Harry Potter author JK Rowling has given fans new information about the family of The Boy Who Lived, just days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first book.
Rowling revealed Harry’s paternal great-grandfather was also called Harry, or Henry in more formal settings, who frequently spoke out on behalf of humans, known as muggles.
The author said this was one of the reasons why the Potter family were left out of The Sacred Twenty Eight, the list of 28 British families of pure magic blood.
Harry Sr’s son Fleamont was Harry’s grandfather, the father of Harry’s father James.
Writing on Pottermore, the online home of Harry Potter, Rowling said: “It was Fleamont who took the family gold and quadrupled it, by creating magical Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion (‘two drops tames even the most bothersome barnet’).
“He sold the company at a vast profit when he retired, but no amount of riches could compensate him or his wife Euphemia for their childlessness.
“They had quite given up hope of a son or daughter when, to their shock and surprise, Euphemia found that she was pregnant and their beloved boy, James, was born.”
While Fleamont and Euphemia lived long enough to see James marry Harry’s mother Lily, they died of dragon pox before the birth of the famous wizard, she said.
Rowling also revealed the wizarding family of Potters descends from the 12th-century wizard Linfred of Stinchcombe, describing him as “a locally well-beloved and eccentric man, whose nickname, the Potterer, became corrupted in time to Potter”.
She added: “Historians credit Linfred as the originator of a number of remedies that evolved into potions still used to this day, including Skele-gro and Pepperup Potion.
“His sales of such cures to fellow witches and wizards enabled him to leave a significant pile of gold to each of his seven children upon his death.”
On Monday it will be 20 years since the publication of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel