euphemia Potter; you may be looking for other canon and fanon versions.
Euphemia Potter, Dowager Countess of Stinchcombe (née Braithewaite; b. 20th February, 1885) was a Pure-blood witch and mother of James Potter.
Biography
Childhood
Born into the Briathewaite family, a family as old and pure as her future husband's, on February 20th, 1885, Euphemia was the only child of Arnold and Arabella, the Earl and Countess of London.
Hogwarts Years
Fleamont and Euphemia in January 1900
Euphemia began Hogwarts in 1896 and was sorted, like all of her ancestors, into Gryffindor House. She met her future husband, Fleamont Potter, a fellow year Gryffindor, in their first potions lesson when he blew up their cauldron.
The two of them started dating in 1899, at which point Fleamont met her parents; as Fleamont was rich, pure-blooded and heir to an Earldom and a grand estate, Euphemia's parents approved.
Marital
- "Kick my stepmother for me."
- — Euphemia's last words said to her dying husband when he says that he will give his mother Euphemia's regards.
Fleamont and Euphemia began dating in October 1899, three months before Euphemia's mother, Arabella, The Countess of London, died of dragon pox in January 1900. Catching it herself, Euphemia spent the Christmas Holidays recovering from it; the experience would later prevent her from catching the disease many years later, when Fleamont did.
Fleamont and Euphemia kissing in the snow on the grounds of Hogwarts Castle in December 1899
Throughout their relationship, Fleamont and Euphemia were dogged, much to their annoyance, by third year Ravenclaw Cornelius Fudge - future Minister for Magic - who had taken a fancy to Euphemia and was constantly trying to break them up; his attempts were a failure and Fleamont turned Cornelius Fudge into a Flobberworm for a week.
Fleamont leading Euphemia to meet his parents in December 1901.
Despite threats of detention from the teachers, Fleamont did not change him back and it fell to Headmaster Dippet to restore Cornelius back to his former self; Cornelius never forgot Fleamont's actions, even in his adulthood - this would later have far reaching consequences for the grandchildren of Fleamont and Euphemia.
Over the Christmas Holidays of 1901, Euphemia met Fleamont's parents; both approved of her and Fleamont's father, Henry, gave Fleamont his mother's wedding ring to propose to Euphemia with.
Fleamont and Euphemia getting married on 23rd July 1902.
Fleamont proposed to Euphemia on the day of their last exams in June 1902 in front of the whole school; tears in her eyes, Euphemia accepted him without a second thought - a decision she would never regret.
Euphemia and Fleamont married on the 23rd July 1902, almost immediately after leaving Hogwarts; during the entire ceremony Fleamont's mother, Adelaide, cried. Immediately after their marriage, travelling by Portkey, Fleamont took Euphemia to China for their honeymoon, a period that Euphemia would later remember as "the most active time of [her] life."
Two months later, on their return to Potter Manor, Euphemia found herself settling in well, getting along with both of her husband's parents who were kind and welcoming.
Fleamont and Euphemia on their wedding night.
In October 1902, two and a half years after her mother died, her father remarried to the Dowager Countess of Alsager, bringing her two daughters from her first marriage, Honoria and Belladonna, into the family as Euphemia's step-siblings. From the moment of their arrival in the family, Euphemia and her family found themselves at odds, her step-sisters being spoiled brats.
Euphemia became the Mistress of the Manor after her mother-in-law, Adelaide, passed away in 1915.
In 1930, the health of Euphemia's father, Arnold, began to fail. Worrying that his second wife and her daughters would squander the family fortune, he began to take steps to break the entail - fortune, title and estates were tied up together - to leave everything except the title to his daughter. Thanks to Fleamont's family's lawyer and his own family's fortune, Arnold was able to break the entail and, in his will, left the family's fortune and the estate to his daughter.
In 1935, Arnold passed away; the title of Earl of London passed to a distant cousin, but, per his will, the family fortune and estate passed to Euphemia and, within hours of her father's death, Euphemia found herself facing a legal challenge from her step-mother, the Dowager Countess of Alsager, over the fact that Arnold had left her and her daughters nothing in the will. Fortunately, due to her father's foresight, Euphemia was able to retain everything as her father's will was deemed legal and valid as it had been witnessed by Fleamont and his family's lawyer.
Her father's funeral a month later would be the last contact that Euphemia would have with her step-mother and step-sisters until the Dowager Countess of Alsager died twenty years later at the age of ninety.
In January 1950, after forty eight and a half years of Euphemia and Fleamont being married, her father-in-law, Henry, fell ill and she ultimately became Countess of Stinchcombe in November 1950 when her father-in-law finally passed away.
As Lady Stinchcombe, Euphemia and her husband, Fleamont, now Earl of Stinchcombe, set up many charities to help discriminated Muggleborns fit into the Magical World.
For many years Fleamont and Euphemia remained childless, though doctors could find no reason as to why. Finally, on a vacation to Tunisia in 1959, Euphemia conceived and their only son and child, James Potter, was born on March 30th 1960.
Euphemia, in Tunisia, confiding to Fleamont that she is pregnant.
As James came later in their life - Euphemia and Fleamont were both seventy five - he was pampered and cherished accordingly.
In 1972, at the age of 12, James's eyes began to fail and Euphemia took him to buy his first set of spectacles, much to his annoyance for he thought them "uncool", something which amused Euphemia to no end; when she regaled it to Fleamont that night he burst into laughter.
In 1975 Sirius Black III, great-nephew of Fleamont's half-aunt by marriage, came to live with the Potter family after running away from home.
In November 1976, while James was at Hogwarts, Fleamont caught Dragon Pox - a disease deadly to the elderly. Still suffering from the disease that Christmas, he welcomed James, Sirius and Lily to Potter Manor, though looked "green and frail" and his condition worsened all Christmas, requiring him to have to sit in front of the fire and keep warm. During Fleamont's long, drawn out illness, Euphemia looked "ill, tired and pale" due to having nursed her husband throughout the length of said illness.
James graduated from Hogwarts on 15th June, 1978 and returned to Potter Manor. Weeks later, on the 17th of July, he proposed to Lily, who accepted him. The two eventually married on December 25th 1978; only Sirius, Lily's parents and James's parents attended the private wedding - it was to be the last time that Fleamont would leave Potter Manor.
Now incredibly sick and ill, Fleamont died, surrounded by his wife - whom he thanked for being so good a wife to him - adopted son, son and new daughter-in-law, on the 1st of July 1979. At the death of her husband, Euphemia broke down into tears, and was embraced by her son; she would be unable to speak and could do nothing but cry a week later when Fleamont was buried.
Euphemia, now Dowager Countess of Stinchcombe, moved into the Dower House on the Potter Estate - despite protestations from her son and daughter-in-law that she did not have to leave - but was often invited back to the manor for dinner and recovered from her husband's death.
After Fleamont's funeral, Euphemia, now a widow, was regularly invited to dine with her son and daughter-in-law after their marriage, and was a kind, if stern, matriarch of the family.
Widowhood
Between the years of her husband's passing and the targeting of her son and daughter-in-law, Euphemia was a fortress of strength as the two defied Voldemort - who offered to make both of them Death Eaters - twice, wholeheartedly agreeing with her son and daughter-in-law's willingness to fight
When her son and daughter-in-law were targeted by Lord Voldemort in 1979, Euphemia agreed that they should go into hiding and cut off contact with them until Lord Voldemort's defeat, at which time she met her grandson, Lancelot.
Euphemia remained, like her son and daughter-in-law, in hiding between 1979 and 1981 and only emerged once, in 1980, to take care of affairs at Potter Manor.
After the birth of her grandson Euphemia settled well into the life of a grandmother, doting on her grandson, Lancelot.
In the winter of 1984 the Potter Family took a trip to China; Euphemia had not been here since 1902, but remembered everything and became the guide for her family during their holiday.
In 1989, Euphemia became a grandmother again on the birth of her grandson, Edward.
Physical appearance
Euphemia was "pale and blonde" with "graying streaks" in her hair and a pair of glasses; her hair was held up in a bun with two knitting needles as hair grips.
Personality
Euphemia is a woman who prefers to have a firm grip on matters, sometimes manipulating with her cunningness to change people's perception about things. She is known to be sarcastic and competitive. Yet, throughout her marriage, she developed a deeper side of sensitivity. She has a great love of her family and would prioritise them over everything. Euphemia is kind, if stern, yet humorous and cheeky, but also fair, and stands up for her beliefs.
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Appearances
| Peerage of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Adelaide Herbertson |
Viscountess Venthram July 23, 1902 - November 1950 |
Succeeded by Lily Evans |
| Preceded by Adelaide Herbertson |
Countess of Stinchcombe November 1950 - July 1, 1979 |
Succeeded by Lily Evans |
| Preceded by Adelaide Herbertson |
Dowager Countess of Stinchcombe July 1, 1979 - |
Succeeded by Incumbent |