J.K. Rowling has revealed that there are two Harry Potters in her fictional wizarding world.
The popular series of novels celebrated its twentieth anniversary on June 26, which marks 20 years since the publication of the series’ first book The Philosopher’s Stone.
Writing in a post on the Potter fan site Pottermore, Rowling disclosed that there are in fact two prominent Harry Potters in her self-created world.
Discussing the titular protagonist’s family tree, Rowling wrote: “The Potter family is a very old one, but it was never (until the birth of Harry James Potter) at the very forefront of wizarding history, contenting itself with a solid and comfortable existence in the backwaters.”
Rowling revealed that Potter’s great-grandfather Henry Potter – known as Harry to his friends – worked in the Wizengamot law courts from 1913 to 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,” Rowling wrote. “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 had a son called Fleamont, who went on to marry Euphemia and have their son James – Harry Potter’s father.
“Fleamont and Euphemia lived long enough to see James marry a Muggle-born girl called Lily Evans, but not to meet their grandson, Harry,” writes Rowling. “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.”