Wizarding Worldz
Harry Potter was raised by his Aunt Petunia, who is his only known blood relative. Harry Potter’s Grandparents don’t have anything to do with him, and this is why.
In the Harry Potter movies, Harry is alone because he doesn’t have a loving family. However, the audience never finds out what happened to Harry’s grandparents.
James and Lily Potter, Harry’s parents, died when he was a baby. This was a big part of Harry’s life, especially because he had to live with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, which made him feel very alone.
Harry’s only known blood relative is Aunt Petunia. However, Harry saw in the Mirror of Erised that the Potter side of the family was very big, so it’s strange that he never met any of them.
In an interview with Mugglenet, J.K. Rowling said that both of Harry’s grandparents had died, leaving Aunt Petunia as his only living blood relative.
Rowling says that the only reason Harry’s grandparents died was to make his past more interesting. Harry needed to be alone and away from everyone else. This is a common theme in the series, especially when Harry had to deal with losing people like Sirius, who had become his family.
Rowling says that none of the deaths are related to anything bad, but having Harry’s grandparents in the story would make it too complicated and take away important parts of Harry’s life, like how lonely he is.
Where are the grandparents of Harry Potter?
Lily Potter’s parents, who were Harry’s maternal grandparents, were Muggles and had nothing to do with the Wizarding World until Lily got her letter from Hogwarts.
During Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Snape has a flashback to when Lily and Petunia were kids and playing together before they met Snape. Petunia threatens to tell their mother about Lily’s magic. It’s likely that Lily’s parents were still alive at that time.
James and Lily got married when they were young, and they had Harry when they were 20. Rowling says that Lily’s parents died a “normal muggle death.” This must have happened within about 10 years of Lily going to Hogwarts and marrying James Potter, but we don’t know when or how they died beyond the fact that they did so normally.
Rowling tells us more about James Potter’s parents, who are Harry’s paternal grandparents. She says that they were quite old when they had James Potter, which is why he was their only child and why they were very nice to him.
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius says that when he ran away from home, he stayed with James and his parents. This means that James’ parents were probably still alive for most of the time he was at Hogwarts.
Rowling says that because they were “old in Wizarding terms,” they died of a Wizarding illness and were never in Harry’s life.
How the fact that Harry didn’t have grandparents affected the story
In the Harry Potter movies, Harry’s lack of grandparents added to his troubles, but it was also important to the story.
Harry’s loneliness was a big part of his problems, and Voldemort tried to use it against him until Harry had the love and support of his friends.
If James’ parents spoiled him, they would do the same for Harry, and Harry probably wouldn’t be as humble as he is in the series, since James was a bully until the end of his time at Hogwarts.
Why didn’t Dumbledore put Harry with an adoptive Wizard family instead of the Dursleys? This would make even less sense if Harry’s grandparents were in the picture.
Harry’s story made more sense without any blood relatives, except for Petunia. It also showed how traumatized and alone he was.
It would also take away how safe Harry felt at Hogwarts and how surprised he was to find out he was a wizard, both of which were important to the story of the Harry Potter books.