10 Harry Potter Mysteries JK Rowling Has Actually Answered
7. Are Harry And Voldemort Related?
There is a deep treasure trove of questions that have been answered by JK Rowling in her online chat with her fan site of choice, The Leaky Cauldron, which took place back in 2007 after the release of her final book.
She was no longer restricted by the need to keep secrets (and she'd been famously keeping her lips locked tight shut, refusing to tell even her husband of the fate of her many characters) after a decade in which they'd been in the public eye. She was answering question after question with gusto, including, "Are Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort related?"
And on that front, the suspicions of many a fan were confirmed.
Slightly watered down by the explanation that nearly all wizarding families are related if you trace them back far enough, Rowling answered that they indeed shared the bloodline of the Peverell family - the original owners of The Deathly Hallows. These were the wizards featured in The Tale Of The Three Brothers.
Cadmus Peverell, the second brother, received the Resurrection Stone from Death, which ended up in the hands of Voldemort's grandfather. Ignotus Peverell, the third, took possession of the Invisibility Cloak, which of course was passed down to Harry on Christmas Day of his first year at Hogwarts - and Dumbledore had been looking after it on behalf of his father.
In the story, the third brother passed the cloak down through the generations of his family.