Setting: April 2005
My guest today has won the Tri School Tournamant for Hogwarts, became an Auror at 19 for the reformed Ministry under Kingsley Shacklebolt and is credited with saving the wizarding world before his 18th birthday. Now he's written a memoir about those events entitled The Boy Who Lived: My Life as a Chosen One , Harry Potter we're honored to have you on the show today. I know you don't give a lot of interviews because you've had some bad experiences in the past, I'm so glad you've decided to join us today.
I'm happy to be here, Terry.
I'd like you to open with the dedication to this book if you would.
Sure Terry. "The memoir is dedicated to my parents James and Lily Potter, to my godfather Sirius Black, to the Weasley family, to my wife Ginny, to my friends Ron and Hermionie, to the three Headmasters in my time at Hogwarts, to Reubeus Hagrid, to The D.A, to The First and Second Orders of the Phoenix, to Dobby The Elf and to all those who sacrificed their lives to make a world in which our children could live a happier life. I dedicate this book especially to those children, with all my love.
That's wonderful, thank you. Now Harry, this memoir has come as a complete surprise to everyone. As I mentioned in the introduction you're a very private person and this is one of the most detailed looks we get at your life. Why did you finally decide to write this and why now?
A couple years ago we had memorial service for the fifth anniversary of The Battle of Hogwarts and it was the first one where I wasn' I had a chance to reflect back on all the people who've been involved in my life and the pretty unique situations I had as, really just a kid and I wanted the chance to finally dispel a lot of myths and have my own say about my life and really to honor some of the people that I lost during that time. I was becoming a parent too and thinking back on my own parents and what they did in the first war, so I wrote the kind of stories that I would have wanted to look back on while I was going through this one. I've dedicated this book to so many heroes living and dead and I hope this brings some light to what they went through.
You start this book out with a story of the muggle family who raised you from the time you were a baby, and it turns out they were pretty… tough to live with. Why start with them?
Yeah, the Dursley family were all I had for the first 10 years. I was put with them the day my parents were killed because they were my only living relatives- through my mother's sister and because they accepted me, that gave me protection under their roof until I came of age. They never had any real connection to me besides that and they did resent my being a wizard the whole time, but they did make the right decision up to the end and I think they deserve some credit for not tossing me on someone else's doorstep.
Would you say you've forgiven them for some of the things they put you through as a child?
I don't know that I'd say that exactly because they were pretty awful at times and if I had the choice I would never have stayed there, but the fact that they didn't kick me out is important because it kept a protection on me for 17 years.
And that protection was through Albus Dumbledore, correct?
Yes, he figured that out.
You talk about him a lot in this book in a way most histories don't. He was of course the headmaster in the years you were at Hogwarts and you have a different perspective on him than the rest of us.
Yeah, in my experience he wasn't Chief of the Wizengamot or Supreme Mugwump, I didn't know anything about his Order of Merlin until after Skeeter published his history. For me he was a mentor and guide who helped me find out who I was and what I was destined for and while he wasn't really honest and open about certain things that proved to be really important later in my life, he did point me in the right directions and I learned a lot from him.
Like what?
Having faith. He had a lot of faith in me and he always believed the good would win out.
Let's take a short break. When we come back we'll talk about some of the people this book is dedicated to including an underground resistance organized by Albus Dumbledore as well as the six different Defense Against The Dark Arts teachers Harry went through and the surprising secrets they had. This is FRESH SPELLS.
- Break-
This is FRESH SPELLS and if you're just joining us, my guest today is Harry Potter talking about the memoir he's dedicated to people who helped him fight the war against Voldemort; "The Boy Who Lived: My Life as a Chosen One."
In the book you talk about the many times you dueled Voldemort in your years at Hogwarts and you write about your memories of those encounters, you say, quote "The thing that haunted me for years wasn't the memory of facing death, but the faces of the people I brought with me to face it." Tell us a little bit about why that is.
All the times I faced Voldemort, there were other people's lives at stake; people who'd helped me reach that point who didn't always make it out. The encounter most people know about is from the Tri Wizard Tournament when Voldemort returned and I was forced to duel with him. One of the things that stayed with me for years after that experience was Cedric Diggory and seeing him die made me realize how close some of my friends came to that fate.
Two of those friends you mention are Ron Weasley and Hermionie Granger. You talk about the friendship you developed while you were at Hogwarts. What kind of an influence have they been on your life and what do you hope people learn about them reading this memoir?
Oh wow, Ron and Hermionie. They're probably the most important people I ever met, they're really like siblings to me. I probably wouldn't have survived without them; they supported me through everything and they both sacrificed a lot to stand against Voldemort. We really had a remarkable bond during that time and we're still quite close. Ron worked with me at the Ministry as an Auror for the past couple year and Hermionie is still pursuing her work in non-wizard welfare. I think what I really wanted to say is how much I love them and how grateful I am for their friendship from the very beginning.
One of my favorite chapters is about your Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers over the years. You had a total of 6 while you were there because there was a curse on the position; and you get into why in the book, but do you want to start off with the chapter title and the first lines?
*laughs* Yeah, sure. The Greatest Professors You Will Ever Meet and the Worst. Beware the Death Eaters. "My friend Hermionie assures me that at no time in the history of Hogwarts has there been such an assortment of characters to be employed as professors. You have your mysterious men in turbans, your most charming plagiarists, your well-mannered werewolves, your death eaters, your sadistic bureaucrats, your worst nightmares and your luckiest breaks.
That's such a great start. How about you tell us a little bit about each of those.
Right, it was quite the adventure. First year I started at Hogwarts we had Quirell, not half bad teacher but he happened to have a piece of Voldemort's soul attached to his body which was pretty nasty. Lockhart was only there so Dumbledore could expose him as a plagiarist who wiped his friend's memories. Lupin got exposed as a werewolf after a really unfortunate set of circumstances involving two fugitives, Barty Crouch Jr. was doing a rather interesting impression of Alastor Moody and rigged the Tri Wizard Tornament, Dolores Umbridge set up a police state of a school, and Professor Snape was in the middle of being a double agent for Dumbledore, and after that, the school was held hostage by the Death Eaters. The fact that we all survived and passed our O.W.L.S is pretty much a miracle.
That's pretty intense. You had a part in making that happen though, talk to us about the D.A.
Well in fifth year the Ministry wouldn't let us learn any actually Defense so me and a several other students started up a secret study group that we called Dumbeldore's Army and taught each other things that we later had to use when Voldemort came to power.
And in the book you say you got some of the inspiration for that group from The Order of the Phoenix, which your parents were in, and that was an underground resistance group that Albus Dumbledore started back in the first war and brought back after Voldemort's return.
They're one of the most important parts, and I was really desperate to get their story out because they did so much work to get ahead of Voldemort before he took power and after they were the ones gathering intelligence and organizing resistance and sacrificing so much to save people. There's actually work right now to get their names on a memorial and to collect more of their stories. Even I don't know the half of what they did that made our victory possible.
That's very honorable of you. Maybe you'll be back here to tell us some of those stories.
Maybe, I really hope so. We owe a lot to them.
- We're talking this hour with Harry Potter about his memoir "The Boy Who Lived: My Life as A Chosen One", what he's been doing in the aftermath and how his life is moving on. -
You've been involved with the Aurors for the past few years; what kind of work have you been doing?
Kingslesy made Ron and I official Aurors when the war ended; so the Ministry has been tracking down the same dark wizards that were active as death eaters at that time and we're working to shut down some of the black markets that sprung up, just to get things back in order and get back some of the security we lost. Part of our job is maintaining Secrecy while at the same time making it easier to live alongside muggles.
What's the hardest part about balancing the Secrecy and sharing our world with muggles?
A lot of it is actually the fear a lot of people have that if things aren't air tight then the structure we have right now will break down, and that's just not the case. Magical children are born into muggle homes all the time, wizards marry muggles all the time; we're constantly bumping elbows in so many ways and we've just got to learn to brush it off because if we don't and we slam the door, a lot of people get caught in that.
Do you think we're getting there in terms of brushing it off?
I think it's happening but it's also hard for people set in their ways and there's a lot of systems in the law that need to be reworked, but yeah I do think it's getting better.
I'd also like to talk a little bit about your personal life these days, if that's okay.
Sure.
You've gotten married to Ginerva Weasley and you've got a son now.
Yes.
May I ask how hold he is?
He's two. And he's going to have a brother pretty soon.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
What's it like having a family now, after the war and after working as an Auror?
It's pretty relaxing and I'm probably the only parent of a two year old who's going to say that. *both laugh* I'm really grateful to have a family in peaceful times and I'm lucky to have my extended family around and to be close to my friends who are starting their families.
You've also got a godson that you mention towards the end of this book.
Yes. He's turning 7 this Easter.
If it's alright, could you tell us a little bit about him and how you came to be his godfather?
His parents, Remus and Tonks were both in the Order of the Phoenix and they were very close friends of mine; Remus Lupin was actually a friend of my father in the first war and I got to meet him as a teacher at Hogwarts. He met his wife Nymphadora Tonks when the Order reassembled and they got married in about 1997, right after Dumbledore died. Right before we went out undercover to take down the last of Voldemort's support.
And this is you and Ron Weasley and Hermionie Granger going to dismantle some very secret parts of Voldemort's power structure?
Yeah. We'd just gone off the map essentially for that mission and Remus came to offer his help, and that's when we all found out that they were expecting a baby. I didn't see him again until we came back into the world as it were and that's when Tonks had the baby and he asked me to be godfather.
And that became official quite soon after.
Yes, unfortunately both of Teddy's parents died in the Battle of Hogwarts; that was a huge loss for everyone. I can't emphasize enough about how important they were both to the resistance and to me as friends and mentors, and I'm very proud to be a godfather to their son.
What was it like becoming a godfather so soon after the war and what's it been like since?
Honestly, I wasn't thinking of that being a possibility until it actually happened. Things were happening so quickly and so intensely that I just didn't have the time to comprehend until we started having the funerals and I met his grandmother again and she and I exchanged letters about Teddy so when things settled down I got a lot more involved in his life. It's been really rewarding and I'm glad to still have a piece of them with us today.
So you said he's turning seven this Easter, and that's also quite close to the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts where his parents both died. He must be getting to that age when he's asking about them; how do you talk to him about that?
He does ask about them a lot, but even before he started talking we- his grandmum and I had pictures of them around and we tell him about them a lot. He's starting to understand that his mum and dad aren't around but he knows they loved him and he talks about them sometimes.
You grew up not having anyone to tell you about your own parents and their sacrifices in the first war; how does that affect your relationship with your godson now?
I'm glad that he's got this chance to know his parents through so many people and to have them be a part of life from the start because that was so important to me going through all the things I did and not knowing about them really left me lost sometimes so the pictures and the stories I had were really my anchor through the hardest times. It's been very special to share that with him. For me it's been sort of a way to honor them and I know for his grandmum it's been a way to grieve and heal a little bit from losing her daughter.
You also lost a lot of people during that period and there are some pretty tough memories that you have to deal with, we get a glimpse of those in your memoir; how do you deal with that burden?
I'm lucky enough to have a network of people that have gone through a lot of it with me and people that I'm very close to. One of my biggest challenges in the early days was just to open up to them and share some of the weight for a while because I was so used to keeping it close just to protect everyone but now I can finally say "It's safe, I can let this one go now." Writing this book has also helped me go back and look at the really good times and all the little moments that got me through to the end.
Harry, thank you so much for joining me today, it's been a pleasure.
Thank you for having me Terry.