How much did the Wizarding World know about Harry Potter?

[RandomPasserby]

This is something I've been thinking about, and yet another thing which confuses me.

The wizarding world seems to know a surprising amount about Harry Potter before he starts at Hogwarts. For example, the lightning bolt scar that everybody identifies Harry by. How did the wizarding public learn about that?

There were four people who knew about the scar before 1991. Sirius, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid.

No matter how slightly nonsensical the events of October 31st-November 2nd 1981 seem to be (as has previously been discussed) the fact remains that only those four people saw Harry's scar.

I suppose the easiest explanation would be that Hagrid got drunk and started talking about it although that presents several problems of its own. For one, why would Dumbledore allow somebody who doesn't understand the meaning of discretion on their relatively secret missions? For two, if Hagrid were talking about Harry Potter and the lightning bolt scar, wouldn't somebody ask him where Harry Potter was? And for three, why would anybody believe him? I love Hagrid, I do, but he's not exactly the most objectively trustworthy source. I'm sure there were many many theories about where Harry Potter was.

Another option is the Dumbledore deliberately released that information in order that Harry might be identified later by the wizarding public. I considered that he might have been forced to discuss Harry by the Wizengamot or the Ministry but I couldn't really come up with any conversation which would reveal that he had a lightning bolt scar but not that he was living with his Aunt and Uncle.

Hermione says that Harry's in at least three books (Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century) which makes some kind of sense. The Weasley children have obviously heard about Harry a lot (judging by Ginny's reaction in PS/CoS).

One thing I do find a little ironic is that everyone knows about Harry's lightning bolt scar but nobody works out that he'd be on the train in September 1991. I mean you'd think there would be students who'd lost family to Voldemort who wanted to thank Harry or tell him that he wasn't alone - or hell, just people who were fans who wanted to say hello.

I mean this also ties a bit into the whole 'how did everybody find out so quickly what happened in Godric's Hollow' thing. Because everybody seems to know by immediate cultural osmosis what happened in Godric's Hollow that night, even if they don't know how/why Harry survived.

[Miss Wings]

I think I read a story once where it was Dumbledore who put the story out about the scar.

[Kitty279]

That question has stumped me before, and I don't really have a solution to the problem, either.

Hagrid would make sense, we know he can't keep his mouth shut to save his life. Though it's true, he'd blab about his whereabouts, too. The Manipulative Dumbledore fan in me says he could have been obliviated of the exact location. As for people believing Hagrid - he may not be that trustworthy in that regard, but honestly, when did the magical world ever care about believability and reliability to believe any gossip, no matter how stupid?

Of course, it never made sense to use Hagrid for that kidnapping job in the first place, anyway. But I won't rehash that now.

You forgot Arabella Figg. She may be a squib and most magicals look down their noses at her, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have contacts, or how was Dumbledore able to plant her there? She might have told someone and maybe even supplied pictures of Harry.

Honestly, I get it, it was a children's book and fantasy to boot, but that's no reason to leave every bit of logic and common sense out when writing it. The whole beginning of the book, from the attack on Godric's Hollow to Harry's reintroduction into the magical world makes no sense whatsoever.

[physicssquid]

I have a slight problem with the idea of Hagrid being Obliviated. He is half-giant, and I doubt that even a wizard as powerful as Dumbledore supposedly was, would be able to Obliviate a half-giant, what with his resistance to magic. Remember the fact that in book five, he was attacked by Umbridge and four Aurors, and not one of their spells was strong enough to Stun him.

I have this sneaky suspicion that someone who had known the Potters, heard about Harry's scar being in the shape of a lightning bolt, simply found pictures of James and Lily and conjured, in their own minds, an idea of what Harry would look like as he grew. Plus, how are we to know that no one had ever seen him between his birth and the night his parents died? Surely whoever was there when Lily gave birth, and whoever looked after Harry while his parents were out doing their jobs or on missions for the Order, would remember what he had looked like as a baby and guessed at what he would look like later in life.

[Kitty279]

Maybe, but you have to admit that Umbitch wouldn't exactly fall in the category 'powerful', on the contrary, she's as inept as any inbred pureblood. And we don't know how powerful the Aurors were, either. Kingsley was not among them, or Moody, after all

But if you have a better explanation how Hagrid didn't blab out where Harry lives, then let's hear it.

Oh, I am sure a good few people knew how Harry looked like as a baby, but where did they get the scar thing? With that, we are down to the five already listed suspects once again. At least initially; we know that a good number of people saw and recognised him before he got his letter. Which is another thing that annoys me - Harry moved around only in the Muggle world, so how did so many wizards and witches just happen to walk around there? And seeing how gossipy they are, how did no Death Eater go and try to catch the BWL for defeating their master?

[RandomPasserby]

Which is another thing that annoys me - Harry moved around only in the Muggle world, so how did so many wizards and witches just happen to walk around there?

Here's the thing I find funny. Potter is a common UK surname and the names Harry, Henry and Harold (the latter two are often given the diminutive Harry) were all in the top 300 names during the 1980's.

That plus dark hair and green eyes must have produced a pool of kids of about the correct age who were named Harry Potter. Or hell, just 'Harry' since they'd probably be meeting on the street.

I wonder how many Muggle boys named Harry got strangers wandering up to them and shaking their hands enthusiastically or bowing.

The odd thing is that there only seem to be a couple of these meetings. So nobody mentioned to their friends that they'd met Harry Potter in Little Whinging, Surrey? Nobody wondered if they might meet him?

As for the DE thing. All the meetings we have show Harry as older. Which means that the DE's have had trials and have either managed to get away with it or been incarcerated. The ones who are free might not want to risk that freedom for a dead master and the ones who might have (like Bellatrix) were locked up.

Also, of the DE's we see in GoF who were Voldemort's most loyal at least four of them (Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle) would have had small children the same age as Harry which might have had something to do with it.

[Miss Wings]

Ahh but it was Order members that saw Harry, he remembered Diggle who was an Order Member didn't he? Maybe he told people what Harry looked like, heck he may have gone to the Prophet with a memory and they have the camera that can take a picture from a memory.

[Kitty279]

RandomPasserby: Amusing idea, though I doubt it happened that often that a wizard was around when a boy with that description was called 'Harry' by his friends or family. But it may actually have happened a few times, confusing these poor muggle boys completely.

Sure, the DE's were trying to hide their true colors, but would that keep them from a good bit of revenge?

In what regard? Because they were busy with their own kids? Can you see Lucy changing his son's diapers? (Or Narcissa, for that matter?) Worry for a child can't have been the problem, seeing how Lucy set a Basilisk on a school full of children.

Wingsy, we know of only Diggle by name, so you don't know who else was there. But IF he had gone to the Prophet, then Harry and the Dursleys would have been mobbed by curious wizards who wanted to see their saviour and talk to him.
Hm ... actually, as Minnie said, Diggle never had much sense. So I can't imagine he did keep his mouth shut, and the others probably didn't, either. That would indeed explain why they knew about the scar, but it raises even more questions about why no one followed him home, why no one discovered the abuse ...
Btw, did that sort of camera exist in canon, or was it a fanon invention?

[Miss Wings]

Fanon- think it's mention in a few of Robst's fics.

[Kitty279]

That's what I thought, but seeing as I am not that familiar with all details in the last two books ... I think he invented it for 'Can't have it both ways', or at least that was where I saw the idea first.