Relatives of Harry Potter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article describes minor relatives of fictional character Harry Potter of the Harry Potter series. See James and Lily Potter for Harry's parents, Dursley family for Harry's adoptive parents.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mr and Mrs Dursley

Mr and Mrs Evans

Mr and Mrs Potter

1 Mr and Mrs Potter
2 Mr and Mrs Evans
3 The Dursleys
4 Trivia
- 4.1 Mark Evans
5 External links

[edit] Mr and Mrs Potter

Mr and Mrs Potter
Harry Potter character
Gender	Male/Female
Hair colour	Black (?)
Eye colour	Hazel (?)
House	Gryffindor (?)
Parentage	Pure-blood
Allegiance	Order of the Phoenix (Presumed Sympathisers)
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Mirror of Erised scene)

Harry's paternal grandparents have not been mentioned very much in the books. However, when looking at a family tapestry in Order of the Phoenix Sirius states that he stayed at their house with James after running away from home at 16. They took him as a second son. It seems that they died sometime between 1976 and 1981. Mr Potter was presumably the "grandfather with knobbly knees" that Harry saw in the Mirror of Erised.

According to J. K. Rowling, James's parents were elderly, were getting on a little when he was born, which explains the only child, very pampered, had-him-late-in-life-so-he's-an-extra-treasure, as often happens, I think. They were old in wizarding terms, and they died. They succumbed to a wizarding illness. She has also said that Harry's considerable inherited fortune came via his father James from the Potters, and that she made them wealthy because it was something she would have wished for herself.

Rowling's recently released Black family tree tree shows two individuals, Charlus Potter and Dorea Black, who could be Harry's grandparents. Although they were born in the same generation as Sirius Black's grandparents, it is still possible for them to be James' parents, since they were getting on a little when James was born. It is stated that they had one son, which fits the facts known about James. If this is the case, Harry would be a female-line descendant of the Black Family.

No mention of such an important connection between the two best friends, James and Sirius, appears in the books, despite Sirius becoming Harry's godfather and then guardian (although he also failed to note the established fact that his parents were survived by his grandfather). From the tree, however, it can be seen that Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley are third cousins once removed, despite this not being mentioned in the books.

The Black Family had the habit of erasing family members from their tree if they offended the head of the family. Such as in the case of Alphard Black, who offended his sister Walburga by leaving money to her already disowned son, Sirius. However, Dorea (Walburga's aunt) remained on the family tree, suggesting she had not offended Walburga. James' mother took in Sirius when he fell out with his parents, which might have been sufficient grounds for striking her from the family tree, had she been Dorea and had Walburga known exactly where Sirius went (it is never stated that she did know). The Black Family Tree shows Dorea to have died at the age of 57, which is hardly "quite elderly in wizarding terms", as Rowling has said that James' parents were when they died. Some, however, have interpreted Rowling's words to mean that James' parents were old by wizarding standards when he was born. This is more viable as they would have been forty-years-old at the time James was born. Considering most wizards seem to bear children in their early to mid-twenties, forty would have been considered old by wizarding standards. Evidence is against this comes from statements made by JK Rowling, in which she claims that wizards have a longer life spans that muggles (despite no such evidence from the Black Family Tree). Albus Dumbledore, at his time of death was about 150, while Minerva McGonagall and Lord Voldemort are both about 70. Arthur and Molly Weasley, in the novels are hinted at being anywhere from their late 40's to early 60's.

The Potters were purebloods, and Harry is the last of their line. Rowling has stated that he has no living relatives apart from the Dursleys. Of course, as everyone is related to some degree, she meant close relatives.

If James Potter is the "Male Potter" offspring of Charlus and Dorea Potter, and they are thus Harry's paternal grandparents, then Harry would also be a second cousin of the Black sisters Bellatrix Lestrange, Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy; and therefore a second cousin once-removed of his schoolyard enemy Draco Malfoy, and of Nymphadora Tonks. Harry would also be a third cousin to his best friend Ron Weasley (and apparent girlfriend Ginny Weasley), and their other siblings. Harry is also possibly related to both Bartemius Crouch Senior (second cousin once-removed) and Junior (third cousin), though this assumes that Bartemius Crouch Senior was the son of Caspar Crouch and Charis Black-Crouch.

The Muggle-born Hermione Granger appears to be one of the only main school characters not related to the others by blood or marriage.

As a descendent of a pure-blood line, Harry may be related to other characters through his Potter side, and may even be related to the aforementioned characters in other ways too, if the Potters married into the Weasleys, Malfoys, Crouches or any of the families of those women who married into the Blacks.

[edit] Mr and Mrs Evans

Mr and Mrs Evans
Harry Potter character
Gender	Male/Female
Hair colour	Dark Red (?) (Blonde (?)
Eye colour	Bright Emerald Green
Parentage	Muggle
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry stated that, in the Mirror of Erised, he saw EYES like his. These must have been the Evanses as we know Harry got the green eyes and almond shape from his mother.)

Harry's maternal grandparents were Muggles, and so was their daughter Petunia. Their other daughter Lily turned out to be a witch. They were said to be "proud to have a witch in the family"; Petunia was bitter and jealous. Mr and Mrs Evans have never appeared in the novels except for the Mirror of Erised scene in The Philosopher's Stone. Harry claims he saw eyes like his. We know Harry has his mother's bright green eyes as well as their almond shape, so the other people with similar eyes were clearly Evanses.

[edit] The Dursleys

Main article: Dursley family

Harry's aunt Petunia married a Muggle named Vernon Dursley presumably around the same time Lily and James got married, as their son Dudley is the same age as Harry. The Dursleys live in the Surrey town of Little Whinging and are mortally afraid of Harry's magical abilities - and despise him. Although the Dursleys outwardly seem to be a respectable family, they treat Harry with disrespect and intense dislike and, when he was younger, physical and emotional abuse. The film versions cast them as upper middle class but there is ambiguity in the books as to whether this is the case. The family's characters seem to imply they are actually upper level working class with aspirations to a higher station. They have been Harry's reluctant guardians since he was a year old, although Harry will leave the Dursleys forever when he turns seventeen. Vernon's sister Marge Dursley, a dog breeder, sometimes visited Vernon and Petunia, and used to terrorise Harry (these visits seem to have ended since Harry inflated her to a massive size when he was thirteen).

[edit] Trivia

Dursley (pronounced "durzley") is a small town in Gloucestershire, near where JK Rowling was born. She claims she gets far more complaint letters from the people of Dursley than she does from the people of Snape.

[edit] Mark Evans

Mark Evans
Harry Potter character
Gender	Male
Parentage	Muggle
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (mention)

Mark Evans is NOT a relative of Harry Potter; Mark Evans is mentioned in the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

"So who've you been beating up tonight?" Harry asked [his cousin Dudley], his grin fading. "Another ten-year old? I know you did Mark Evans two nights ago."

General speculation in the internet realm of Harry Potter was that Mark might be a relative of Lily Evans in some way, and, as he was ten, he would be entering Hogwarts the following year. In July 2004 J.K. Rowling revealed on her website that the use of Evans for Mark's last name was merely a coincidence and will at no point later in the books be of importance. As she states on her site, Evans is a common name and she gave no thought to giving it to a (very) minor character.