Very Interesting! Please Read

[31metsrule]

I found this at Harrypotterfacts.com
Part 1 : Are Harry and Voldemort related ?

It has been often suggested that Voldemort might be Harry's real father (like Vader and Luke in " Star Wars "...) I do NOT think he is - I mean, I think Harry's father is James, and that James and Voldemort are two different persons - but I also think Harry and Voldemort ARE related.

There are many resemblances between them : they can both speak to snakes, they have "twin" magic wands, and there is also a real physical resemblance between Harry and Tom Riddle (young Voldemort). Dumbledore does explain (at the end of book 2) that some of Harry's traits (snake language for instance) might have been given to him
-most unwillingly- by Voldemort when he failed to kill him... much in the same way as he gave him his scar.
Maybe... however, we know there is a great physical resemblance between James and Harry, so there must have been a physical resemblance between James and young T. Riddle. This cannot be the result of the attack that gave Harry his scar ! So, my theory is that Voldemort and James Potter are related.

Now, remember Dobby at the beginning of book 2 :
- Harry asks Dobby if the warning he has just given to him has anything to do with You Know Who,
- Dobby answers : " No, not He Who Must Not Be Named ", but his eyes are wide open. he is trying to suggest something to Harry.
- We know what it is. the warning has something to do with Tom Riddle (and Tom Riddle CAN be named).
- Then, Harry asks Dobby another question : " He hasn't got a brother, has he ? " (strange question, by the way.is it only there to prepare a future revelation ?)
- Again, Dobby shakes his head, but again his eyes are wide open, wider than ever, as if he were trying to suggest something else to Harry, something most important : we still don't know what it is.

So, what would Dobby have said if he had been feeling free to speak ?

Here is my guess : Voldemort has no brother (so Dobby's answer is true, strictly speaking)... but he had a sister. Voldemort's sister married a wizard named Potter.
She became the mother of James Potter ! So, if I am correct, Voldemort is James' uncle, and Harry's great-uncle. As Dobby is Malefoy's house elf, he is likely to know about such a secret : Malefoy, after all, was in Voldemort's " inner circle ".

Another hint : when Harry first reads the name "Riddle" in the diary, he thinks he has never heard it before... and yet there is something familiar about that name :
".as though Riddle was a friend he'd had when he was very small".
Why ? The expression " when he was very small " must refer to the period when he was with his parents. Maybe he has heard about "grandmother Riddle" during the first year of his life !

Objection 1 : Voldemort's mother died when he was born.
Answer : no problem ; his sister must have been older than him.

Another hint to support this : Mrs Riddle (Voldemort's mother) hadn't told her husband she was a witch when they got married ; then, WHY did she have to tell him later, when she was pregnant ?
The answer could be : because the other child had begun showing magical talents ! (thanks to the person who suggested this idea)

Objection 2 : when looking in the mirror of Erised and seeing his family, Harry does not see Voldemort.
Answer : the mirror cannot give anyone the Truth ; it merely shows one's heart's greatest desire ; obviously, when looking in the mirror, Harry doesn't particularly want to see Voldemort ! (After all, he doesn't see the Dursleys either).

Objection 3 : Dumbledore has said that the Dursleys are Harry's only left family.
Answer : at the beginning of book 1, here is what Dumbledore exactly says :
- " I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now. "
Given the context, I suppose Dumbledore means " the only family that can take care of him ". Obviously, no one would expect Voldemort to take care of Harry !
And even if Dumbledore's words are to be interpreted literally, the Dursleys might very well be Harry's only living relatives and my theory still be correct : when Dumbledore says these words about the Dursleys, Voldemort is not really alive any more : he is in a state so close to death (neither alive, nor really dead) that he cannot be considered a " living relative " of Harry.

[31metsrule]

Part 2 : Why did Voldemort want to kill Harry ?

As far as we know, Voldemort has always been after Harry's life, ever since Harry was a baby. Why ? In book 1, Harry asks Dumbledore, but Dumbledore says he is not ready to hear the truth yet.

We know Voldemort also killed James, but he didn't want to kill Lily (he killed her only because she was trying to protect Harry).

Let us see. we know Voldemort has killed :
- his own family (the Riddles),
- the Potter family (except Harry who survived).
If Voldemort and James Potter are related (see Part 1 above), all this may be the continuation of the same massacre !

Here is my theory :
Voldemort wants to kill Harry BECAUSE they are related.
Voldemort wants to kill people who are blood-related to himself : he killed the Riddles, he killed James, but he didn't particularly want to kill Lily.
If my theory is correct, Lily is NOT related to Voldemort, and this is the reason why he didn't want to kill her (this is the exact opposite of another, quite popular, theory !)

Now. why does Voldemort want to kill relatives ?

We know what Voldemort's supreme goal is : he is on a quest for immortality !
That's what he says in book 4, in his speech to the Death-Eaters :
" I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality. You know my goal - to conquer death. "

My theory is that he has found (or has been taught) a path to immortality, something very, very dark indeed, the darkest of the Dark Arts, that involves taking the lives of his relatives (including Harry) !

This would account for the name Voldemort has chosen :
in French, "Vol-de-mort" means something like "Death-stealing".
The "Death-stealer" takes the lives of his relatives to ensure his own immortality : ghastly isn't it ?

A hint to support this theory (this one is a BIG hint) :

At the end of book 1, when Harry and Voldemort are face to face, Voldemort asks Harry to give him the Philosopher's Stone and proposes him to change sides, to become his ally.
Most important : at that precise moment, Voldemort is willing to spare Harry's life !
"Better save your own life and join me."
"Now give me the Stone, unless you want her (Lily) to have died in vain."
Why ? Of course, Voldemort may be lying, but if he is sincere, this is the ONLY time he doesn't want to kill Harry : he wanted to kill him when he was a baby ; he wants to kill him at the end of book 4 when they meet again... so, why not at that moment ?
Well... if Harry gives him the Stone, Voldemort's quest for immortality is finished : with the Stone, he IS immortal !
No more need to kill Harry then...
After the Stone is destroyed, Voldemort first tries to recover his body and mortal life (he succeeds at the end of book 4), then he will resume his old quest...

If you are still unconvinced, consider this sentence carefully :
"Now give me the Stone, unless you want her (Lily) to have died in vain."
We know Lily died to save Harry's life. she will have died " in vain " if Harry is killed, so the sentence means :
" Now give me the Stone, unless you want to be killed now ".
The Stone can give its owner immortality. so Voldemort's sentence means :
" Give me this stone-of-immortality, and I will not kill you ".
this clearly shows the relation that exists between Voldemort's desire to become immortal and his desire to kill Harry.

Another hint :

At the end of book 4, Barty Crouch Jr says to Harry that the Dark Lord and himself had killed their fathers "to ensure the continued rise of the Dark Order".
What does that mean ? For Crouch, this is obvious : his father was going straight to Dumbledore to tell him everything. But in what way was the murder of Voldemort's father by his son of any use for the "rise of the Dark Order" ? If my theory is correct, this murder (50 years in the past) was in fact one of Voldemort's first steps on his path to immortality.

Objection : if Voldemort desires immortality that much, why doesn't he try to build his own Philosopher's Stone ?
Answer : Nicolas Flamel is the only wizard who has successfully created a Philosopher's Stone in over six centuries (and maybe much more) !!! This should mean that creating a Stone is an unthinkably difficult task. Even if Voldemort is the greatest dark wizard of modern times, this is probably beyond his abilities. The path to immortality he has found must be a bit less difficult (although still very difficult).

One last note : if my theory is correct, Harry is - like Voldemort himself - a heir of Slytherin. Many fans of Harry Potter believe that Harry is in fact the heir of Griffindor. I think he could very well be both. My theory implies that Jame's mother is a descendant of Slytherin, but Jame's father could be a descendant of Griffindor.

[31metsrule]

Part 3 : What exactly is Voldemort's " path to immortality " ?

So, I have reached the conclusion that Voldemort wants to kill Harry because he needs to kill relatives, in order to achieve his supreme goal : immortality. I think this conclusion is quite plausible, as it is based on hints found in the books.

What follows is (much) more speculative : what is exactly Voldemort's "path to immortality" ? What does he have to do in order to achieve immortality ? Must he kill ALL his relatives ? This could mean all mankind. Or just a minimum number of people ? Or just his "close" relatives (whatever that means) ?

The solution I propose here is different from the one I posted some weeks ago ; I think it is better, although I'm still not fully satisfied with it.
I suppose Voldemort had to kill his father, as well as all his father's descendants (except himself, of course). Killing them is just a part (although a necessary part) of the path that leads him to immortality.

I suppose Voldemort was taught how to become immortal during his final years at Hogwarts ; the master who taught him was dark wizard Grindelwald, just before he was defeated by Dumbledore in 1945. (JKR gave us this name in book 1 : so, I think Grindelwald must have had a role somehow. And the year 1945 fits very well with the end of
Tom Riddle's studies at Hogwarts.)
The "path to immortality" must involve rituals of dark magic, of an extreme complexity... I think the "transformations" that made Tom Riddle barely recognizable when he came back as Lord Voldemort were part of the process. And he also needed an important thing from his father !

Remember the potion that restored Voldemort to his mortal life and body in book 4: the bones of his father were necessary for it.
Voldemort's "path to immortality" is something else, a completely different spell, but I suppose it also involves taking something from his father : his life !!!
Killing his father was one of Voldemort's first steps on his "path to immortality".

But after that, Voldemort realized something was going wrong.
He had killed his father, and yet this part of the immortality-spell hadn't produced its full effects : it was as if his father was somehow still alive, as if something of him had survived. in someone else !

Remember what Dumbledore says to Harry at the end of book 3 :
"Your father is alive in you, Harry. So you did see your father last night, Harry. you found him inside yourself."
The same kind of thing must have happened with Tom Riddle Senior and his daughter.

So, Voldemort understood he had not completely done the job ; and he became aware of the existence of his sister, whom he had never heard about before. To become immortal, he would have to kill her as well, and all her descendants !
Years later, he found his sister, and killed her. but again, this wasn't enough. She had had a son.
More years later, after he had grown a lot in power, he finally found the Potters (with the help of Wormtail).
He killed James..

Here is the story of what happened after that, from Voldemort's point of view :
Only Harry left, his ultimate triumph is at hand. He reaches the baby, raises his wand. at last, at long last, he is about to obtain what he has been looking for for the last 40 years ! He wants to enjoy every second of this moment !
- "AVAD.."
- "Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry !"
- "Stand aside, you silly girl. stand aside now."
- "Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead"
That stupid girl is not going to ruin the most important moment in Lord Voldemort's life ! She wants to be killed. very well then !
So, he kills Lily.
And now, Harry ! Nothing can stop him now ! He doesn't want to think of anything else : immortality is at hand. He raises his wand again, eyes half closed, preparing for the greatest moment of his life ! Somewhere very deep in his own mind, an alarm rings weakly, a little voice warning him of a possible danger, something about Lily's
sacrifice. But he doesn't want to pay attention to that : he doesn't want to think of anything but his final triumph. Now !
- "AVADA KEDAVRA !"
ARGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!
We know what happens to him after that... The death-spell strikes him rather than Harry. He is reduced to something powerless and barely alive, almost dead, but not dead : even though he hasn't finished his "path to immortality" (he is not immortal yet), the fact he has gone very far on that "path" allows him to avoid being killed.

I've said I'm still not fully satisfied with this part (part 3) of my theory.
If all Voldemort needs is to have the descendants of his father dead, then he doesn't necessarily have to kill Harry himself.
If Harry dies, no matter how, it will be OK for Voldemort !
But then, why doesn't he ask Barty Crouch Jr to kill Harry during his fourth year ? Does he need to recover his body first, before killing Harry ? This is not very clear.

[31metsrule]

Part 4 : What about the Death-Eaters ?

This part, too, is very speculative.

Why did Voldemort's followers choose that name "Death-Eaters" ?
What on Earth does it mean ?
Well... the meaning of "Death-Eater" is very close to "Death-Stealer"... so I suppose they use that name because they too are intending to become immortal, using the same dark magic as their master : Voldemort will be the first one, but if he succeeds, his followers will try to follow the same path to immortality !

Lucius Malefoy is a Death-Eater.
Poor Draco ! The moment may come when his father Lucius will have to choose between his son and the Dark Order !

Barty Crouch Jr is also a Death-Eater.
We know Voldemort was able to survive an otherwise mortal spell, because he had gone "further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality".
Barty hasn't gone as far as his master on that "path to immortality", he probably hasn't performed all the spells that Voldemort has, but hey, he too has killed his father !!!
I wouldn't be surprised if Barty had been able to survive the Dementor's Kiss : maybe he is just pretending to be a soulless body by now ! In that case, we'll still hear about him !

[31metsrule]

Part 5 : Are there other descendants of Voldemort's father ?

This last part is probably the most speculative and uncertain of all !
Voldemort himself certainly thinks that Harry is the last descendant of his sister, and thus the last obstacle between himself and immortality. But maybe he is wrong.
Consider this story :
James Potter is feeling very worried, as never before in his life. He has just left school and married Lily, and Dumbledore has considered it was time for him to know the terrible secret.
So, the Dark Lord's true family name is "Riddle", just as his own mother. Now, James knows he is the last relative of Voldemort ; and he knows he is Voldemort's target for that reason.
What can he do then ? James has great courage, but the future of all mankind is at stake, not only his own life !
If Voldemort ever finds him, and kills him, then all will be lost :
the Dark Lord will be immortal, and no one - not even Dumbledore - will ever be able to defeat him ! The Age of Darkness will begin ! And it will last forever !
Unless..
Of course ! There is only one thing he can do !
The Potters understand that they should have children, several children if possible, and as soon as possible. Furthermore, they should not keep all their children in the same place.

So, I think it is at least a possibility that Harry might have a brother or sister, who the Potters would have hiden as soon as he or she was born, and who would have lived with adoptive parents ever since.

I know... supposing that Hermione is Harry's sister would be very Star-Wars-like. and yet, why not ?

Could Hermione be Harry's sister ? Is it even possible ? We know she was born in September, and Harry was born in July. It seems logical to suppose that Hermione is 10 months older than Harry rather than 2 months younger (so that they were both 11 years old on Sept. 1st, the year they entered Hogwarts).
In that case, the brother-sister theory is not completely impossible. a 10 month difference (nearly 10.5 months in fact) is a very short time indeed, but remember I suppose James and Lily were in a hurry !

Harry and Hermione. Is there only frienship between them ? Or something else ? Anyway, they are very close friends at the very least!
Ron and Hermione are quite obviously attracted to each other ; their quarrels and reconciliations might be an indication that they will end up together. or maybe not.
The Harry-Hermione relation is very different : they seem somehow "naturally", almost instinctively close to each other. Quite often, each of them seems to be knowing what the other has in mind.
I think this should mean something important :
- Either it means that they will fall in love in the next books. and end up together. This is a real possibility, and the kiss Hermione gives to Harry at the end of book 4 might be a beginning, but I reckon a Ron-Hermione romance is more probable.
- Or it means that there is "something else" between them. Of course, the brother-sister theory would fit perfectly !

So, let us see. If Harry and Hermione are siblings, then the Grangers are Hermione's adoptive parents. Maybe they are really Muggles, maybe just pretending.
Who knows the truth about Hermione ?
Obviously, Harry has no clue ; I think Dumbledore knows the truth, as do a few teachers (at least Lupin and McGonagall, see the hints below) and probably Sirius. The Grangers must know. and my little idea is that HERMIONE HERSELF knows the truth !!! After all, we know Hermione is able to keep a secret (remember the Time-Turner in book 3).

[31metsrule]

Part 2 of Part 5

All this is pure speculation. So, it is time for some hints to support the "Harry and Hermione brother and sister" theory :

- A minor physical resemblance : they are both unable to comb their hair.

- At the beginning of book 1, before Harry and Hermione become friends, before they even really know each other, Hermione's behaviour is a bit excessive : she keeps interfering in Harry's affairs, much more than in anyone else's affairs (even Ron's) :
"I can't believe you are going to do this, Harry."
(Harry and Ron are leaving Griffindor's Tower together, why does she say that to Harry only ?)
I know it's Hermione's nature to be quite interfering, but I think this is a bit too much. However, if Harry is her little brother, and if SHE KNOWS IT, her behaviour is understandable.

- BIG HINT : In book 2, just after Hermione and Penelope have been petrified. Professor McGonagall goes straight to Harry :
"Potter, I think you'd better come with me."
Why ? I don't think it is just because he is Hermione's friend : she would have asked Ron as well. But no, she doesn't care about Ron. she starts returning to the castle (and to Hermione) with Harry. Only when Ron comes running up to them, does she agree :
"Yes, perhaps you'd better come too, Weasley." (note the "perhaps...too.").
Quite strange, isn't it ? But if McGonagall knows that Hermione and Harry are siblings, her behaviour is normal !

- In book 3, in Lupin's class with the Boggart. All students fight the Boggart except Harry and Hermione. We know why Lupin didn't allow Harry : he was afraid (wrongly) that the Boggart would assume the shape of Lord Voldemort. But why, WHY didn't he allow Hermione to fight the Boggart ?
Well. Lupin is an old friend of James Potter ; so if Hermione is the Potters' daughter, he probably knows it ; I suppose he was afraid that if he allowed Hermione to fight the Boggart in public, the shape it would assume could reveal something, a secret about her past.
And by the way, when Hermione finally fights a Boggart during her exam, no one but her can see what shape it assumes. did she tell the truth about that ? (Her little story is a bit ridiculous.)

- In book 4, at the Three Broomsticks pub, when Rita Skeeter tries to get an interview from Harry one last time.
About Hagrid, Rita asks Harry :
"Would you call him a father substitute ?"
Hermione's reaction is extremely violent ; she stands up "very abruptly, her Butterbeer clutched in her hand as though it was a grenade."
Why ? After all, these words were nothing worse than what Rita had been saying before.
Obviously, it is the words "father substitute" that caused Hermione's reaction. I reckon this is because SHE has been raised by adoptive parents. and knows it !

- I wonder why Hermione wanted to study Muggles during her third year.
OK, she explains that :
"it'll be fascinating to study them from the wizarding point of view"
but is that really the truth ?
Are the Grangers real Muggles, or just pretending ?

- In book 1, when Hermione and Harry meet for the very first time in the train. Just after Harry has introduced himself, she says something a bit peculiar :
".I'd have found out everything I could if it was me."
I don't think anyone else ever says something like that to Harry.
"If it was me". "If I was the one who once defeated the Dark Lord".
Does she mean it could have been her

- More about this first time Harry and Hermione meet in the train.
I suspect Hermione of kidnapping Trevor the toad for a moment, just to send Neville looking around and have a good reason to enter Harry's compartment.
Hey ! If she knew her little-brother-she-had-never-seen-before-but-had-thought-of-so-often was in the train, she wanted to see him immediatly !


Objection : Dumbledore has said that the Dursleys are Harry's only left family (same objection as in Part 1 above).
Answer : here is what Dumbledore exactly says :
- " I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now. "
Given the context, I suppose Dumbledore means " the only family that can take care of him ". Little 2-year-old Hermione is a bit too young to take care of her brother !
OK, she is brilliant. but nobody is THAT brilliant
However, if Dumbledore's words are to be interpreted literally, then it means Vernon and Petunia are Harry's only living relatives. As I have explained in Part 1, Harry can still be related to Voldemort, but not to Hermione : in that case, she can't be his sister.
But I don't think one should interpret Dumbledore's words literally
here : doing so would imply that Dudley ISN'T the Dursley's son. very hard to believe!

[Skyler Wood]

wow..........whoever wrote/posted that whatever, really must have thought all that through. Another thing to support it is that there dont seem to be many other students at hogwarts who have strictly Muggle-only parents. I mean, we've heard of sum who are half and half, but Hermione's the only one we know of(correct me if Im wrong) that has 2 muggles for parents. Odd isnt it? Hagrid or dumbledore or sumbody said that no one really knew how it happened. I know Lily is also said to cum from muggle-only parents, but I think she has Salazar Slytherin sumwhere up in her family tree. Anyway, whoever said, "No one really knows how it happens(a wizard with 2 muggle parents). Its fairly uncommon."
Just how uncommon could he mean? 1, maybe 2 in the past century, I suppose.
What is so awesome about those other theories that guy from harrypotterfacts.com posted is that they bring about whole new theories and questions. Where was Hermione when Voldemort came to Godric's Hollow? Had Lily and James already brought her to the orphanidge? Could Harry possibly have other siblings that are less likely? Maybe Malfoy or another Gryffindor? So many uncertanties, that we will just have to wait for the 5th, 6th, and 7th book to find out about!

Well, now I feel pretty smart! ;Dwww.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/nerd.gif [/img]

[flagurl23]

wow, that is great.
another strange thing. How did hermione practice spells before even starting Hogwarts. She said she did small spells and they all worked for her. I know they had a few weeks or something like that between the time they received their Hogwarts letter and September 1st, but how much can one person read in a few weeks?
Seem like she does know a little too much.