Harry Potter and the Cursed Child broke our hearts, as any Harry Potter book should, but one Redditor's Harry Potter theory will bring tears to your eyes and haunt you for days. In a post to r/HarryPotter, titled "Noticed a neat 'full circle' connection between Lily Potter and Molly Weasley after re-reading the series recently...," Redditor RGRDBB2X lays out what might be J.K. Rowling's most heart-wrenching echo in the Harry Potter series:
The last person that Voldemort attacks before his and Harry's first encounter is Lily Potter, the mother Harry lost and never knew.
The last person Voldemort attacks before his and Harry's final encounter is Molly Weasley, the mother Harry found and always wanted...
This time though, Harry is able to pay forward to his "second" mother the same act his real mother did for him and save her from Voldemort's attack, the same way Lily saved him.
I'm not crying, I just have something in both my eyes.
In the comments on RGRDBB2X's thread, other Redditors want to know if Rowling intended to bring things full circle with Harry's defense of Molly. Plenty of commenters step in to point out the mountains of evidence that Rowling pre-planned most of her series' key events, such as the Horcrux at the heart of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Of course, Potterheads know that Rowling's series is full of these moments, the most obvious being the case of Teddy Lupin.
The series begins with an unloved orphan, Harry, whose parents defeated Voldemort and paid with their lives. It ends with a very much loved orphan, Teddy, whose parents defeated Voldemort and paid with their lives. The first 11 years of Harry's life are abysmal, and he has no idea what his parents did or why he matters. Teddy experiences the opposite, growing up with people who adore him and will never let him forget how much he was loved and how important Tonks and Remus were. Things are the same, after this war, and yet they are so, so different.
Additionally, there's the first thing Snape says to Harry, the realization that Snape was the one Petunia overheard telling Lily about Dementors, and this full-circle moment from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince .
RGRDBB2X's Harry Potter theory becomes more poignant when you realize that Molly is the only true mother figure Harry had. Lily died, her sister was bitter, and Minerva McGonagall was always more of a teacher than a mom. Meanwhile, although Arthur Weasley is peak Dad — and is, perhaps, in Rowling's words, "the only good father in the whole series" — he's one of many fathers Harry has had over the years since James' death, standing alongside Dumbledore, Sirius, and Remus.
To that end, the Weasleys must survive, because they are the only parents Harry has left, and he saves them both. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort — having warged into Nagini's body — attacks Arthur in the Department of Mysteries. Due to his connection with the Dark Lord, Harry witnesses the event in a dream from Nagini's perspective, and is able to sound the alarm that ultimately saves Arthur's life — something he was too young to do when Voldemort attacked James.
The Redditor's re-read revealed an intensely meaningful connection in Harry Potter, but it only tells half of the story.
Image: Warner Bros.
