1981

The following events occurred in the year **1981**:

## Events

### July

* The McKinnon family (including Marlene McKinnon, an Order of the Phoenix member) are wiped out by Lord Voldemort.
* Harry Potter's first birthday

### September

* The eighty-third Wizarding Schools Potions Championship is held.
* Peter Pettigrew replaces Sirius Black as the Potters' ***secret keeper***. Within a week, Pettigrew (secretly a Death Eater) betrays the Potters' whereabouts to Lord Voldemort.

### October

* 31 October:
	+ Lord Voldemort kills James and Lily Potter, but his Killing Curse rebounds off infant Harry Potter, causing the Dark Lord to lose physical form and Harry to gain a lightning-shaped scar and become a Horcrux.
	+ The First Wizarding War ends.
	+ Horace Slughorn's fish dies.

### November

* ***1 November*** (Tuesday):
	+ ***Fall of Lord Voldemort celebrations*** take place in the wizarding world, including in places like ***Kent***, ***Yorkshire*** and ***Dundee***. They almost get caught by Muggles during the partying.
	+ Sirius Black is arrested for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles. In reality, Pettigrew killed the Muggles, faked his own death and went into hiding. Black is sentenced to Azkaban, without a trial.
	+ ***Vernon*** and ***Petunia Dursley*** (née Evans) reluctantly become Harry James Potter's guardians when he is brought to ***4 Privet Drive*** by Albus Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, and Minerva McGonagall.
	+ The Ministry begin their hunt to bring the Death Eaters to justice.
* Horace Slughorn retires from his post at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
* Severus Snape is appointed Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

### December

* Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Jnr are arrested for the torture of Alice and Frank Longbottom. The Longbottoms are committed to St Mungo's and their infant son Neville is taken into the care of his paternal grandmother, Augusta Longbottom.
* Peter Pettigrew is unjustly awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class for his confrontation with Sirius Black which along with his severed finger is posthumously given to his mother.

## Alternate Timeline Events

### October

* 31 October:
	+ A skirmish ensued at St Jerome's Church in an alternate reality of 31 October 1981, where Delphini, intending to bring back Lord Voldemort, took on Harry Potter and his family.

## Births

* 13 February: Luna Lovegood to Xenophilius and Pandora Lovegood.
* 11 August: Ginevra Weasley to Arthur and Molly Weasley.
* Colin Creevey to Muggle parents Mr and Mrs Creevey
* Zacharias Smith (uncertain)

## Deaths

* Edgar Bones, his wife, and their children
* Dorcas Meadowes
* Caradoc Dearborn
* Fabian and Gideon Prewett
* Adalbert Waffling
* Benjy Fenwick
* July: Marlene McKinnon and her family
* 31 October: James and Lily Potter, Francis the fish.
* 1 November: Twelve Muggles

## Behind the scenes

* 4 July: Actor Paul Davies, who played a ***Death Eater*** in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film), and in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (film), is born.
* 25 September: Actor Matt Truman, who played a Ministry of Magic Worker in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film), is born.

## Notes and references

1. ↑ Template:WBP
2. ↑ Template:DH
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone* (film), Chapter 1
4. ↑ Template:HBP
5. ↑ , Chapter 1 (*The Boy Who Lived*) - "When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country.
6. ↑ Template:HBP
7. ↑ Template:GOF
8. ↑ Template:OOTP
9. ↑ Template:CC
10. ↑ I never get fed up with readers' questions! Luna's birthday is the 13th February. posted by JKR on Twitter on 17 July 2015
11. ↑ Pottermore - Ginny Weasley
12. ↑ It is never stated what year Smith is in, but the fact that he was still attending Hogwarts for the 1997–1998 school year means that he could not have been above Harry Potter. Smith fleeing from the Battle of Hogwarts also suggests that he was probably not under-age at the time, since under-age wizards and witches were instructed to leave. However, Smith's fleeing could simply be indicative of his fear at the time, and some under-age students did participate in the battle, such as Colin Creevey.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 In Lily's letter to Sirius in Deathly Hallows you can work out that the McKinnons died around about July or early August in 1981 and as we know that Marlene McKinnon and her family died two weeks after the photo of the Order was taken, all the rest of the members of the Order who died (or disappeared) must have died some time inbetween July and October 31st in 1981.
14. ↑ Template:FWC mention
15. ↑ Template:OOTP
16. ↑ Template:POA
17. ↑ Paul Davies at the Internet Movie Database