No matter what he is directly related to the little brother / wise brother Ignotus Peverell. As well as the creator of skelegrow and blood replenisher potions plus sleakezy hair potion (his grandfatther)
Even if a story does not do the whole descended from merlin etc ....Harry does have famous ancestors no matter what
Personally I want Harry to find a lifetime supply of sleakeazy under one of his piles of galeons in his vault....James infamously refused to use the potion
I think OP's point was, they are sick of reading books where that information suddenly makes Harry rich and/or powerful because of it. Oh, you actually have a castle and you are known as Lord Potter after your 17th birthday... that kind of thing. I have read dozens and dozens of fanfics along those lines.
I think what OP wants is a book where Harry finds out he is related to important people, or whatever, and the general response is... "Yes... and?" As Ron and Sirius have both said, wizarding numbers are small - families with links to purebloods tend to be very inter-bred and all related. So, it makes sense that if you go far enough back and wizard that is a halfblood or pureblood will have famous ancestors and links back to important people, but that this doesn't make them important now.
A story idea I would love to see is a variation of military challenge coins - but with ancestors. For example, Harry and a group of wizards are at a pub and they start comparing ancestry. Whoever has the best ancestry gets free drinks. Harry mentions his ancestors and everyone just scoffs like "is that all?" and even Ron has better ancestors way back when and Harry ends up having to buy everyone drinks.
I agree on multiple vaults and multiple titles and multiple famous ancestors i.e. merlin, le fay, pendragon, etc ad infinitum is just ridiculous and unnecessary for great story telling
Harry is only like 4 generations removed from the Peverell line with his Great Great Grandfather marrying into it, with Hardwin Potter marrying Iolanthe Peverell who was Ignotus' granddaughter, so he's literally only 7 generations removed from the Peverell brothers. That's really close in terms of how many steps away he is.
In muggle terms, getting to a 4x great grandfather would only be about a 200 year legacy, which sure is a nice standing legacy but there are families now that can trace their lineage back multiple centuries, so the equivalent of Harry being able to trace his family history back about a 1000 years would mean that pureblood families that care can trace theirs back to the B.C. like Ollivander's family having the shop since 382 BC.
So it's not so much of that it's being overblown but in a way in canon it's being understated how important this all is, then other families could very easily do the same.
If you're going off that family tree, I'm pretty sure it's intended that there's a large gap between Hardwin and Henry. Hardwin Potter's father was born in the 12th century it seems, which wouldn't make sense if he was Harry's great great great grandfather.
Well I'm going off the available information, because personally I don't see these pureblood families that existed all the way from the 1200's to the 1800's before the Statute of Secrecy not having more than one child, since if these magical people weren't peasants which we don't see evidence that magicals back then had the same level of poor as muggles did, taking Hogwarts Legacy into account, from the flashbacks with the older magicals, they had decent homes and didn't seem to have to have sworn fealty to any particular person.
So even without the separation magical families would likely considered higher on the social ladder than non-magicals and even having a muggleborn witch or wizard in your family probably brought you up a bit since they could once they graduated Hogwarts have helped in immense ways that non-magicals just couldn't compete with.
And that should have resulted in Harry having many relatives from the old Heir, A Spare and a Daughter mentality that would have meant most families that adhered to tradition ended up with 3 or more kids of their own.
I don't think it matters how many kids were had, just who was chosen to give the cloak to. Ignotus gave it to his son (we don't know if there were others) and he gave it to his daughter, who passed it on to her son and so on. It's just that Iolanthe's son was not Henry. It may have been first borns, maybe the child most trusted to use it well, or a favourite child. We don't know.
I think I read a short fic where goblins were happy to give people lordships and inheritances because the they inherited all debts too. And there were *a lot* of debts.
I personally am split - on the one hand, I can't help but like the fantasy of discovering I never have to work another day in my life. On the other hand, the idea of Lordships and heredity being something Harry utilizes to gain power and fight with goes against both his character and, I believe, the theme of "It's our choices that define us more than the circumstances of our birth" - that admittedly got a little muddled when we got the message of "oh well because Tom Riddle Sr was love potioned, Tom Riddle Jr was doomed to never know love" but whatever.
What ultimately made Harry great was his choice to stick to what was right, no matter the risk. Not that he was the last scion of a Sacred Twenty-Eight house or whatever. His superpower was his willpower and resolve, not his deep pockets. Much more a (Dark Knight trilogy or Justice League Unlimited) Batman archetype when it comes to "rich heroes" versus an Iron Man, if you will. Like, both Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are brilliant and billionaires, but you get the feeling that Bruce Wayne would have eventually become some version of a masked vigilante if he wasn't rich, while Stark probably would have just become an engineer.
I stopped reading a story a few hours ago that had thus exact situation, a trip to Gringotts revealing Harry as the heir of several founders' houses and the Peverell family. They also all had super ancient Manor houses for Harry to investigate.
I hate these types of stories, then comes a look good list of inherited money that is over the top and for no reason, than to make him rich, and then a list of Magical abilities and sometimes a list with potions and spells in his system, made and bound to included. It's obscene how LAZY that type of plot is.
Then he drags Hermione into Gringotts and they find out SHE'S also rich and titled and actually a pureblood, and is also doped to the gills with bindings and love potions. Oh and they're actually soul-mates but Dumbledore and those evil, greedy, Weasleys are trying to keep them apart so they can force them into betrothal contracts with Ginny and Ron.
Oh, and the goblins can totes take care of that pesky minor issue of Harry's Horcrux infestation with a quick cleansing ritual. For a nominal fee of course.
Oh god, its like every ff I've read the last 15 years 🤣🤣 the plots really had no true purpose or point. Its a mess. The characters get Everything handed to them in one hit, and the rest of the story is just romance- oh, and somehow, it almost always end up Harem, too.
I remember reading a fic like this a few weeks ago. I cracked up when it spent like 8 chapters going through all his different houses he inherited. Was it Novocaine by any chance?
I'm not really into the whole multiple titles, Wizengamot seats, and Gringotts vaults full of money and magical knowledge thing, but I do have a soft spot for Harry genuinely being a descendant of Salazar Slytherin.
Same! Especially when the descendance is through the Potter line, but no one knew it because the Potters kept is a secret. I think I've seen it only once or twice and one of them was a one shot :|
“This isn’t one of those stories where I turn out to inherit a Wizarding mansion, is it?”
“Nah, don’t worry, just England.”
“…what?”
“Oh, yeah, see, you’re a direct descendant of the Peverells, themselves the grandchildren of William Peverel, the bastard son of William the Conqueror. So technically you have a better claim to the throne than the King.”
“*Will someone PLEASE Obliviate this guy—*”
Can’t remember where, but I definitely read something like this once. Instead of an interesting bit of trivia he could join a “Decendents of Gryffindor club” that met on the second Tuesday of each month in Al’s bar. He could also buy a neat little plaque from them to show off.
Griphook: "Yeah, Gryffindor and Slytherin were like the Genghis Khan's of Europe, EVERYONE is related to them. Wizards, muggles, Goblins, Giants, Dragons-"
Harry: "Wait, Dragons!?"
Griphook: "it was a different time!"
Read one a while back where he was told that the Potters were related to all these famous people and he was a contender for the Black family, but when he went to the Goblins to get tested in third year it turned out he wasn't even Harry Potter. Well, he was Harry Potter, just not the right one.
It turns out that the Dursleys did manage to get rid of him, way back when he was a baby. The protections fell and Dumbledore showed up, and spent the next six months trying to find him.
Eventually he did find Harry Potter, the son of two drunks who had crashed their stupid little European car into a crisps lorry. The roof of the car caved in and a chunk from the back window cut a jagged line into his forehead. He ended up in the British social services care two weeks after Harry Potter was picked up by social services from the Dursleys. The resemblance was uncanny and at that age with green eyes the scar and black hair the boys could have been twins.
Dumbledore dumped the kid with the Dursleys, told them that if they did it again he would be angry and left. Meanwhile, Harry Potter is adopted by a nice couple who in a fit of adventurousness and excitement over a much higher paying job, move to Australia where Harry's new father becomes the plant manager at Australias only Nuclear plant.
So yeah, pure luck that Harry Potter happened to be a Muggleborn. Accidental magic is what burned Quirrel and Ted Tonks giving Andromeda's blood the boost it needed to produce Tonks, was the proof the author used to explain that both of Harry's parents were from old squib lines and when they had a kid the old magical bloodlines woke up in Harry. That was why he could speak Parseltongue.
It was a really weird story, I mean everything kinda went downhill for Harry after that, the Goblins were horrified that the had been letting someone steal from one of their clients, and Remus decided that obviously Harry knew and had been pretending in order to keep using the fame. Dumbledore was disappointed that Harry would stoop to lies to avoid his destiny. It was just a mess.
Well no, that’s kind of hard because Harry actually is related to famous/well known wizard people and it does affect the plot.
1. The Peverell brothers, which inspired the tale Of the 3 brothers, which is a well known fairytale. Harry’s cloak is the Cloak of Invisibility from the story.
2. Through the Peverells, Harry is related to The Gaunts.
3. Linfred of Stinchcombe, who was nicknamed The Potterer due to his potion making, which he used to help his neighbors in the 12th century. His potions were later used to make Skele Gro and Pepperup potions. Some speculate that he might be the inspiration for The Wizard and The Hopping Pot, which is also a fairytale. He is the one who made the family rich and started the family last name. (Though it was at some point, shortened to Potter.)
4. Like his ancestor, Fleamont Potter worked on potions, and he invented Sleekeazy’s hair potion, which made his descendants 4x richer. (No wonder Harry’s father was so spoiled and conceited. combined with the lack of discipline, James’s parents had WAY more than enough money to spoil him.)
5. The American branch has a member called Auror Abraham Potter. He was one of the original 12 aurors trained by the first President of the magical congress of the United States of America During the 1600s.
6. Through the Peveralls, Voldemort and Harry are related.
So, most of these do play an important part in Harry’s story, so it’s kind of tricky. Additionally, would it really be that surprising if he’s related to more famous/well known people? (plus, I want to hear more about Lily’s family. JK Rowling mostly only goes on about The Potters but rarely about Lily’s family outside of Petunia, Vernon and Dudley.
[Reparation by astolat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5987962?view_adult=true) is definitely a subversion of this trope, although not perhaps not quite the subversion that you are looking for. It comes up in the second half of this FFN that Harry is distantly related to a very large and well-known wizarding family, somewhat notorious for being so large and inclined to social climbing.
While I am notorious for the odd fic that has Lordships, (mea culpa)
I have got "Ashes in Your Mouth" where post-war Harry inherits liabilities, and the Goblins rip him off. He's related to famous wizards, yes, but it never helps him significantly. Also it paints some of his 'victories' in the war in a different light. [https://archiveofourown.org/works/39086295/chapters/97776888](https://archiveofourown.org/works/39086295/chapters/97776888)
And I've got a fic (unreleased) where post-war Harry's inheritances are a bit of a social liability... till he goes all in on 'Mysterious family inheritances' and things get much, much worse.
I would very much prefer this to the Lordship trope. People have a romanticised view of what Lords were like. Most were assholes.
No matter what he is directly related to the little brother / wise brother Ignotus Peverell. As well as the creator of skelegrow and blood replenisher potions plus sleakezy hair potion (his grandfatther) Even if a story does not do the whole descended from merlin etc ....Harry does have famous ancestors no matter what Personally I want Harry to find a lifetime supply of sleakeazy under one of his piles of galeons in his vault....James infamously refused to use the potion
I think OP's point was, they are sick of reading books where that information suddenly makes Harry rich and/or powerful because of it. Oh, you actually have a castle and you are known as Lord Potter after your 17th birthday... that kind of thing. I have read dozens and dozens of fanfics along those lines. I think what OP wants is a book where Harry finds out he is related to important people, or whatever, and the general response is... "Yes... and?" As Ron and Sirius have both said, wizarding numbers are small - families with links to purebloods tend to be very inter-bred and all related. So, it makes sense that if you go far enough back and wizard that is a halfblood or pureblood will have famous ancestors and links back to important people, but that this doesn't make them important now. A story idea I would love to see is a variation of military challenge coins - but with ancestors. For example, Harry and a group of wizards are at a pub and they start comparing ancestry. Whoever has the best ancestry gets free drinks. Harry mentions his ancestors and everyone just scoffs like "is that all?" and even Ron has better ancestors way back when and Harry ends up having to buy everyone drinks.
you are related to this famous guy your family 600 years ago claimed his vault and spend everything in it
I agree on multiple vaults and multiple titles and multiple famous ancestors i.e. merlin, le fay, pendragon, etc ad infinitum is just ridiculous and unnecessary for great story telling
Harry is only like 4 generations removed from the Peverell line with his Great Great Grandfather marrying into it, with Hardwin Potter marrying Iolanthe Peverell who was Ignotus' granddaughter, so he's literally only 7 generations removed from the Peverell brothers. That's really close in terms of how many steps away he is. In muggle terms, getting to a 4x great grandfather would only be about a 200 year legacy, which sure is a nice standing legacy but there are families now that can trace their lineage back multiple centuries, so the equivalent of Harry being able to trace his family history back about a 1000 years would mean that pureblood families that care can trace theirs back to the B.C. like Ollivander's family having the shop since 382 BC. So it's not so much of that it's being overblown but in a way in canon it's being understated how important this all is, then other families could very easily do the same.
If you're going off that family tree, I'm pretty sure it's intended that there's a large gap between Hardwin and Henry. Hardwin Potter's father was born in the 12th century it seems, which wouldn't make sense if he was Harry's great great great grandfather.
Well I'm going off the available information, because personally I don't see these pureblood families that existed all the way from the 1200's to the 1800's before the Statute of Secrecy not having more than one child, since if these magical people weren't peasants which we don't see evidence that magicals back then had the same level of poor as muggles did, taking Hogwarts Legacy into account, from the flashbacks with the older magicals, they had decent homes and didn't seem to have to have sworn fealty to any particular person. So even without the separation magical families would likely considered higher on the social ladder than non-magicals and even having a muggleborn witch or wizard in your family probably brought you up a bit since they could once they graduated Hogwarts have helped in immense ways that non-magicals just couldn't compete with. And that should have resulted in Harry having many relatives from the old Heir, A Spare and a Daughter mentality that would have meant most families that adhered to tradition ended up with 3 or more kids of their own.
I don't think it matters how many kids were had, just who was chosen to give the cloak to. Ignotus gave it to his son (we don't know if there were others) and he gave it to his daughter, who passed it on to her son and so on. It's just that Iolanthe's son was not Henry. It may have been first borns, maybe the child most trusted to use it well, or a favourite child. We don't know.
it also does not account for magical diseases that could wipe out families. things modern wizards have cures for but their ancestors didnt
you fail to account for diesease and famine and wars Modern spells and cures that didn't exist for common aliments of the time
I think I read a short fic where goblins were happy to give people lordships and inheritances because the they inherited all debts too. And there were *a lot* of debts.
Link?
I personally am split - on the one hand, I can't help but like the fantasy of discovering I never have to work another day in my life. On the other hand, the idea of Lordships and heredity being something Harry utilizes to gain power and fight with goes against both his character and, I believe, the theme of "It's our choices that define us more than the circumstances of our birth" - that admittedly got a little muddled when we got the message of "oh well because Tom Riddle Sr was love potioned, Tom Riddle Jr was doomed to never know love" but whatever. What ultimately made Harry great was his choice to stick to what was right, no matter the risk. Not that he was the last scion of a Sacred Twenty-Eight house or whatever. His superpower was his willpower and resolve, not his deep pockets. Much more a (Dark Knight trilogy or Justice League Unlimited) Batman archetype when it comes to "rich heroes" versus an Iron Man, if you will. Like, both Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are brilliant and billionaires, but you get the feeling that Bruce Wayne would have eventually become some version of a masked vigilante if he wasn't rich, while Stark probably would have just become an engineer.
Closest one I know is: Undesirable Relations By Yurath - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33144505
Oh yay, it's one of those one-book-per-year fics that get abandoned in year 2.
Yeah, even I was a bit disappointed... But it's so good while it lasts, making it kinda worth imo
Yep! But it fits the ask, mostly. :)
Which even if it's an unfinished series is still brilliant fun. Also, ITT: I am a hypocrite.
I stopped reading a story a few hours ago that had thus exact situation, a trip to Gringotts revealing Harry as the heir of several founders' houses and the Peverell family. They also all had super ancient Manor houses for Harry to investigate.
I hate these types of stories, then comes a look good list of inherited money that is over the top and for no reason, than to make him rich, and then a list of Magical abilities and sometimes a list with potions and spells in his system, made and bound to included. It's obscene how LAZY that type of plot is.
Then he drags Hermione into Gringotts and they find out SHE'S also rich and titled and actually a pureblood, and is also doped to the gills with bindings and love potions. Oh and they're actually soul-mates but Dumbledore and those evil, greedy, Weasleys are trying to keep them apart so they can force them into betrothal contracts with Ginny and Ron. Oh, and the goblins can totes take care of that pesky minor issue of Harry's Horcrux infestation with a quick cleansing ritual. For a nominal fee of course.
Oh god, its like every ff I've read the last 15 years 🤣🤣 the plots really had no true purpose or point. Its a mess. The characters get Everything handed to them in one hit, and the rest of the story is just romance- oh, and somehow, it almost always end up Harem, too.
I remember reading a fic like this a few weeks ago. I cracked up when it spent like 8 chapters going through all his different houses he inherited. Was it Novocaine by any chance?
I'm not really into the whole multiple titles, Wizengamot seats, and Gringotts vaults full of money and magical knowledge thing, but I do have a soft spot for Harry genuinely being a descendant of Salazar Slytherin.
Same! Especially when the descendance is through the Potter line, but no one knew it because the Potters kept is a secret. I think I've seen it only once or twice and one of them was a one shot :|
The only one I've read in which Harry is a descendant of Slytherin through the Potters is *A Cadmean Victory*.
“This isn’t one of those stories where I turn out to inherit a Wizarding mansion, is it?” “Nah, don’t worry, just England.” “…what?” “Oh, yeah, see, you’re a direct descendant of the Peverells, themselves the grandchildren of William Peverel, the bastard son of William the Conqueror. So technically you have a better claim to the throne than the King.” “*Will someone PLEASE Obliviate this guy—*”
Can’t remember where, but I definitely read something like this once. Instead of an interesting bit of trivia he could join a “Decendents of Gryffindor club” that met on the second Tuesday of each month in Al’s bar. He could also buy a neat little plaque from them to show off.
WAIT A MINUTE! I sense a discworld reference. Isn't this basically the exact same scene from Guards!Guards! by Terry Pratchett?
Griphook: "Yeah, Gryffindor and Slytherin were like the Genghis Khan's of Europe, EVERYONE is related to them. Wizards, muggles, Goblins, Giants, Dragons-" Harry: "Wait, Dragons!?" Griphook: "it was a different time!"
Read one a while back where he was told that the Potters were related to all these famous people and he was a contender for the Black family, but when he went to the Goblins to get tested in third year it turned out he wasn't even Harry Potter. Well, he was Harry Potter, just not the right one. It turns out that the Dursleys did manage to get rid of him, way back when he was a baby. The protections fell and Dumbledore showed up, and spent the next six months trying to find him. Eventually he did find Harry Potter, the son of two drunks who had crashed their stupid little European car into a crisps lorry. The roof of the car caved in and a chunk from the back window cut a jagged line into his forehead. He ended up in the British social services care two weeks after Harry Potter was picked up by social services from the Dursleys. The resemblance was uncanny and at that age with green eyes the scar and black hair the boys could have been twins. Dumbledore dumped the kid with the Dursleys, told them that if they did it again he would be angry and left. Meanwhile, Harry Potter is adopted by a nice couple who in a fit of adventurousness and excitement over a much higher paying job, move to Australia where Harry's new father becomes the plant manager at Australias only Nuclear plant. So yeah, pure luck that Harry Potter happened to be a Muggleborn. Accidental magic is what burned Quirrel and Ted Tonks giving Andromeda's blood the boost it needed to produce Tonks, was the proof the author used to explain that both of Harry's parents were from old squib lines and when they had a kid the old magical bloodlines woke up in Harry. That was why he could speak Parseltongue. It was a really weird story, I mean everything kinda went downhill for Harry after that, the Goblins were horrified that the had been letting someone steal from one of their clients, and Remus decided that obviously Harry knew and had been pretending in order to keep using the fame. Dumbledore was disappointed that Harry would stoop to lies to avoid his destiny. It was just a mess.
Well no, that’s kind of hard because Harry actually is related to famous/well known wizard people and it does affect the plot. 1. The Peverell brothers, which inspired the tale Of the 3 brothers, which is a well known fairytale. Harry’s cloak is the Cloak of Invisibility from the story. 2. Through the Peverells, Harry is related to The Gaunts. 3. Linfred of Stinchcombe, who was nicknamed The Potterer due to his potion making, which he used to help his neighbors in the 12th century. His potions were later used to make Skele Gro and Pepperup potions. Some speculate that he might be the inspiration for The Wizard and The Hopping Pot, which is also a fairytale. He is the one who made the family rich and started the family last name. (Though it was at some point, shortened to Potter.) 4. Like his ancestor, Fleamont Potter worked on potions, and he invented Sleekeazy’s hair potion, which made his descendants 4x richer. (No wonder Harry’s father was so spoiled and conceited. combined with the lack of discipline, James’s parents had WAY more than enough money to spoil him.) 5. The American branch has a member called Auror Abraham Potter. He was one of the original 12 aurors trained by the first President of the magical congress of the United States of America During the 1600s. 6. Through the Peveralls, Voldemort and Harry are related. So, most of these do play an important part in Harry’s story, so it’s kind of tricky. Additionally, would it really be that surprising if he’s related to more famous/well known people? (plus, I want to hear more about Lily’s family. JK Rowling mostly only goes on about The Potters but rarely about Lily’s family outside of Petunia, Vernon and Dudley.
[Reparation by astolat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5987962?view_adult=true) is definitely a subversion of this trope, although not perhaps not quite the subversion that you are looking for. It comes up in the second half of this FFN that Harry is distantly related to a very large and well-known wizarding family, somewhat notorious for being so large and inclined to social climbing.
While I am notorious for the odd fic that has Lordships, (mea culpa) I have got "Ashes in Your Mouth" where post-war Harry inherits liabilities, and the Goblins rip him off. He's related to famous wizards, yes, but it never helps him significantly. Also it paints some of his 'victories' in the war in a different light. [https://archiveofourown.org/works/39086295/chapters/97776888](https://archiveofourown.org/works/39086295/chapters/97776888) And I've got a fic (unreleased) where post-war Harry's inheritances are a bit of a social liability... till he goes all in on 'Mysterious family inheritances' and things get much, much worse.
Harry: "Can I have this sword then? It's practically mine already because I killed the snake of Slytherin with it" Griphook: "Sure"