May I apologise to the wonderful author J.K. Rowling for what I am about the write – this is just what came to my mind after I made this drawing.
Everything was going so well. He had just seen his children off on the Hogwarts’ express; there were rumours that he could be a future Minister for Magic, after all he had defeated Voldemort and was ‘the one’ and he and Ginny made the perfect couple. Who would have thought it would fall apart so quickly so that he can be found shuffling around Diagon Alley from his small flat above one of the shops to one of the more disreputable bars that have sprung up near to Knockturn Alley. He lives on his stipend but with no other purpose in life.
The downfall started with the revelation of the very complicated relationship he had with Hermione Granger and the question of who was the father of her second child. This was a poorly kept secret amongst Harry’s close friend’s but once it was splashed across The Quibbler then both marriages collapsed. Hermione is now a leading campaigner for Witchism, the belief that Wizardry is too male centric and that the true contribution of women has never really been acknowledged). Ginny has also moved on and is now an agony aunt in, of all things, The Quibbler. Harry’s children don’t talk to him anymore.
Hard on the heels of the paternity question came the strange business relationship Harry had with Dudley Dursley Nothing was ever proved but there was wide spread belief that the collapse of the bank that Dursley was a director of was connected to the manipulation of the stock market. The muggle’s had joking called it voodoo economics which only added to the suspicion against Harry.
Of course he still has his name and he attends the four Fellow’s dinners at Hogwarts each year, although the school’s principle (the title of head master/mistress being abolished was one of early successes of Witchism) tries to keep him sober long enough to stop his speech descending into an incoherent rant against the influence of modern muggle culture on the pupils at Hogwarts. There was also once the ill judged comments about the wizard schools of Transylvania which was widely believed to be an attack on Hermione as she was living at the time with a dark and brooding wizard from the east. What with Spellbook and Hoota it is almost impossible to keep these comments of the public domain.
So Harry is found most nights in the bar with Ron Weasley who, even after the collapse of his marriage is still Harry’s best, and if truth be told only friend. They relive again and again the exploits of their youth and then bemoan their lot in life. They have even been heard to complain about the secret tunnel from St Pancras station to the newly refurbished King’s Cross that allow all those dam foreign school kids arriving on the Hogwarts’ Eurostar Connection enter the country and thus by-passing passport control.
I think what this demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt J.K. Rowling can write and I shouldn’t give up my day job!
Simon's Blog 