Harry Potter Rumors and Debates

The most debated plot twists and theories, and rumors of things to come in the series....Coming soon!

Is Sirius really dead?
Was Snape in love with Lily?
What is the power that melted Harry's knife at the MoM?
Is Petunia really a squib?
Is Jame's spirit really in Lupin's body? or Is Lupin really Harry's father?

Sirius was a very well-liked character, and his death hit a lot of people hard. It led to the wishes, and hopes that he wasn't really dead. And that led to speculation of whether or not falling through the veil killed him. Bella's spell wasn't the AK because the light was red, not green, even though his face registered the surprise that is characteristic of dying from AK. No one knows the properties of the veil, and though we can deduce that room was the one used to study death at the Department of Mysteries, does going through the veil necessarily equate death?

We can only look to those who know for guidance. Our first clue comes from Hermione, she feels that there's something strange about the veil and begs Harry to come away from it when they passed through the room earlier. Then there was Lupin. After Sirius fell through, he held Harry back from going through the veil himself, and said sadly that Sirius was gone. Gone doesn't always mean dead though. However, later on Dumbledore confirms that Sirius is in fact dead. He says it in no uncertain terms to Phineas Nigellus when he asks if the last of the Noble House of Blacks is deceased.

Another hope for Sirius is that dying by going through the veil is different from dying by another cause. He still had his physical body when he went through to the other realm. Does that not hold out some semblance of hope that he can and will return by some means unavailable to those who did not have the advantage of a corpareal body?

I refer you to what JKR said when people were hoping to see Harry's parents returning. She promised that wouldn't happen. She laid down rules and limitations on magic when she was outlining and creating her world. One of these rules was that people cannot come back from the dead. She said we would never see a living James or Lily for this reason (other than in flashbacks and memories)

I believe one of the reasons for this is that there would be total chaos if no one could actually die. No matter how one deafeated the bad guys, it would never end. Also, JKR's personal experiences with her mother dying influenced this as well. Emotionally, she would wish to be able to see and talk with her mother again, but logically knows that can never happen. It's sort of an emotional reaction/release to deny her characters that which she cannot have either.

For these reasons alone, I believe that Sirius is truly dead, and will stay dead. I don't believe he will come back as a ghost. However, I don't believe we have seen the last of him, or his influence. There are people alive that still intimately know him, and have interacted with him. And as Dumbledore said, "Those we love never truly leave us."

Was Snape in love with Lily?

Many have speculated as to the reasons behind Snape's extreme hatred of Harry. One of the theories is the LOLLIPOP theory, which is basically that Snape was in love with Lily, and his most hated enemy (James) stole her away from him. Harry reminds him of James, and therefore his loss in Lily. It also includes his belief that if he had won Lily's hand she would still be alive, because it was James, and then Harry that Voldemort was after. So he blames not only James, but also Harry for the death of his beloved.

I used to subscribe to this theory, and then I was sort of on the fence about it. I don't believe it anymore after having read OotP. Snape loathed James and Sirius, and all their friends, but it was obvious that the rivalry really did stem from the things that Lupin and Sirius told Harry of before. Snape was immersed in the dark arts, and convicted to Voldemort's way of thinking. He loathed muggles, and muggleborns, and found some sort of joy, or power in the dark arts. As such, and added to the fact that he called Lily a filthy mudblood, we can safely deduce that he would no sooner date or love Lily, than Malfoy would Hermione (mind you the theories are out there about that too)

There are many areas in JKR's universe where there only exist shades of grey, but there are also times when black is black, and white is white. This is one of those times. Her bad guys, are bad, and they don't change.

what is the power that melted Harry's knife at the MoM?

There was a door at the DoM that Harry could not enter, and when he tried to use his knife that unlocks any lock, his knife melted. Later on Dumbledore hints to Harry that this room in the DoM contains the same power that Harry possesses and that power is what will defeat Voldemort.

Harry has been saved from Voldemort by a power before. In the very first book, we discover that power, and DUmbledore names it for us. It was love, specifically his mother's love. He said that love left a mark and a protection for Harry, and that was why Voldemort wasn't able to touch him.

If we apply that knowledge to the fight at the MoM, we can see that the power Voldemort doesn't know, and the one that saved Harry from him, (forcing Voldemort to retreat from his possession of Harry) was love. Voldemort overcame the obstacle of physically touching Harry, but that love still infused Harry's being and Voldemort couldn't stand to touch him inside, or spiritually.

As Dumbledore told Harry that power was what saved him, and will defeat Voldemort, linking it also to the room at the DoM, we can see that power is love. Harry will find love, and that love will allow him to defeat Voldemort.

For more of my thoughts on this please read my essay here.

Is Petunia really a squib?

There has been speculation about why Petunia hated Lily so much when they are sisters. This lead to the idea that Petunia was jealous of Lily because Lily inherited the magical powers, while she did not, and that their family was in fact a magical family in hiding.

I do believe that she was jealous of Lily, but I don't believe it was because she too wished to be magic. We have been told in no uncertain terms many times that Lily was Muggleborn. Muggles are not magical people. Muggleborn witches and wizards come from a non-magical family. Squibs on the other hand are non-magical people that come from a magical family. They are sort of the oppostie of Muggleborn wizards.

It is easy to see why Petunia would think her sister a freak for being different. The fact that her parents were proud of what she saw as an abnormality probably only added to the problem. Lily was by all accounts very beautiful, kind, and talented at what she did. Petunia, on the other hand, has been described in less positive terms, and certainly never been called pretty. The jealousy was instilled long before the difference in Lily was made clear.

Petunia probably spent most of her childhood trying to do nothing more than fit in. She would have wanted to model herself as close to the norm as possible to mask what she saw as her deficiancies. This fear of sticking out explains her attraction to Vernon who also has a deep-seated fear of abnormalities. Her parents' approval of Lily's differences only served to make the rift between the girls deeper.

When Lily succeeded in her talents and at her chosen career, she again overshadowed Petunia's accomplishments. Neither her marriage, nor her child was as impressive as what Lily had done. James was a much more impressive match than Vernon had been. There was nothing that she did, that Lily didn't do too, and even better.

Is Jame's spirit really in Lupin's body? or Is Lupin really Harry's father?

This was a theory presented to the general populace by John Granger in his book on Harry Potter. He claimed that Lupin's behavior during PoA was more appropriate for a father to make than just a family friend, and the only explanation for this was that James' spirit had somehow been interred in Lupin's body, possibly voluntarily as a precaution against being betrayed by their secret keeper.

There are so many things about this theory that are wrong I hardly know where to start. I have never believed this, although with a lot of wishful thinking the possibility is there. Firstly, Lupin's actions are perfectly intune with his character, not James'. Harry is told over and over how very much he resembles his father. James was one of the only true friends that Lupin had ever had. At this point he still believes that Sirius betrayed them all, and James and Peter are dead. Seeing Harry probably brought back a lot of memories both painful and joyful. He would have had to deal with all his affection for James and Lily, and the fact that they are both dead. He would also have to deal with his conflicting emotions about Sirius and the betrayal, both because it would seem so incongruous with what he knew of Sirius, and the fact that they had believed him to be the enemy and Voldemort's spy. To know that your best friends thought you were pitted against them would be hard to overcome. Harry's appearance would naturally bring all these emotions and problems back.

I think he would naturally want to comfort and befriend Harry, but he needed to work through his own feelings, and realizations that Harry was neither Lily nor James, but his own person (Sirius also has to work through these things later on, and Hermione rationalizes that he isn't doing a very good job of it in OotP) He also had to maintain a professional teacher/student relationship in order to preserve his teaching reputation, and position.

There is also the problem that if they figured Lupin was the spy, they would never have involved him in such an intrigue. And they did suspect Lupin. If they hadn't, they wouldn't have used Sirius, nor Peter as the secret keeper. As they thought that Lupin was working against them, they would never have switched Jame's and Lupin's bodies. That would allow Lupin to get all the inside information he needed. If they didn't believe that Lupin was the spy, why would they endanger his life to save James'? I don't believe they would ask Lupin to sacrafice his life for theirs.