The Harry Potter books and movies introduced the audience to the Wizarding World, its most notable characters, and the events that changed its history. The prophecy about Harry and Voldemort played a key role in the history of the Wizarding World, but what if the prophecy actually meant something completely different and more tragic than initially believed, and Harry Potter is now immortal? In 1997, J.K. Rowling took readers to her own world of magic in the novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first entry in what would become a series of seven novels telling the story of “the boy who lived” and Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard of all.
The Harry Potter novels became a worldwide phenomenon, and as it happens with many other successful book series, it didn’t take long for Hollywood to set its eyes on this peculiar story. The Harry Potter saga was released between 2001 and 2011, with the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, divided into two movies. The film series was also a success and expanded the books’ fanbase, but it also left many questions about certain elements from the Wizarding World, with Rowling answering many of these through the years, but there are some that are still somewhat open to interpretation, as is the case of the prophecy about Harry and Voldemort, which some fans believe was worded in a way that points at Harry now being immortal.
This prophecy, also known as the Lost Prophecy, was made by Sybill Trelawney (played by Emma Thompson) to Albus Dumbledore in early 1980 during her interview for the post of Divination teacher at Hogwarts. The prophecy details the requirements for the boy who would be capable of defeating Voldemort, though it didn’t say that he would kill the Dark Lord. These requirements were that the boy would be born in the closing days of July 1980, his parents would have defied Voldemort three times and live to tell the story, and would have a power Voldemort would be unable to comprehend, and if there were more than one boy who met these requirements, Voldemort would choose the one. An important part of the prophecy reads that “either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives”, and this is the part that might have been misinterpreted for years.
It has been assumed since the Harry Potter books and movies came out that this part of the prophecy means that one has to kill the other, but a fan has suggested a different interpretation of it, which would mean that Harry is now immortal. According to the author of the theory, this specific line in the prophecy could mean that the only way either of them could die would be at the hand of the other, so the one who survived would have no other way of achieving death, which adds to Voldemort’s obsession with living forever. Harry finally defeated and killed Voldemort in Deathly Hallows, and with this interpretation of the prophecy in mind, it would mean that Harry sacrificed his own death to pretty much save the world, which is actually a very tragic thing to do for Harry as death is the only way he can be with his loved ones again – his parents, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and more. With Voldemort dead, Harry would have become immortal, and “would forever be The Boy Who Lived”.
This theory gives a tragic twist to Harry’s story, as the only way he could see his parents again would be through magical objects like the Mirror of Erised (which was destroyed during the Battle of Hogwarts) or other ways that might be more of an illusion than a reality. Whether this interpretation of the prophecy works or not is up to every viewer, and it might be interesting to keep it in mind the next time you read or watch the Harry Potter saga.