Up For Some Nostalgia? 7 Harry Potter Fan Theories That Ended Up Not Being True

The Wizarding World craze took over the world long before J.K. Rowling's iconic book series was finished.

If you grew up with Harry Potter and his friends, you probably remember the good old days when before a new book in the series was released, fans would go over every little detail in the previous novels and create wild and plausible fan theories.

Some speculations, such as Dumbledore and Grindelwald being more than just friends, were later confirmed. But then there were others that were extremely popular but never became canon. See if you believed in any of them.

1. Mark Evans is Harry's cousin

Who is Mark Evans, you may ask? He is a minor character mentioned in Order of the Phoenix as a boy who lived down the street from the Dursleys and whom Dudley once beat up.

He never appeared in the series again. But given Rowling's tendency to introduce major characters early and in passing, and Mark's surname, which is the same as Harry's mother's maiden name, it was a fairly credible theory at the time that Mark might be related to Harry and play a key role in later novels.

2. Harry is the Half-Blood Prince

Today we know that the name Half-Blood Prince comes not only from Severus Snape's half-Muggle origin, but also from his mother's maiden name, Eileen Prince. But before the book was published, many fans thought the title hinted at a deep dive into Harry's possibly royal heritage.

3. Tonks is a Death Eater

It sounds crazy now, but when Nymphadora Tonks joined the Order of the Phoenix, many fans thought she acted suspiciously. She touched her forearm as if it hurt, chased Lupin, and was stationed at Hogwarts as if she were spying on Dumbledore and Snape. So many thought she might be an ally of Voldemort. Thankfully, it never came true.

4. Dumbledore is alive

Let's face it, we were all in deep denial after the Half-Blood Prince. So it's not surprising that everyone thought Dumbledore's death was actually an elaborate plan to go undercover to find and destroy Horcruxes. Too bad it wasn't.

5. Sirius is alive

Another death that no one could accept was that of Sirius Black. There was a theory that Harry would manage to cross the Veil and probably lead his godfather to the world of the living. That wouldn't be a bad development, would it?

6. Hagrid is doomed to die

Harry had three main adult protectors, all named after colors. Sirius's family name is Black, Albus is Latin for White, and Rubeus is Latin for Red. So once the first two were killed, the death of the third was a logical speculation. Thank goodness Rowling didn't introduce this dark twist.

7. Harry or Hermione becomes a teacher at Hogwarts

Before the release of the final book, Rowling revealed that one of the characters would become a teacher, and many readers thought it would be Harry (as a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher) or Hermione (as a teacher of anything, really). But it turned out to be Neville Longbottom, of course.