Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing Harry Potter’s mother, Lily, and Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black.
More specifically, we’re going to be taking a look at a secret letter that Lily wrote
to Sirius in the year 1981- shortly after Harry Potter was born.
Harry Potter was of course born to parents James Potter and Lily Evans. The story of
their love was an interesting one, as when they first met Lily wasn’t too impressed
by James. Lily had grown up in the town of Cokeworth, and spent much of her youth with
her childhood companion Severus Snape, who grew up in nearby Spinner’s End. When Lily
and Snape began attending Hogwarts, James Potter was horrible to Snape- which negatively
skewed Lily’s perception of James. However, when Snape eventually began to go down a very
dark and troubled path- a path involving dark magic and terrible people, things changed.
One day, while Snape was being bullied by James, Lily intervened. The embarrassed Snape
then lashed out at Lily- calling her a ‘filthy mudblood’- this effectively ended their
relationship.
While James was at school he was a part of a quartet of boys that called themselves The
Marauders. The boys began their studies in 1971, the same year as Severus Snape, and
they all had one thing in common - they were all Gryffindors. Before the sorting ceremony
even happened the boys hit it off, and when they were eventually sorted in to the same
house, they knew that they were destined to be friends. Though the boys got on with many
of their other classmates, this particular group of 4 boys had a truly special bond.
This group was comprised of James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and the subject
of this video: Sirius Black.
Sirius was a great friend to the Potters- so much so that he was chosen to be the godfather
of Harry Potter. Sirius hailed from the powerful wizarding family, The Blacks- and while many
of his family members placed an unreasonable amount of value on blood purity, Sirius did
not share this same belief. Many of the members of the black family went down a very dark
path- but Sirius was able to choose his own path. After graduating, Sirius, along with
the other Marauders, went on to join the Order of the Phoenix. The purpose of the order was
to oppose Voldemort and the Death Eaters. However, it turned out that not all members
of the Order were good-as Sirius’ old friend, Peter Pettigrew, would go on to frame Sirius
for a heinous crime.
In 1981, just 1 day after the Potters were murdered- Peter Pettigrew murdered 12 muggles
using a dark and powerful blasting curse. Someway, somehow, Sirius Black was blamed,
and was promptly sent to Azkaban. After being banished to Azkaban, seemingly the whole world
turned on Sirius, and he was left there to rot for an astonishing 12 years. That was
the 1st of November 1981.
However, just a few months before everything exploded, Sirius Black received a letter from
none other than Lily Potter: “Dear Padfoot,
Thank you, thank you, for Harry's birthday present! It was his favourite by far. One
year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself,
I'm enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the
ground, but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for
Christmas (no complaints there). Of course, James thought it was funny, says he's going
to be a great Quidditch player, but we've had to pack away all the ornaments and make
sure we don't take our eyes off him when he gets going.
We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda, who has always been sweet
to us, and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn't come, but the Order's got
to come first, and Harry's not old enough to know it's his birthday anyway! James is
getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell -- also,
Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you
could visit, it would cheer him up so much. Wormy was here last weekend, I thought he
seemed down, but that was probably the news about the McKinnons; I cried all evening when
I heard. Bathilda drops in most days, she's a fascinating
old thing with the most amazing stories about Dumbledore, I'm not sure he'd be pleased if
he knew! I don't know how much to believe, actually, because it seems incredible that
Dumbledore could ever have been friends with Gellert Grindelwald. I think her mind's going,
personally!”
This letter is a little bit ominous, because of course we know now that just a few short
months later- the Potter family would be destroyed forever. It’s written from the perspective
of Lily Potter, sometime in early August 1981- and it’s clear that her, Harry and James
are in hiding. In 1980 Sybil Trelawney, the now Hogwarts divination professor, was interviewing
for her posting at Hogwarts. She had a bad track record, Dumbledore gave her a chance
because she was the great grand-daughter of famous seer, Cassandra Trelawney. During her
interview, a disappointed and unimpressed Dumbledore began to lose interest, when suddenly
Sybill entered a trance. In her trance, Sybill spoke of the famous prophecy that we all know,
explaining that Voldemort would be defeated. It spoke of a boy, that would be born at the
end of July, that possessed the power to defeat the dark lord himself. What Dumbledore and
Sybill did not know, however, was that Snape (then a Deatheater), was eavesdropping at
the door- this meant that the news would certainly be passed on to Voldemort.
The entire prophecy is as follows:
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have
thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as
his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at
the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with
the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies …
And that’s why the Potters were in hiding- entirely aware of the Prophecy, and the fact
that their son Harry had been born as the seventh month dies, they didn’t really have
much choice but to go in to hiding. However, they didn’t just ‘hide’- they put in
place all sorts of preventative measures to ensure that they wouldn’t be found- most
importantly, the Fidelius Charm. Filius Flitwick has a great description of how it works:
"An immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single,
living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is
henceforth impossible to find — unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge
it. As long as the Secret-Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could search the village
where Lily and James were staying for years and never find them, not even if he had his
nose pressed against their sitting room window!"
The ‘secret keeper’ that was chosen in this instance was in fact Peter Pettigrew,
AKA Wormtail. And what I found particularly OMINOUS in the letter was Lily mentioning
that Pettigrew had recently been to visit - ‘Wormy was here last weekend, I thought
he seemed down, but that was probably the news about the McKinnons’. Of course, we
know now that it was probably absolutely nothing to do with the McKinnons. Wormtail was ‘down’
because he was ashamed- ashamed of the atrocity that he was about to commit.
The truth is, Pettigrew was only made ‘secret keeper’ for the Potter family because everyone
felt that the likely choice, Sirius Black, would be targeted. Though Pettigrew was one
of the Marauders- he was always just a little bit of an outcast.
"Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it... I thought it was
the perfect plan... Voldemort would be sure to come after me, would never dream they'd
use a weak, talentless thing like you... It must have been the finest moment of your miserable
life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters."
Peter Pettigrew eventually revealed his true colours, and in one infamous act of cowardice
and disloyalty, revealed the location of the Potter cottage to Voldemort- not even a week
after he was made secret keeper. To add insult to injury, he then murdered 12 muggles and
framed Sirius. Ouch.
Additionally, the letter mentions a little bit about none other than Albus Dumbledore’s
past. Dumbledore is a bit of an enigmatic figure in Harry Potter- a wise old powerful
man that has accomplished many a feat in his lifetime. However, it appears that Bathilda
Bagshot revealed a side of Dumbledore to the Potter’s that people were previously unaware
of. This is a fun little sneak peek in to another side of Dumbledore, a side that paints
him in a bit of a different light than we’re used to. The friend of Gellert Grindelwald?
Couldn’t be.
Anyway, that’s it for today’s video- do you guys remember this letter? Let me know
in the comment section below
Until next time
"It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."