Why were Harry's parents so rich?

[hp_lexicon]

No: HPFGUIDX 117150


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Lucy" <moochy4ro at h...> wrote:
>  
> Just thinking, when Harry first goes to his vault in Gringotts, he 
realises he has tons of 
> money that his parents left him. 
> Where do you think they got it? Did they have unknown well paid 
jobs?

Hi, Lucy:

Lily and James were about 22 when they died, so there wasn't much 
time for them to have high-paying jobs. In the few years that they 
lived after leaving Hogwarts, it would seem that they were plenty 
busy fighting the Death Eaters. After all, they escaped Voldemort 
three times in that period.

Rowling said in an interview that James inherited his fortune, 
actually. There are some who like to imagine that since James' 
family came from Godric's Hollow, and that since Bowman Wright, the 
inventor of the Golden Snitch, was also from Godric's Hollow, that 
James is the heir to the Golden Snitch fortune. I personally like 
that idea, although it's pure speculation. It does seem odd that 
Rowling would place Wright in Godric's Hollow of all places without 
some sort of reason. 

On the other hand, every time I start to think that way I just 
remember Mark Evans and stop assuming that everything has to mean 
something...

Steve
The Lexicon