There are many questions we’ve had after reading and watching Harry Potter (how do the ghosts wind up at Hogwarts if they didn’t die there like Mrytle?). But there is one burning question we need answered immediately. Why was the rest of Harry Potter’s family not discussed in the entire series?
Harry grew up believing he was an orphan. He believed the Dursleys (Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and their wretched son Dudley) were all he left in this world. Then, on his 11th birthday he learned that he was a wizard. The Dursley’s had lied about how his parents died. As a child, we understand him never questioning their story – he was forbidden from asking questions. But, when he found out his true backstory and left for Hogwarts, Harry didn’t think to learn about his heritage. Many times he had imagined a life without the Dursleys, so one would think once he learned he could have one, he’d ask all the questions he could about his family. Even after seeing so many family members in the Mirror of Esried, he didn’t try to find out who he was seeing. Maybe it was his overwhelming joy at seeing his parents that blinded him from the fact that he had had many family members. It wasn’t just the Durselys. But what about after the Mirror of Erised?
When he meets Sirius Black, his estranged godfather on the run from the wizarding prision Azkaban, he eventually finds out that Sirius had lived with his father’s family. When he was 16, Sirius ran away from home and James Potter’s parents (Euphemia and Fleamont – names you never see in the books) took him in. He mentioned them being doting parents. And yet, does Harry ask Sirius for details about his grandparents? No. He doesn’t even ask what happened to them. Harry doesn’t even know that they died only a year before he was born, from dragon pox. Why did we have to wait years and years to ever even hear this story? None of this information was provided to us until J.K. Rowling wrote about the Potter family on Pottermore.
For many years, the real question had always been what happened to Mr. & Mrs. Potter, as we said, it was never told in the book or film series. It was just accepted that they were gone. But after getting so many nuggets of his parents lives, why did Harry never ask? Even after reading what our Queen J.K. wrote (don’t hate us for questioning her) about the Potters, there are many questions. It says that Fleamont and Euphemia were older when they had James, having assumed they could not have children. But how old were they? 40 or 70? There are no years given for their birth, only when their son was born (James P was born March 27, 1960). Henry Potter, Fleamont’s father, served on the Wizengamot from 1913-1921, which doesn’t really help anyone narrow down when exactly Fleamont was born. It is said they succumbed to the dragon pox due to their advanced age, but given there are no indicators that they lived lives as long as Nicholas Flamel, we don’t imagine the Potters could have been older than 70-75, if James was only 19 when they passed in 1979, at the time of their deaths. Not to nitpick and tear apart the magic, but when things don’t add up we have to ask questions, and if Harry Potter isn’t going to do it, then we are.
Who were all those folks Harry saw in the Mirror of Erised? Why didn’t you ask Sirius the right questions when you had the chance Harry? Honestly, J.K. this just ties into fan’s need for your prequel story about the Marauders. We imagine all of our questions can be answered then!
