JK Rowling Is Blowing Minds With This Harry Potter Revelation
JK Rowling is one of those celebrities who’s in constant contact with her fans. Not only does she use Twitter expertly, but she’s also a regular contributor to her Harry Potterfan site Pottermore. In one recent post on the site, Rowling provided some mind-blowing insight into the Potter family name and revealed that there are actually two Harry Potters in the Potterverse.
In a blog post outlining their family tree, Rowling shared that while many believe that Harry Potter’s surname points to muggle roots, the Potter family is actually part of a long line of wizards, and their name came about much in the same way that it would have in the world of muggles.
“The wizarding family of Potters descends from the twelfth-century wizard Linfred of Stinchcombe, a locally well-beloved and eccentric man, whose nickname, ‘the Potterer,’ became corrupted in time to ‘Potter,'” Rowling wrote. She went on to discuss a prominent member of the family, Henry Potter, AKA Harry, who publicly condemned the Ministry of Magic during the Muggles’ first world war for their decision not to help England. Rowling then admitted that this is the reason why the Potter name isn’t considered sacred. “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.’”
Harry the first, it turns out, was the great-grandfather of Harry “the boy who lived” Potter, which makes perfect sense since our Harry is so willing to go out on a limb to help people around him.
What does your family tree look like? Tell us @BritandCo!
(h/t Refinery29; photos via Danny E Martindale/Getty and JK Rowling/Pottermore)
