With a franchise like Harry Potter that boasts several books, movies, video games, and even a stage play, there are bound to be fan theories galore. After all, what we fans love to do is fill in the gaps that the canon material leaves open. Harry Potter obviously has many of these, some of which J.K. Rowling has debunked and some of which still have yet to be addressed. But whether Rowling has given them her blessing or not, there are some fan theories that are just too good to be denied.
10. The Dursleys Were Affected By Harry Being A Horcrux
While J.K. Rowling has already debunked this theory, we can’t help but give it the number 10 slot. While we know that Harry wasn’t quite a Horcrux and the Dursleys had their own reasons to dislike him, it still makes sense. After all, Harry carried a piece of Voldemort’s soul inside of him. That can't be a nice vibe to have lingering around a household. If not, however, that would mean the Dursleys were just that terrible to a child, and that’s just depressing.
RELATED: Harry Potter: 15 Things You Didn't Know About The Dursleys
9. Crookshanks Is The Potters’ Cat
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry finds a letter his mother wrote to Sirius after Harry’s first birthday. In it, she mentions a cat he nearly killed while flying on the toy broomstick Sirius gifted him. There is no mention of what happened to the cat after Voldemort killed the Potters, however. It might be a bit of a longshot, but what if Hermione’s cat Crookshanks actually belonged to the Potters previously?
There are obviously issues with the theory, the first of which being that Sirius would have recognized the cat in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Still, the cat had been unclaimed for a long time before Hermione bought him and frankly, we love the thought of a part of Harry’s childhood watching over him. The boy needs some goodness in his life, okay?
8. The Trio Chose To Be In Gryffindor
Harry, Ron, and Hermione could have easily ended up in different houses. As we see during Harry’s sorting, the Hat takes the wearer’s desires into consideration. Harry did not want to be in Slytherin and the Hat ultimately sorted him into Gryffindor. Hermione could have easily fit in with the Ravenclaw crowd and Ron would have made a great Hufflepuff, but they ended up in Gryffindor instead. And it makes sense that they would have chosen that path. Being brave, after all, is a decision.
RELATED: Harry Potter: 15 Things You Never Knew About The Sorting Hat
7. Hagrid Received Aragog From Newt Scamander
All we know about Aragog’s origins is that he came to Britain in the pocket of a traveler, who then gave him to Hagrid. There is no mention of who this traveler was, but wouldn’t it be fantastic if that traveler was actually Newt Scamander? Newt is indeed traveler and one who has a love and appreciation for beasts, such as Aragog. And as somehow who cares for creatures that much, he would be able to recognize a kindred spirit. It would also just be a nice tie-in to Fantastic Beasts.
6. Mary Poppins Went To Hogwarts
Okay, so we know that this could never actually be canon, but it’s a fun thought. No one ever explains where Mary Poppins got her abilities from, after all, so what if she’d been a witch this whole time? She uses magic with her umbrella, which isn’t entirely dissimilar to Hagrid’s concealed wand, and she would have made a very good Ravenclaw, to say the least.
So why was she nannying for Muggle families? Well, maybe she simply had a love for Muggle society and culture. There is also the possibility that she worked for the Ministry and perhaps they had deployed her to keep an eye on possible Muggle children with magic abilities.
Again, this can’t possibly ever be canon, but it’s good and pure, so let us have this, okay?
RELATED: Mary Poppins Returns Clips Highlight the Magic of Practical Effects
5. There Was Already A War Between Muggles And Wizards
This goes back to the fact that the Minister of Magic reports to the British Prime Minister. Wizardkind is clearly more powerful than Muggles, yet they’re forced to hide their existence. This would all make sense if perhaps back in the Middle Ages, Muggles and wizards waged a war and the Muggles ultimately came out on top. While Muggle history paints the witch trials as a case of paranoia and fear, what if they were more successful than recorded?
While we know that although there were some wizarding families who wished for war, this never happened, but it would make for an exciting entry in the history books.
4. Trelawney Was Right
Despite being treated as somewhat of a kook by students and faculty alike, Professor Trelawney was actually right about a lot of her prophecies. There is, of course, the big one, but even some of the smaller predictions she’d made throughout the books turned out to be true. For instance, she predicted that Hermione would end up dropping her class and she somewhat predicted Dumbledore’s death during the Christmas dinner in The Prisoner of Azkaban.
The most distressing thought, though, is that Trelawney’s predictions on the death of students could have been true. After all, plenty of students did die in the Battle of Hogwarts and in the Second Wizarding War in general. It’s not necessarily a heartwarming fan theory, but it makes sense and Trelawney deserves at least some respect.
RELATED: Each Hogwarts Professor And Which House They Belonged To
3. Neville Actually Wasn’t As Big A Klutz As We Thought
As we all know, Neville could have very well been the Chosen One if things had gone differently. Ultimately, Voldemort ended up marking Harry as his rival, but what if Voldemort had tried to off Neville, too? In their first year, Neville had a bit of an incident with his broom that could have ended badly. It was just brushed off as Neville being bad at things, but what if he wasn’t?
And as the story progresses, we see that Neville’s ability to use magic gets better and better. This seems to happen after he gets a proper wand, not the one passed down to him, and as we know, the wand chooses its user. We think this should be canon because come on... Neville deserves this.
2. The Real Reason For The Number Of Kids In Harry’s Class
J.K. Rowling has said that while Harry attended Hogwarts, about 1,000 kids attended. But that math doesn’t seem to add up, seeing as there doesn’t seem to be that many students in his year. But maybe Harry’s class size of about 40 kids makes sense. After all, Harry had been born during a time of war and turmoil. It would make sense if folks of his parents’ generation were not looking to have children. It would definitely fill in that particular plot hole.
1. Dumbledore Is Death
This is a theory that J.K. Rowling neither confirmed nor denied. She called it beautiful and fitting in a tweet, but didn't deny it. We also think it’s fitting, especially if we look at Harry, Snape, and Voldemort as the Three Brothers. Harry represents the third brother who hid underneath the Invisibility Cloak, then eventually greeted Death like an old friend. When Harry sacrificed himself, he did it willingly and encountered Dumbledore.
Like Rowling, we think it’s a beautiful theory and one that should be canon. Dumbledore has been such an enigma throughout the franchise, so why not have him be the ultimate mystery of life?
What other theories do you think should be canon? Let us know in the comments!