#indian harry potter

I had so much fun filling this request for @hptransfest thank you!

Prompt:Trans boy or nonbinary Harry Potter has long hair. Likes: lightning scar that branches down his face like natural lightning, Indian!Harry

This piece is inspired by Naveen Bhat, a nonbinary artist, actor, and filmmaker based in California.

Naveen has a truly incredible story that has recently been made into a documentary film called Escaping Arga. In 2015, Naveen’s mother took them to Agra, India for a two-week vacation. During the second week, she told them that they were going to stay in Agra indefinitely to “fix” Naveen’s queerness. The documentary chronicles their experience of being illegally detained in India, battling their parents in and out of court, and seeking support from the Indian Supreme Court.

In addition to wanting to elevate their story, I thought they would make an adorable Harry, so I reached out to them before I finished the illustration. They were very nice and gave me permission to use them as a muse!

Here’s a quote from an interview with Naveen:
“I would say please be safe. If possible, try to find friends that will love and accept you regardless of your gender identity and sexual orientation. If there is one thing I learnt from my experiences, it is that there are always multitudes of people who will love and support you. I had many people I didn’t even know coming to me with words of support online and in person. There is a great pressure that cisgender heterosexual people put on us to ‘come out of the closet’ and announce who we truly are, but they do not understand that our safety and security are at stake when we do come out. We need systemic change and we can’t do it alone. We need an active approach to allyship. ‘Ally’ is not a noun. It’s not an adjective. ‘Ally’ is a verb, and we must constantly work to dismantle systems of oppression and do everything we can to prevent another act of violence[…]. As queer people, we see ourselves getting killed and/or being devastated constantly. It’s in our movies, our TV shows, in books and on the news. Everywhere we turn, we see representations of ourselves being miserable. We are in pain. We are suffering. This needs to end now.”

The documentary:www.chandifilms.com/escaping-agra (seems a little difficult to get ahold of right now while it’s still being shown at film festivals but should be available soon.)
Naveen’s IG:www.instagram.com/namkeenaveen/
Quote: https://tinyurl.com/ydgytzoo

lhaddie:

Indian Potters

I’ve seen a lot of headcanons on Tumblr that picture the Potters as having Indian heritage. Whilst this doesn’t work given what we know about the history of the Potter family, I think it’s a great idea in terms of diversity and branching out the wizarding world. 

The plausible way, in my mind at least, for the Potters to have Indian heritage is for it to come from Euphemia’s side of the family. So, here’s my headcanon(s) for the Indian Potters:

• Euphemia Mishra was born in Amritsar to a wealthy family of Punjabi wizards and witches who dealt in enchanted spices and potions during the time of the Empire.
• She and her parents moved to Britain when she was nine to oversee the family’s business branch out into Diagon Alley. By the time she went off to Hogwarts, Euphemia was fluent in English, Punjabi, Latin and Greek.
• Euphemia was Sorted into Gryffindor and was two years older than Fleamont Potter, whose frequent duelling in the corridors with Slytherins who made fun of his outlandish name was a source of emotion for her.
• When Fleamont was in his 20s and was developing Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion, he ran into Euphemia at her father’s apothecary and the two developed an easy attraction brought on by years of casual friendship.
• They married when they were in their mid-20s in the grounds of Fleamont’s parents’ house and had their honeymoon in Amritsar, where Euphemia introduced Fleamont to all of her relatives.
• James was very proud of his heritage and enjoyed the annual trips to visit his maternal relatives in the summer. The vibrant colours and spices were a welcome change from the dreariness of England – especially when offset by the fear and panic of the ongoing war.
• Part of the reason why Harry was treated poorly by the Dursleys was that he did not fit in with their idea of “white middle-class suburban normality” – especially by the majorly racist Vernon Dursley. 
• When he was an adult, Harry was able to trace his Punjabi roots and actually met some of his distant Mishra relatives, who told him wonderful stories about his grandparents.

lhaddie: Indian Potters I’ve seen a lot of headcanons on Tumblr that picture the Potters as having Indian heritage. Whilst this doesn’t work given what we know about the history of the Potter family, I think it’s a great idea in terms of diversity and branching out the wizarding world. The plausible way, in my mind at least, for the Potters to have Indian heritage is for it to come from Euphemia’s side of the family. So, here’s my headcanon(s) for the Indian Potters: Euphemia Mishra was born in Amritsar to a wealthy family of Punjabi wizards and witches who dealt in enchanted spices and potions during the time of the Empire. She and her parents moved to Britain when she was nine to oversee the family’s business branch out into Diagon Alley. By the time she went off to Hogwarts, Euphemia was fluent in English, Punjabi, Latin and Greek. Euphemia was Sorted into Gryffindor and was two years older than Fleamont Potter, whose frequent duelling in the corridors with Slytherins who made fun of his outlandish name was a source of emotion for her. When Fleamont was in his 20s and was developing Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion, he ran into Euphemia at her father’s apothecary and the two developed an easy attraction brought on by years of casual friendship. They married when they were in their mid-20s in the grounds of Fleamont’s parents’ house and had their honeymoon in Amritsar, where Euphemia introduced Fleamont to all of her relatives. James was very proud of his heritage and enjoyed the annual trips to visit his maternal relatives in the summer. The vibrant colours and spices were a welcome change from the dreariness of England – especially when offset by the fear and panic of the ongoing war. Part of the reason why Harry was treated poorly by the Dursleys was that he did not fit in with their idea of “white middle-class suburban normality” – especially by the majorly racist Vernon Dursley. When he was an adult, Harry was able to trace his Punjabi roots and actually met some of his distant Mishra relatives, who told him wonderful stories about his grandparents.