Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, I’ve got something
a little bit different for you guys. I’ve covered book drafts and unpublished content
in the past- but I don’t think ever covered anything quite like this. Today, I’m going
to be introducing you all to an alternate DELETED / UNPUBLISHED scene from the Chamber
of Secrets where, instead of crashing in to the whomping willow, Harry and Ron instead
crash in to the lake outside of Hogwarts.
Now, as we know, this particular outcome never occurred. Harry and Ron crash in to the Whomping
Willow, and that’s that. BUT, in this scenario- Harry and Ron find themselves submerging in
to the Lake. It’s at this point that they’re saved by none other than MERPEOPLE. Newt Scamander,
author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, describes Merpeople as the following
in his book:
"The oldest recorded merpeople were known as sirens (Greece) and it is in warmer waters
that we find the beautiful mermaids more frequently depicted in Muggle literature and painting.
The Selkies of Scotland and the Merrows of Ireland are less beautiful, but they share
that love of music which is common to all merpeople."
Essentially, merpeople are sentient magical beasts that live underwater, and- as noted
above they can be found all over the world. They are certainly mysterious creatures that
we don’t get to know very well in the story- only playing a relatively small role. Outside
of Hogwarts, they reside in the Black Lake- and we only really see them during the events
of the second Task of the Triwizard Tournament- where they agree to keep four people in an
enchanted sleep in their village for an hour- protecting them until they are saved by their
respective champion. They’re certainly odd creatures- and-though they were offered the
status of ‘being’ in the magical world- they refused in favour of ‘beast’- mainly
because they did not wish to share a status with Hags and Vampires.
With all of that said, in this scene- that I’m about to introduce you to, the Merpeople
can be seen saving Harry and Ron from the slowly submerging Ford Anglia. They are able
to flip the car over and drag it back to shore, where Harry and Ron get out. This was the
first time that Harry ever saw Merpeople, a momentous occasion
If we look at the top of page 64 - it’s very clear that an editor for the book has
made notes, remarking that the chapter in question may need a rewrite. This is probably
the reason we never ended up getting this scene- but it’s certainly interesting to
look at, so- let’s dive in to it, no pun intended.
Page 62
Harry thought happily of ice cold drinks in the best gold goblets, and platters piled
high with delicious Hogwarts food. They flew over the edge of the great lake now, the castle
right ahead of them.
"Why're you slowing down?" said Harry.
"I'm not," said Ron, stamping on the accelerator, "I don't understand -"
The car was definitely slowing. Now they were going at a walking pace.
"What's wrong with it?" said Ron, frowning at the dashboard, "Why isn't it -"
"Ron," said Harry suddenly, pointing at a dial beside the steering wheel, "We're out
of petrol."
"What's petrol?" said Ron.
"It's what you need to make a car go," said Harry, irritably.
"Well, why didn't you say so before?" said Ron, as the car began to shudder alarmingly.
"I didn't know a bewitched car would need it," said Harry, grabbing the edges of his
seat as the car began to vibrate madly on the spot.
"Oh no," said Ron weakly, his knuckles white on the steering wheel, "If the engine cuts
out -"
The words were barely out of his mouth when the engine spluttered and died -
"NOOOOOOO!" Ron yelled.
The car dropped like a boulder; they hit the glassy surface of the lake with a deafening
smash; Harry was thrown against a window, Hedwig was screaming again, Ron's foot hit
Harry in the mouth; icy water was pouring in from somewhere and the car sank, slowly
and steadily through the blackness. Scabbers ran across Harry's face. Water was sloshing
about inside. Harry seemed to be sitting on the ceiling of the car.
"Harry?" came Ron's voice again through the dark.
"What?"
"How come we're not dead?"
Page 63
"The windows have shut themselves..."
"Dad must've added safety spells..."
"Are you hurt?
"Something's bleeding, but I think I'm OK. Are you all right?"
Harry felt the back of his head. "I've got a lump like an egg but nothing feels broken."
"How're we going to get out of this?"
"Dunno..."
There was a jolt and an ominous silence. The roof of the car had hit the bottom of the
lake.
"Well, we can still breath," said Ron, "But I don't know how long that's going to last..."
"Will anyone know we're here?"
"I don't know - you can't see the lake from the train station, can you?"
"Maybe someone from Hogwarts was looking out of the window."
"Yeah, maybe," said Ron bravely.
The headlights were still working. They could see a few feet of murky water and black rocks
on the floor of the lake. Neither of them spoke for a while.
"We'll have to thank your Dad if we - when we get out," said Harry eventually,
"Tell him his safety spells worked."
"Yeah... Harry..." Ron's voice was trembling, "Did you see something move out there?"
Harry stared out at the water illuminated by the headlights. There was nothing there,
but a few specks of sand were swirling as though it had been disturbed.
"What did you think you saw?" Harry asked. It was hard to keep your voice calm and unconcerned
when your mouth was so dry.
"It looked like an enormous fish-tail," whispered Ron.
Page 64
"Oh, well - a fish -" said Harry, "A fish isn't going to do anything to us... I thought
it might be the giant squid."
There was a pause in which Hany wished he hadn't thought about the giant squid.
"There's loads of them," said Ron, swivelling round and gazing out of the rear window.
Harry felt as though tiny spiders were crawling up his spine. Large dark shadows were circling
the car.
"If it's just fish..." he repeated.
And then, into the light, swam something Harry had never expected to see as long as he lived.
It was a woman. A cloud of blackest hair, thick and tangled like seaweed, floated all
around her. Her lower body was a great, scaly fishtail the colour of gun-metal; ropes of
shells and pebbles hung about her neck; her skin was a pale, silvery grey and her eyes,
flashing in the headlights, looked dark and threatening. She gave a powerful flick of
her tail and sped into the darkness.
"Was that a mermaid?" said Harry.
"Well, it wasn't the giant squid," said Ron.
There was a crunching noise and the car suddenly shifted.
Harry scrambled about to press his face against the back window. About ten merpeople, bearded
men as well as long haired women, were straining against the car, their tails swishing behind
them.
"Where are they going to take us?" said Ron, pannicking.
The mermaid they had seen first rapped on the window next to Harry and made a circular
motion with her silvery hand.
I think they're going to flip us over," said Harry quickly, "Hold on -"
Page 65
They grabbed the door hands and slowly, as the mer-people pushed and strained, the car
turned right over onto its wheels, clouds of silt fogging the water. Hedwig was beating
her wings furiously against the bars of her cage again.
The mer-people were now binding thick, slimy ropes of lakeweed around the car and tying
the ends around their own waists. Then, with Harry and Ron sitting in the front seats hardly
daring to breathe, they pulled... the car was lifted off the bottom and rose, towed
by the mer-people, to the surface.
"Yes!" said Ron, as they saw the starry sky again through their drenched windows.
The mer-people in front looked like seals, their sleek heads just visible as they towed
the car towards the bank. A few feet from the grassy bank, they felt the wheels touch
the pebbly ground of the lake again. The mer-people sank out of sight. Then the first mermaid
bobbed up at Harry's window and rapped on it. He unwound it quickly.
"We can take you no further," she said. She had a strange voice, it was both screechy
and hoarse. " The rocks are sharp in the shallows, but legs are not so easily torn as fins..."
"No," said Harry, nervously, "Look, we can't thank you enough..."
The mermaid gave a little flick of her tail and was gone.
"Come on, I need food..." said Ron, who was shivering.
They opened the doors of the car with difficulty, picked up Hedwig and Scabbers, braced themselves
and jumped down into the freezing water, which came up above Harry's thighs. They waded to
the bank and climbed out.
"Not as pretty as they look in books, are they, mermaids?" said Ron, trying to wring
out his jeans. "Of course, they were lake people... maybe in a warm sea..."
Harry didn't answer; he was having trouble with Hedwig, who had clearly had enough of
wizard transport. He let her out of her cage and she soared off at once towards a high
tower which housed all the school owls.
This is the end of the chapter- but I do want to also mention the note from the editor on
page 64:
“I wondered whether the mer-people scene actually works? After all, we don't see them
again... What if, as an alternative, the car suddenly develops underwater boosters or something
- and suddenly shoots out of the water? Might help pace too?”
What you just witnessed was a piece of Harry Potter history, an unpublished draft that
heavily deviates from the existing story of one of the most popular books ever. What do
you guys think of it? Would you have left it in? Did you prefer the incident with the
Whomping Willow? Had you heard of this before?
Comment down below
Until next time
The truth. It is a beautiful and a terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with
caution.