12 Questions About Harry Potter Movies That Keep You Up At Night

11. What Happened To Harry's Grandparents?

Mundungus Fletcher
Warner Bros

Harry's childhood before attending Hogwarts is pretty depressing, which it had to be in order for the story to work as well as it did. The only child lost his parents when he was still too young to remember, so had to be sent to live with his vile aunt and uncle.

With Lily and James' death came the end of Harry's entire biological family with the exception of his mother's sister, Petunia. For a child this young, it seems unlikely that there were literally no other living relatives to depend on before having to settle for the live of abuse he suffered with the Dursleys.

Since James was an only child and Petunia was Lily's only sibling, the lack of any other aunts and uncles makes sense, but where were Harry's grandparents? They are never mentioned in the movies or in the books, so are we just to assume that they are dead? If so, how did they die? After all, both Lily and James losing both their parents at such an early age is incredibly unlikely.

Again, having grandparents would have been a huge obstacle for the story that J.K. Rowling wanted to tell, so they were purposely never mentioned. But with Harry's lack of family being an incredibly key part of the story, surely even just a sentence explaining where they were would have been called for here?

In this post: 
Harry Potter
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

This standard nerd combines the looks of Shaggy with the brains of Scooby, has an unhealthy obsession with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is a firm believer that Alter Bridge are the greatest band in the world.