Harry Potter's Life BEFORE Hogwarts Explained (Everything We Know)

[@bettygorman4545]

Harry could’ve turned out very badly as a result of his treatment by the Dursleys. it is to his credit that he did not. You did a great sum up of Harry’s life from when he became an orphan to the time he went to Hogwarts. Thank you for this!

[@macwelch8599]

He had every right to be angry and filled with hate, for sure

[@sannasaare7100]

Harry must've had a first birthday cake - his mum described him "zooming about" on the broom, a gift from Sirius. But Hagrid's cake would've been his first since arriving at the Dursleys' place.

[@hallowwolf3599]

unfortunately, Harry probably doesn't consciously remember that 😢

[@supasetleewairoj2440]

When did he start wearing glasses? Was he nearsighted or farsighted? Who bought or gave him the glasses or where did he get them? How did he discover which pair to wear?

[@Princess_Celestia_]

"When did he start wearing glasses? " Sometime before his 11th birthday. "Was he nearsighted of farsighted?" It's never stated as far as I recall. "Who bought or gave him the glasses or where did he get them?" Most likely his aunt and uncle bought them. As to where, I don't know about how it works in the U.K. but here in the States, the optometrist's office sells glasses and sunglasses frames. The optometrist will examine your eyes and conclude what strength prescription lenses you require, they will send off the order for the lenses to be made while you then go pick out a set of frames. When the lenses arrive at their office, they will then insert them into the frames while bending and tweaking the frames and nose pieces to better fit your face. Again, things might work differently in the U.K. "How did he discover which pair to wear?" The optometrist would have prescribe him the correct strength lenses based on the eye exam results and he would have picked out the frames from the cheapest pairs on the shelf. His aunt and uncle may be uncaring about him but they still spend money on him, while complaining about how much he costs them. Frankly I don't see any abuse going on. But then I grew up in a time where what is considered abuse today was just parenting but then again, things considered just "parenting" today would have been deemed abuse in my day.

[@ColtonRMagby]

Harry's life before Hogwarts can be summed up in one word: Hell.

[@cadeshanley218]

James, Lily, Sirius, and Reamus would be Enraged and Disgusted at the Dursleys.

[@jameswest981]

I remember one passage in the first books stating that Harry felt as welcomed as dry rot no child should ever feel like that.

[@ColtonRMagby]

@@jameswest981 Damn right.

[@BioHunter1990]

It can always be worse, but yeah. Hell is a very good description. A thought I think this channel has discussed is Riddle also had a terrible childhood. Not the cruelty of the orphanage (as it appears to have been underfunded but well run)…but think about being an orphan in a period of extremely high number of orphans during the tensions going on throughout the 1930s. Riddle started school literally the same day WWII started. Each summer he had to go back to London during the War. He’d have come back to London during his guest summer back during The Battle of Britain, and his second right after the devastation of The Blitz and the darkest period for the Allies in the War. Meanwhile Grindelwald is causing all sorts of havoc. At least Harry grew up in an era of peace. A nightmarish life, but not the added stress of war.

[@ColtonRMagby]

@@BioHunter1990 Yeah, but Merope had it worse.

[@grokeffer6226]

I've wondered how Harry got down all those steps at the train station while pushing a very heavy cart. I really don't remember how it was described in the book.

[@paulcowlishaw]

He flew down the stairs with broomless flight. It said in the book.

[@Cellia836]

I felt so bad for Harry going through all that abuse. I know how that feels I have been there myself. I can relate to these stories as someone who went through Child abuse, as a child. Just like Harry I took the abuse that was thrown at me and I turned into something positive in my life. I put myself through college and paid for it all by myself. My parents never wanted to be bothered with that. I was able to land a great career and been working in my career for over 20 years. Some people who have been abused as children I have found to be the strongest people I have ever met in life. No matter what people throw at them, they never give up at all. Harry is really an amazing person, he could of turned out evil, very easily and that would of been the easier path to take in life. Instead he took the harder path. My favorite part, was at the end of the series, when he had the elder wand and he took it and broke it. He knew if it felt into the wrong hands again, how much evil it would bring into the world again. I really respected him for that.

[@macwelch8599]

What if Harry Potter was set in America? What Ilvermorny House would he be part of?

[@cheftony5103]

I hope that they'll make one movie about each school

[@macwelch8599]

@@cheftony5103 me too

[@masterbudwalker9181]

This is a good topic. What if the story was set in another country/school

[@mrpanicattack6688]

I saw a meme where in America, all of them. Would use magical guns instead of wands hahahhaha 🫣😳🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@drewmurphy6101]

With the thousands of letters that came through the fireplace/letter slot in the front door, you'd think Harry would've gotten 1 eventually....

[@grec.]

The Dursleys were so unnecessarily cruel to Harry. It is as if they wanted Harry to know he was never going to be loved by them and neither be in their lives if there wasn't because he was taken there. That's an awful level of meanness.

[@andrewmoore5172]

The fact that Harry didn't turn out to be a sociopath is nothing short of a miracle.

[@paulcowlishaw]

Should've had this backstory in the film

[@ruthp2545]

I always felt that Harry didn't turn out to be a more troubled child than he did, was due in part, because of the wonderful, loving first year that he did have with his parents. If he had gone to the Dursleys just after birth instead of having that year with Lily and James, his bitterness might have consumed him and he wouldn't have made the good choices that he did in life.

[@ratsumatra3003]

What about the magical things that happened to Harry before he found out he was a wizard? The bad haircut, the roof, the zoo....

[@Matt-gz9nr]

I would love to see this up in the upcoming Harry Potter series with unseen characters

[@TheLittleMerman1998]

I said it once I’ll say it again. Harry Potter has the perfect villain origin story he would have every justifiable reason to become a villain and I would not blame him more importantly you would be able to sympathize with why he’s a villain because he has justifiable reasons. I mean think about it his parents are killed when he’s 1 years old, he sent to live with his abusive aunt, uncle and cousin who are emotionally mentally, and I honestly think it’s sugarcoated, but I would bet, physically abusive as well. I mean also to top it all off every year in Hogwarts something traumatizing happens to him either has to fight, a monster, or save somebody, or witnessed one of his loved ones, getting hurt or dying that takes its toll over time! I mean it’s a MIRACLE how he turned out

[@m.hoffman2889]

looking at many criminal stories, most serial killers grew up like Harry, without parents and abused, so it could have been very possible Harry would have turned into a villain

[@Ravenblack42]

I think it’d be an understatement to conclude that JK Rowling knew exactly what she was doing when writing these books. In this case, the parallels drawn between Harry and Tom Riddle during their youth and into adulthood are undeniable. Both without parents, orphaned, punished for their magic, and both received by Dumbledore, despite choosing to tread very different paths. As always, Dumbledore’s words ring true when he tells Harry, “It isn’t how you are alike, it is how you are not.” And again, “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be''

[@liamshaughnessy6246]

0:00-1:46-9:08!❤😂😊😊😊

[@andeeharry]

and another thing I didn't get. The shield thing. Lilly's love would only work in a place that Harry calls home. Yet, He never once felt the need or called Privet Drive his home....which mean that the protection wouldn't have worked, not through him, or through Petunia. Which meant, he was a sitting duck. The protection only worked at Hogwarts, which was his home.

[@eranshachar9954]

Harry was also physically abused by the Dursleys. I remember an example from book 2 but it can't be the only time they did it- Starvation. Giving him very small portions of food for something he did wrong in their eyes.

[@betelgeuseredstone9082]

Very almost like Credence/Aurelius, in a way. But different.

[@MrTimelord77]

Weren't there others born around the time of Harry and Neville? Harry was The Boy Who Lived because everyone else died without much issue.

[@thepretzel2]

There was also the thing about people who THRICE DEFIED Voldemort.

[@MrTimelord77]

@@thepretzel2 Well, we never got much of a backstory on the other families. They could've defied Voldemort in other ways that might not have been as extreme.

[@DavidAltman-g1l]

​@@MrTimelord77 yeah but three times??

[@MrTimelord77]

@@DavidAltman-g1lVoldemort was petty and not agreeing with his way of life could count as defying him.

[@liamshaughnessy6246]

5:12-9:06!❤ I 😅😅😊😊

[@rosemariemichel7050]

Harry was unpaid house help. Nature vs nurture definitely worked in his case

[@andeeharry]

Harry's life was a miserable one, as it was all part of Dumbledore's Plan...but you know, I am surprised that the school or social services never once got involved at all. I mean like, Harry Potter is troubled, did things that would normally spark a cry for help, would get noticed by someone else. The way he looked, the way he behaved, the way he did things 'somehow', his constant missing school, his appearance, his shabbby clothing. They must count for something right? You have one badly treated boy, and then you have the other one who is an overweight thug of a bully. Surely, someone would have taken notice.....the adults and the S.S basically suck. I am not sure if it is part of the plan either, but it is messy. Or rather maybe not, since this stuff gets ignored all the time.. Alright so Harry is said to attend a criminal school in the muggle world by the time he gets to Hogwarts...but I wonder how the Durselys did manage to sweep everything under the carpet. Sure, they made excuses, but not everyone believed them. They bound to be visited a few times. I know in the Fanfic, his life was a living hell and a lot worse than the books. It is a miracle that he survived at all. People say that Petunia was a young 23 years old that was grieving...but I am not sure....it doesn't seem right, but you never know. It could have been the Horcrux too, but like, there is a lot that got missed out. Excuse this post, but we know his life before Hogwarts was bad, life during Hogwarts? rough? Life after Hogwarts? Tough. I bet you that he had a hard time trusting people since everyone he knew (mostly) wanted to use him in some way, which is why he was a grumpy bitter man in his old age. Not just because of his Auror job either. He became suspicious of everyone and it is a shame he treated his son badly too. He been through a lot.

[@danielarthur2950]

Do a "what if Dumbledore raised harry" fan fiction, That would be awesome

[@DavidAltman-g1l]

Raised by the weasleys would be a better one

[@danielarthur2950]

@@DavidAltman-g1l could be a "top ten people who should've raised harry" video

[@Zamiroh]

I actually dont think the dursleys were as bad as made out to be. I mean i dont want to make them seem saint like, far from it, but they did take care of harry. Harry was provided a safe home. He was fed and clothed. While he certainly faced mental abuse, it does not appear he was physically abused. They provided him an education. It was their care of him that allowed him to be ready to go to hogwarts. In the beginning they could have simply rejected him. There had to be some love, even if minimal, to take him in and raise him. There are plenty of children who have faced situations so much worse then what harry faced.

[@12Blueace]

Theory suggests that Aunt Petunia actually did love Harry, she just suppressed her love for him under her bitterness for Harry being magical as it was a reminder how she was a muggle while Lily was magical. Uncle Vernon however, there is nothing good about him.

[@Zamiroh]

@@12Blueace yeah, I liked the one deleted scene from the movies where she tells Harry he didn't just lose his mother that night, but that she lost her sister.

[@KJ-of6lf]

She also promised to Dumbledore; and even got a Howler reminding her of her promised.

[@Ninjamom4]

❤️⚡️❤️

[@DavidDress-u5h]

Whatever happened to Harry’s grandparents?

[@cheftony5103]

All of them passed, before James and Lily!

[@DavidDress-u5h]

Thanks. Is it known how they all died? I could never find the info.

[@cheftony5103]

@@DavidDress-u5h the Potter's died from Dragon Pocks. I believe the Evans's were involved in a car accident. This is from the site Wizarding World (formerly Potter Watch).

[@ricey23]

@@DavidDress-u5h the Potters were old when they had James so probably age - the Evans... who knows

[@KoniXyz]

​@@ricey23 best we have for them is "normal muggle deaths"... Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean

[@melanievetter6211]

😊🎉🦁

[@johnathandavis3288]

Bro I thought you was gonna talk about a theory you basically just talk bout the beginning of the first book

[@stephenwood-vorndam585]

Let me start by saying that I love your channel, I am subscribed, and I press "like" whenever I remember. However, I don't understand why you call it Harry Potter Theory, when a lot of what you talk about is TRUE to canon. Truth is not theory.

[@ikeybhatnagar9569]

😝 'Promo sm'