Why Isn't Harry Potter An Obscurial Like Credence?
In 2016, "Harry Potter" fans were eagerly anticipating a new installment in the Wizarding World franchise they love so much. While the new film was never meant to focus on the Boy Who Lived, many fans were happy just to be returning to the world populated by witches and wizards at all.
Instead, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" focuses on Magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who famously authored the textbook from which the movie takes its name, and his attempt to release a thunderbird in its natural environment. However, along the way, Newt gets wrapped up in a deadly plot by Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), posing as Auror Percival Graves (Colin Farrell), to find an Obscurial — a child who has developed a dark parasitical magical force called an Obscurus as a result of being forced to repress their magic — to help him take over the wizarding world.
Viewers soon discover that the destructive magical force hurting individuals and destroying structures is a particularly powerful Obscurus, and the hunt is on to find the Obscurial who hosts it. Though Obscurials don't typically survive past 10 years old, we soon discover that Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), an 18-year-old man, is the Obscurial they've been seeking.
Since our favorite bespectacled boy wizard also comes from an abusive family who despises magic, many fans are wondering if Harry should have formed an Obscurus too. Well, it seems that author J.K Rowling is ready with an answer.
Harry Potter author explains why Harry isn't an Obscurial
When the concept of an Obscurus was introduced, fans endlessly speculated about Harry. In fact, the question cropped up so often that Wizarding World creator J.K. Rowling added it to the "FAQs" section of her website.
While growing up, Harry lived with the Dursleys, who not only actively hated magic but also constantly abused their nephew. But although the recipe is seemingly there for him to develop an Obscurus, it never happens. This is because the most pivotal piece of the formula is the acknowledgment and subsequent suppression of magic, which doesn't happen with Harry.
"The Dursleys were too frightened of magic ever to acknowledge its existence to Harry," Rowling wrote. "While Vernon and Petunia had a confused hope that if they were nasty enough to Harry his strange abilities might somehow evaporate, they never taught him to be ashamed or afraid of magic. Even when he was scolded for 'making things happen', he didn't make any attempt to suppress his true nature, nor did he ever imagine that he had the power to do so."
Overall, it seems that Rowling put thought into the concept and it's paid off. In a Reddit post by u/sweetpotato37 asking if others dislike the Obscurus storyline in the "Fantastic Beasts" series, several Redditors felt the opposite, pointing to Albus Dumbledore's sister, Ariana, who is confirmed to be an Obscurial in "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore."
Redditor u/palcatraz had the most popular answer, saying in part, "In the original books, we already had Ariana's story, in which a young magical child is conscious of and tries to suppress her magic with terrible results. I see the [O]bscurus story line as an extension of the concept we already were introduced [to] via Ariana's story."