Harry's family (was: Petunia)

[Bex]

No: HPFGUIDX 114189

Kethryn wrote:
> > > Theories abounding but, if the mirror shows Harry's true 
> > > heart's desire, is it as simple as wanting to see his family 
> > > (if so why were the Dursley's left out) or did he just want to 
> > > see the magic users or did he just want to see the ones he 
> > > would never get to meet (presumably because they are dead). 
> > > That's something to ponder, at any rate.
> 
To which Finwitch replied:
> > Nah - the mirror tells us *nothing* of Harry's family. It tells 
> > us what is his heart's desire. Nothing more, nothing less. It 
> > is not truthful. It gives no information but the knowledge of 
> > what your heart's desire is.

> > Harry doesn't see the Dursleys in it, because he doesn't WANT to 
> > see them, quite the opposite - he wants to be RID of them! Of 
> > course the Mirror won't show him the Dursleys...

Hester replied as thus:
> I find it interesting, however that Harry had never seen even one
> picture of his folks at that point.  It wasn't until the end of the
> year when Hagrid gave him the photo album that Harry knew what his
> parents looked like, and it was the same as what the mirror showed 
> him months before.  Thus the mirror does show some truth.  Would 
> the mirror be able to show non-magic folk?  I assume so, but the 
> images did not come from Harry's head.

Yb:
It's possible that he may have some memories of his parents stored 
in his subconscious. But Harry only knows what his parents looked 
like because Hagrid told him (on th eisland) "Yeh look a lot like 
yer dad, but you have yer mum's eyes." This would probably be enough 
for Harry to start imagining what they looked like. Harry sees his 
mother: "She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair, and her 
eyes-" and he thinks her eyes look like his. Now it's possible that 
Hagrid mentioned that Lily was a redhead, otherwise, Harry has a 
very good imagination. I could see Lily being a redhead, as bright 
green eyes seem to match with red hair. Harry's dad: "The tall, 
thin, black-haired man...wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy."
Again, just what Harry has heard from Hagrid (you look like your 
dad). 
 Plus, note how Dudley is becoming a miniature Vernon: same hair, 
same non-existent neck, etc. Harry would naturally think that all of 
his traits came from various family members. He's looking for things 
in common with the people he sees, something he inherited from them 
to prove he is family. He sees the others in the mirror with his 
eyes, his nose, and even his knobby knees. I think he is almost 
inventing these relatives, or at the very least, their appearances. 

And as for magical folk only?
Some of the people in the mirror have Harry's eyes, thus they are 
blood relation to Lily (sinced he has *her* eyes). If Lily really is 
a Muggle-born (and I think she is), then those people would almost 
have to be Muggles.

Kim wrote in another post: 

> I think the images in the Mirror must at least be true to some 
> degree in that it does show his parents' real features (before he 
> ever saw any photos of them) and so one could assume the images of 
> the other dead relatives were somewhat close to true.  I'd always 
> assumed the people Harry saw in the Mirror were only his dead 
> relatives (not actually them, but conjured by Harry's mind's eye), 
> otherwise, wouldn't Dumbledore have sent him to live with any 
> other living relatives besides the horrid Dursleys?  I think it's 
> in the books somewhere that Harry has no other living relatives 
> but Dursleys.

Yb again:
Yes, exactly my thinking. If these people were alive, Harry could 
live with them. I don't know if it's stated in canon flat-out, but I 
would assume that if there was ANY option besides the Dursleys, DD 
would have taken it. His "It's better this way, growing up away from 
his own kind" speech at the beginning of PS/SS is more a "making the 
best of the situation" line than "This is the best option." I feel 
that the more distant relatives /were/ sort-of conjured. Petunia 
never mentions any other sibling, just Lily, so there aren't any 
Aunts and Uncles on that side, and Sirius never mentions James 
having siblings, which he probably would have done if there were 
any, since he lived with them.

I think Harry is seeing people he has something in common with. He's 
dreamed about these people for years, so he has ideas about what 
they *should* look like. As stated above, he is looking for people 
who look like him, the way Dudley looks like Vernon. He wants family 
he feels he has some visible connection with, not the Dursleys, who 
look nothing like him. Therefore, he wouldn't see the Dursleys in 
the mirror, just the "relatives" he hoped would take him away from 
there someday.

Just a thought: what do you think Harry would see in the mirror now? 
Sirius? Voldemort being vanquished? Living to see his 18th birthday?


JMO, TIOLI (take it or leave it)
~Yb