With just two months to go until the
publication of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, everyone is aware
that we are in for an eighth instalment of the phenomenally
successful franchise. To sharpen our appetites, a sequence from the
first part of the book (set 19 years after the battle of Hogwarts)
has recently been released to the public. To put it mildly, it
features a plot twist that no one saw coming.
The excerpt opens with Harry leading a
team of Aurors on an operation to apprehend a dark wizard who is
believed to be a former Death Eater. (We learn that Harry has
recently been de-aged by a magical brick, restoring him to the
version we are familiar with instead of the aged-up one we briefly
met in the epilogue to Deathly Hallows). The target wizard is
apparently intent upon causing a massacre of 'mud-bloods' upon the
anniversary of the defeat of Gellert Grindelwald (a figure from
Potter lore with strong implied ties to the Nazis). The group track
him down to a train station, where the target flees on a broomstick
at the sight of Harry's legendary scar.
The chase sequence that follows is
interspersed with flashbacks to Harry's pre-Hogwarts schooling (a
subject that we have seen little of). It features Harry receiving
much needed attention from a kindly primary school teacher named
Elisa. She tells him that he is destined for greatness and sparks his
interest with what may be minor displays of magic. She also teaches
him that heritage is the most important factor in determining a
person's destiny, inviting him to watch the parents picking up the
other kids and try to figure out where his schoolmates will fit into
the world from what he sees.
The chase ends with Potter and one
other Auror managing to run the dark wizard to ground in a patch of
forest. Then Harry turns to his muggle-born colleague and cuts him
down with the Killing Curse, before uttering the most unlikely words
ever to come out of his mouth - “I am Lord Voldemort”.
Exactly what this twist means cannot be
known until the rest of the story is revealed. However, the structure
of the narrative and the nature of the flashbacks both seem designed
to lead the reader to the conclusion that Harry has in fact been a
Death Eater since before the series began.
Unsurprisingly, fans have reacted very
strongly to this turn of events. Even so, the main feeling being
expressed is one of simple bewilderment. Logic must take somewhat of
a back seat in a high magic series, but even so the storyline has
always held up fairly well in terms of consistency and internal
sense. Given that Harry has personally taken a massive role in both
defeating the Death Eaters and in repeatedly killing their founding
leader until he stayed dead, what kind of deep cover operation could
possibly be worth letting him do that much damage? It's no
exaggeration to say that the Death Eaters would have ruled Britain if
he'd tried even a little less hard to stop them. What could possibly
be important enough about this situation to 'break cover' for?
Other fans protest that this
development contradicts the events of The Chamber of Secrets,
specifically the point at which Harry draws the Sword of Gryffindor
from the sorting hat. According to Dumbledore, only a true Gryffindor
could have performed this feat. Surely being one of the few judged
worthy to take up Godric's sword precludes him being a murderous spy?
Then again, being a worthy Gryffindor
isn't necessarily the same as being 'good'. The primary virtues of
Gryffindor house are bravery, nerve, courage and daring – all
qualities that Harry possesses in abundance. Certainly being a double
agent is not considered inherently cowardly in the Potterverse –
Severus Snape is described by Harry as probably the bravest men he
ever knew. An argument could be made about the quality of chivalry –
but sneaking around and using trickery have always been prominent
amongst Harry's tactics.
Ultimately, being 'just' and 'true' are
actually Hufflepuff virtues – as demonstrated by canon Hufflepuff
characters like Cedric Diggory, Nymphadora Lupin and Wade Wilson.
Hufflepuff has also produced the fewest dark wizards of any house,
implying that being sorted into Gryffindor does not preclude one from
taking that path.
Not all fans are up in arms about this
radical plot twist. Some are genuinely curious to see where Rowling
is going with this storyline. Others more cynically point out that
such shake-ups are necessary to keep the franchise going over such a
long period, expressing surprise that such a headline-grabbing twist
has been so long in coming. Others blame the expressions of outrage
upon the fans of the film series, claiming that those who have not
read the books simply don't understand the nuances of Rowling's
story-telling. This is of course rather unfair and a disservice to
the vast number of people who have become fans of the characters
through that medium. Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Harry in the film
series) has avoided making a substantial comment on the change,
simply Tweeting enough to feed the publicity machine:
“Voldemort?!?!? #sayitaintso”
One thing common to every fan is the
assumption that this will not actually be a permanent change. Elisa
is described as wearing 'an hourglass shaped piece of jewellery'
which many are already suspecting is a Time-Turner. Did the Death
Eaters send someone back in time after their defeat to indoctrinate
Harry at his most vulnerable? Almost everyone is certain that some
kind of second twist will restore the character to his proper self,
although Rowling has taken the time to debunk a couple of the more
obvious possibilities:
“This is not a Boggart, not Polyjuice
potion, not the Imperius Curse. It really is Harry Potter, the Boy
Who Lived himself.”
Unfortunately, many fans feel that no
second twist can really make up for the upset of doing this in the
first place. Many aspects of Rowling's world clearly represent
real-world social battles and problems – problems that have not
entirely gone away. Harry has been embraced by a generation as the
champion of the right side of these battles, so declaring that he was
always insincere has been described as 'a slap in the face'. For some
enthusiasts the very suggestion that Potter was secretly in sympathy
with the woman who cut racial abuse into his friend's arm is enough
to make them put down the books for good, however the plot shakes
out. The Potter fandom will quite possibly never be the same again.
(P.S. If you are a Potter fan who has
been screaming at the page for the whole article, don't worry! It's
not real, I'm just making comment on something that is something that is. Unfortunately
the metaphor can't fully satirise the most serious aspect of the real
story, which can be found here.)
