JK Rowling has spun another spell on us and all hell has broken lose ever since. According to Rowling’s latest statement, apparently, there were two Harrys. Nope, not just the one you and I read about and watched while growing up. But there is another Harry! Okay, I think you need to sit down for this one, breathe, relax, everything will be alright.
Even though Rowling has no immediate plans to continue the mega-phenomenon of the Harry Potter series, the brilliant author has a habit of dishing out trivia related to the magical world every now and then. You would think she would stop dropping bombshells over us but the author is nowhere done with the much-loved book series.
So it is a normal day and Rowling’s Knight Bus comes hurtling towards us as she goes on to announce that there was another Harry Potter who went by the name of Henry and only his close pals called him Harry. And wait for the most crucial bit of the information, he apparently was Harry Potter’s great grandfather. Say whhhhhattt???
But Harry is just a child and for him, this news could have been oddly unsettling, considering that his namesake has been sort of the hook of the entire series. That is one angry grandson, yelling up to the heavens.
Rowling explained in her latest Pottermore entry:
Henry Potter (Harry to his intimates), was a direct descendant of Hardwin and Iolanthe, and served on the Wizengamot from 1913 – 1921. Henry caused a minor stir when he publicly condemned then Minister for Magic, Archer Evermonde, who had forbidden the magical community to help Muggles waging the First World War. His outspokenness on the behalf of the Muggle community was also a strong contributing factor in the family’s exclusion from the ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’.
So The Boy Who Lived should actually be called Harry Potter II or Harry Junior. Let the mirth not stop there.
Here is a fun fact about the ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’ which was basically a list of 28 wizard families considered as the original 28 British families that were still “truly pure-blood” in the 1930s. As per Potter fandom stories go the Potters have kept off that list for fighting for #MuggleRights.
If we know something for sure, it is that both Harrys had a knack for rebellion. The late Harry made news for publicly condemning practices of the then Minister for Magic, Archer Evermonde, who forbade the magical community to help Muggles during the First World War. And as all people have to be punished for being outspoken, Harry the first was reprimanded with the Potters being excluded from the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
So if we piece this together correctly Henry/Harry had a son named Fleamont who with his wife Euphemia had a son called James. Fleamont and Euphemia lived long enough to see him choose a Muggle-born girl called Lily Evans to marry, but could not wait long enough to see their grandson enter the world. Dragon pox took the life of the two within days of each other and James Potter came to inherit the infamous Ignotus Peverell’s Invisibility Cloak. This grandson was called Harry Potter, who then received the Invisibility Cloak and then we know how the rest of the tale conjures, right? Or do we?
And even though the original Harry Potter didn’t actually make it into the books, the fact that the prequels and spin-offs from the series keep branching out should be consolation enough that perhaps Sr. Harry may make an entry at any given point of time.
