JK Rowling is always delighting fans by releasing new nuggets of information about the Harry Potter universe.

Advertisement

In the latest revelation we learn about Harry’s ancestry, and it turns out he wasn’t the first Harry Potter.

The Harry that we know had a great grandfather called Henry Potter – but he was known as Harry to friends – and Rowling has revealed a bit about him in a new 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’."

Henry/Harry had a son named Fleamont who, with his wife Euphemia, "lived long enough to see James marry a Muggle-born girl called Lily Evans, but not to meet their grandson, Harry [the one we know]. Dragon pox carried them off within days of each other, due to their advanced age, and James Potter then inherited Ignotus Peverell’s Invisibility Cloak."

Advertisement

The original Harry Potter didn't make it into the books, but perhaps we'll see him in a future movie…

Authors

Ellie HarrisonWriter, RadioTimes.com
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement