Harry Potter was a muggle, and played football. Real Potter's untold story is very much different from that one reported in books and movies. He had no magical powers, he couldn't make any spell, and he drank common normal beer instead of Polyjuice potion. Potter was an English man living in the United Kingdom like his homonym, and he dressed in yellow and red. These are not the Gryffindor colours, but those of Bradford City Football Club, the still existing team where Harry Potter got a trophy. Harry Potter was thus nothing but a muggle, an ordinary human being with all the passions an ordinary human being can have. Like many others, he left to fight in the Great War without coming back home. Harry Potter didn't fight against you-know-who, he fought against who all we know: the German empire. He did it in Ypres, symbolic site of European destruction and reconstruction, and for this reason chosen to hold an extraordinary European Council meeting the 26th of 2014, on the eve of the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of WWI.
The Harry Potter phenomenon. Seven book translated in 77 different languages, for 450 million copies sold worldwide: there is no doubt that Harry Potter has been the literary phenomenon of end 20th century-beginning 21st century. Started in England at the end of 90's, in 2001 the character created by Joanne Kathleen Rowling's pen had already conquered the entire globe. In the same year the Hollywood cinema industry released Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, first of the eight-film saga shot on the young wizard. Thanks to the magic of the big screen, Harry Potter's myth has grown so much that today when we name him everybody think immediately to the fictional boy from Little Whinging (imaginary town south of London) and the Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry.
The real Harry Potter. Harry Potter really existed. He was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, the 24th of November 1884. A great passion for football, Potter was a part-time player in the Bradford City Football Club, the team of his hometown.
In 1906 he got with them the West Riding Cup. Today it maybe could appear as something meaningless, but at that time - with neither European Leagues nor all the national competitions existing today - that tournament was considered as really important. When he didn't play football, Potter worked as dyer. Then came the war, and Potter was called to arms. On August 1917 he and his battalion were sent to in Belgium to counteract the German troops operations in what today is known as the third battle of Ypres. After that battle Potter and the allied forces advanced, penetrating in France. His story ended there, around Arras, under the shots fired by the enemy. He died the the 22nd of March, 1918, and his body was never recovered. The name of Harry Potter is today impressed on the Memorial to the Missing at Faubourg-d’Amiens Cemetery, in Arras, but his story is preserved in the Bradford City FC Museum, the museum of the football team where Potter played for few years.
Potters and Europe. Joanne Kathleen Rowling has never said to be inspired by the citizen of Bradford in choosing the name for her character. Of course analogies between the real Harry and the fictional Harry are quite a lot, starting from the name. They both are British, they both had a sport life: the real Harry played football while the fictional Harry played quidditch, the typical game for wizards played astride flying broom. In both cases colours of the team jersey were yellow and red and both Harry Potters have fought against who, in history as in novel, were considered to be «the evil». Both Potters belong to the British and European culture. Regarding Europe, as already said on June 2014 the president of the European Council in charge at that time wanted to held a meeting of the heads of State and government in Ypres, there where history was made. There where was written a chapter in deeds of Harry Potter. The real one.
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