Was the Story of Harry's Past Told To the Children?

[Klio]

Originally Posted by tombo125

I think they know the whole story. They just cannot grasp the magnitude of it. Otherwise, why would they laugh at Ron saying he is extremely famous. It would not be funny unless they knew he was nothing compared to their father. To them he is nothing but a father and they easily underestimate his fame because of it.

I dunno ... I always thought that the fun of the scene arises because they all know EXACTLY how famous Harry is.... it's a typical English understatement type joke..... Everyone knows they are staring at Harry, but Ron sort of takes the pressure off in his typically Ronnish humorous way.

That's how I read the scene!

And surely, Al knows who he is named after - Harry just reminds him of something he knows.....

[nymphadora_nat]

i don't think al knows he's named after 2 great heroes of the war....

[Klio]

But why wouldn't he know? I alswys thought that what Harry says to Al about his name presupposes that Al already knows the story of these two men at least - otherwise the short reference just before AL leaves makes little sense!

[MrSleepyHead]

Originally Posted by Klio

But why wouldn't he know? I alswys thought that what Harry says to Al about his name presupposes that Al already knows the story of these two men at least - otherwise the short reference just before AL leaves makes little sense!

I agree. If that was the first time Harry ever told Albus about his name origin it would have been much too confusing for him and irrelevant in the situation. Only if Albus knew about Dumbledore and Snape would the reference to his names make only sense to him. Harry was simply stressing the fact that whichever House Albus was Sorted in to did not blemish his character.

I do not believe Harry's and Ron's children know the entire story behind Harry's conflict with Voldemort (especially the final war), considering Albus wondered "Why are they all staring?" I think James learned much more about his father at Hogwarts and so will Albus, Rose, and the other children. It seems to me as if Harry planned it this way, since he learned most of his valued information about his parents while at Hogwarts and he would want his children to do the same.

[Klio]

But isn't this completely different? Harry grew up as an orphan, and with people who didn't respect his parents. Would he really want the same for his children?

He may well have shielded his children from the effects of his fame - but wouldn't it be sad if he had kept this important life from them all that time? Here they were, an intact family... why would Harry not let his children know details that would have shaped a crucial part of his personality, and make his children face a school where EVERYONE< except them, would know what the name Potter meant?

I can't imagine that he really would have wanted that for them?

I also don't understand why so many people in this thread seem to think that this is a desirable state of affairs!

... and I don't think it's possible, either! I mean, Harry, Ron and Hermione were on chocolate frog cards, everyone in the wizarding world knew! Unless Harry chose to completely separate his family from the wizarding world (and really, I doubt that for his family's sake!) there was really no chance not to tell his children.


I think it is quite obvious from that scene that they know the story.... they may just not have encountered wizarding crowds very often - or at least crowds that managed to recognise Harry!! I think that's why Al was asking ...

But Ron's 'I am extremely famous' joke wouldn't get laughs from Al, Rose, Hugo and Lily (yes, her, too!) unless they knew exactly that the person who was really attracting those stares wasn't Ron, but Harry!!

[Azure_Skies]

I'm sure when the next person writes A History of Magic then that person would interview Harry so people would understand the sacrifices and the hardships he incountered during the wizard war, not to mention the sacrifices and hardships any person who genuinely knew him went through.

But I don't see a auto-biography or even a biography of Harry only because Harry was so private with his life and his actions. He even told Ron he didn't want fame or glory (but it was thrown at him anyway....people love their heroes).

But I sometimes wondered how much Harry's kids knew about his young life. He never told anyone (except Albus at the end) that he got to choose his house (Hermione may have guessed, but she was never told) and Albus asked at the station what everyone was looking at and Ron answered that HE was incredibily famous. So it makes me wonder how much they really knew.

[Klio]

Originally Posted by Azure_Skies

But I sometimes wondered how much Harry's kids knew about his young life. He never told anyone (except Albus at the end) that he got to choose his house (Hermione may have guessed, but she was never told) and Albus asked at the station what everyone was looking at and Ron answered that HE was incredibily famous. So it makes me wonder how much they really knew.

I think the detail about the house was really something Harry kept secret.... I think he didn't feel very comfortable with the idea that he could have been a good fit for Slytherin house!

But that line of Ron's WAS A JOKE!!! - and a joke that only works because everyone knows that harry is the famous one.

How could anyone think that they managed to keep this incredibly important story secret from their kids? How on earth would they have been able to do so?

[EmilyLovesHarry]

To be honest how they not tell the children? They are going to attract much attention as it is, they deserve to know why! Anyway Ginny would be quite famous too as a Quidditch player, Harry is an Auror who reformed the Ministry as well! I think at the stage we meet James, Albus and Lilly they won't know the whole thing but they will no doubt find out soon!

[Azure_Skies]

Originally Posted by Klio

I think the detail about the house was really something Harry kept secret.... I think he didn't feel very comfortable with the idea that he could have been a good fit for Slytherin house!

But that line of Ron's WAS A JOKE!!! - and a joke that only works because everyone knows that harry is the famous one.

How could anyone think that they managed to keep this incredibly important story secret from their kids? How on earth would they have been able to do so?

I know what Ron said WAS A JOKE!!! - but the way in which Albus asked it - seemed to suggest he didn't know as much as we think he should have. Because honestly - why ask the question. Albus laughed along with everyone else with Ron - but all I'm saying is that I don't think he knew more than Harry defeated Voldemort. So I don't think his "whole" story was passed onto his kids. That's all.

True, Harry wasn't in the wizarding world at the time - but that secret of his parent's death was kept from him for 11 years and we know wizards walked up to him all the time when he was young because Harry mentions it in SS. So it's not as if people didn't know and they didn't tell Harry about it. Even Dumbledore kept secrets about Harry afrom Harry until the boy was almost 16 or 17 years old. So it's not impossible that some of Harry's story wasn't told to his children.

[Klio]

Oh. I am sure that Harry couldn't have told them all the gruesome details.... you know..... how do you tell the FULL story of DH to your kids aged all of 11?

You know.... "and then I saw Voldemort kill Snape, and we managed to collect his memories... and I found out that I was a horcrux so I had to sacrifice my life to defeat Voldemort... and so I went into the forst to let him kill me"?

I am not sure how one WOULD tell that to the kids. But they must have known the outline of the story....

While Harry didn't even know the wizarding world existed before he got his Hogwarts letter, Harry's kids would presumably meet other wizard children - and even their surname would attract questions! Not telling them the basic story would make their lives very difficult!

And then I'd think that over the years Harry would add more details, as far as he could bear to add them.... and other details the kids may have heard from Harry's friends....

I really hope that eventually, as they got old enough, Harry's children found out about the heroic moments in their father's early life! Even IF Harry was too modest to tell that story often (if at all)....

[GemmaBlack]

I think once all of them go to Hogwarts, if they didn't already know , they would find out.
Then ask there dad about it and find it all out.
It could even be in Hogwarts: A history, eventually. That would be cool.

[Voldemorts8thHorcrux]

I actually think that harry or hermione would write a book. Harry would see it as a tribute to all the people who died and try to clear things up (especially about Snape). i think that some details would be ridden up, like horcruxes and there would be some sort of cover story. As for telling the children, i doubt any of them would give gruesome detail about what happened and have them research it themselves in the library instead if they want to know too much. I suppose harry and ginny would tell them if they asked questions, but i just don't think the next generation would be told at a young age, at least not the full story.

[Montse]

As I see it , it would definetly be a part of some history book,and then it would be part also of the oral tradition,you know,the story told orally from generation to generation,after all ,it is the story of how a very,VERY dark wizard was defeated.

[nymphadora_nat]

yeah possibly just like when harry's about to enter hogwarts? even children knew who he is...the story of the boy who lived...
maybe it would be the same way with his children...

[Klio]

Originally Posted by Montse

As I see it , it would definetly be a part of some history book,and then it would be part also of the oral tradition,you know,the story told orally from generation to generation,after all ,it is the story of how a very,VERY dark wizard was defeated.

I like that! I am sure Harry became a matter of the oral tradition... actually he was already part of that tradition when he arrived at school... and at that point no-one actually know him as a person, and it couldn't be said that he actively contributed to the first fall of Voldemort. The final defeat of Voldemort is a much more exciting story - so that, surely, must have become the stuff of folk lore very soon.

Originally Posted by nymphadora_nat

yeah possibly just like when harry's about to enter hogwarts? even children knew who he is...the story of the boy who lived...
maybe it would be the same way with his children...

I would definitely think so... and since the wizarding world is so small and people have such a strong sense of families I am sure everyone called Potter would have lots of questions to answer.... and I am assuming that james perhaps and definitely Al looked like Harry, too.... and just as everyone kept telling him how much he looked like James, they'd get the same, as well....

I have to say, I really HOPE that Harry prepared them for this. It's fun reading about the completely clueless kid coming to school and finding that he is famous - but I think JKR makes it clear that it can't have been fun BEING that kid. Actually, I am sure that Harry did his best to make sure that the same didn't happen to his children. I'd think that it would be possible to do this without exposing them to the worse aspects of fame too much.....

[nymphadora_nat]

maybe inside the hogwarts express they'll be talking about the end of second war... about the heroes... so the kids will knw a litlle fact about it...

[Klio]

Originally Posted by nymphadora_nat

maybe inside the hogwarts express they'll be talking about the end of second war... about the heroes... so the kids will knw a litlle fact about it...

Well.... one would hope that they'd know more than that before they ever got anywhere near the Hogwarts express.

After all, everyone would ASK the Potter and Weasley children about that story... and while Harry had a good excuse for his ignorance when he started at school, the Potter kids did not. It would be AWFUL for them!!!

I am sure that there were many private details which Harry preferred to remain private - but his children still could know a version of the story that wasn't quite as coloured by rumour, newspapers and people like Rita than everyone else's....

I hope they were prepared to deal with whatever the world would throw at them because of their father's fame!

[eliza101]

I think that to really understand this question you should look at real history. Now I am what was termed a baby boomer. My father and my mother both served in WW2. My father saw action, my mother lived through air raids. You know what they told me as I was growing up, zera, zilch, nil. My experience is not the rarity, the rarities are the children whose parents told them about it. I dont know to this day what happened to my fathers campaign decorations. He never wanted to talk about it or them. He did once say that he did not like Douglas Bader. No, he was not a pilot, he was a dispatch rider. There the sum total of his war experiences which took him from Europe to Africa. My mother said that when she and friends took presents to the German POW camp at Christmastime they were very nice to her and one clicked his heels and kissed her hand. I think it was the most romantic thing that ever happened to her and it left an impression. People who live through terrible wars and experiences sometimes they just don't want to talk about it. Sometimes like Professor Tolkien and Kurt Vonnegut they write about in a roundabout way. I don't think Harry and Co would talk about it to their children, they were to close to the action. The children as they grow up will start to ask more and more questions. I know I did and now my collection of WW2 books fills a large bookcase.

[Klio]

But eliza.... that's very different! Because after the war EVERYONE had these experiences, and people wanted to get on with it.... I am sure your father was a war hero, and many others were. But like those hundreds of thousands, he wasn't a FAMOUS war hero. You know, those famous people on whom people projected their experiences, by telling the stories of those famous people, rather than telling thir own.....

My family was in Austria and on the other side, and our war traditions (as having been on the wrong side) are different anyway... so I can't really name many British or American war heroes, either .... but I am thinking of people like Churchhill and a few outstanding war heroes who weren't politicians. Churchill's children knew the story, had to know the story, and became themselves expert tellers of that story - because a nation needs that sort of memory, and the family needs to take control of the memory, othwerwise others do it for them.

THAT's what Harry and his family would have to do! His position can't be compared with that of normal folks who did their heroic best to survive the war ... he was the public face of that war. So he wouldn't be able to just stash away his memories and get on with life. because (unlike your parents) he would constantly get questions about it... we have to assume that he also became a public face of the campaign to clear up after Voldemort.... and, seeing that he became head of the Auror Office, he remained a public face of the campaign against the Dark Arts. I am assuming your father didn't have to go on having anything to do with fighting Germans.... so he could return to a normal life and forget about it all.

Moreover, your parents were thrown into that war - it was a few year's interruption of their normal lives... and they had normal lives to return to. Harry was the face of the struggle against Voldemort before he heven knew of it. This is part of who he is - he grew up to be Voldemort's enemy. Denying his children this story would surely deny them a really crucial part of his personality..... quite differently from the many who were caught up in WW II and managed to keep it separate from who they perceived themselves to be....


Clearly, the better comparison for Harry is modern celebrity status mixed with a famous war hero. He and his family couldn't just stop remembering and get on with life. They had to work out how to deal with that memory, process it, learn to handle it, and then get on with life. And I think it is absolutely crucial that the children learned to handle that memory.... because otherwise others would handle it for them, and that could be very painful.

I still think that Harry's own experience would make it very clear to him that he had to protect his children by telling them a good part of the story!

[nymphadora_nat]

harry must've told his children about what happened but not all just what klio have said.... he can't hide his story as harry's famous... and he'll have to face that.. harry will be famous forever so he can't just dump that part of his life right away...