J.K. Rowling just revealed something about Dean Thomas, and we’ll never be the same again
In case you missed it — and it’s fine if you did, it’s cool if you’re not searching the internet for new Harry Potter information every single day of your life, and that’s fine, you do you — J.K. Rowling just released some stunning new early drawings from waaaay back when. We’ve always known that Rowling was a ridiculously talented storyteller, but we never truly realized she’s also a hella good artist. Her early Harry Potter sketches are good enough to actually be IN the Harry Potter books.
One early sketch shows our usually Harry Potter gang, with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville…and Gary.
Yes, Gary. By Dumbledore’s beard, who the heck is Gary?
Gary @jk_rowling ?!!! Who is Gary?? What were his hopes, his dreams, his political affiliations? #imissgary pic.twitter.com/iE7FtPy1OO
— ƈɦɼٱร ƈɭคɼᛕﻉ (@Clarkey9) August 23, 2016
You’re actually very familiar with Gary, because he goes by a different name now. In early drafts of Harry Potter, our beloved Dean Thomas was actually named Gary. According to some back-and-forth with Rowling on Twitter, she changed Gary’s name to Dean after a human boy she knew IRL.
Dean Thomas was called Gary in the first draft of Philosopher's Stone. I renamed him after a boy I knew! https://t.co/Aq8A6GZGvf
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 23, 2016
Cool! We didn’t know this until right now, and also Rowling forgot about this until right now. Yes, the woman we hold up on a pedestal, as being the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-writing force behind Harry Potter sometimes forgets things about the story, too. Just like us. Because we’re all only human, and the Wizarding World is BIG, okay?
I'd forgotten i called him Gary until I saw that pic just now!
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 23, 2016
In what was clearly her only little trip down memory lane, after Twitter users started tweeting at Rowling about this mysterious ~Gary~, Rowling herself admitted that she had completely forgotten about Gary, in what was clearly just a slip of an Obliviate! charm.
So see, it’s totally fine if every now and then you admit that you DON’T actually know everything about Harry Potter. That just means there’s so much more for us to learn — and Rowling, too ?
