Harry Potter is the Boy Who Lived, but maybe he’ll be the Boy Who Lived Forever. An awesome new theory claims that Harry’s methods for coming back from the dead after defeating Voldermort might have granted him eternal life. And it’s all thanks to Fawkes the phoenix being a secret horcrux.

Tumblr user marauders4evr’s theory is this: when Harry killed the Basilisk in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a part of his soul flew out and was looking to attach itself to something. Harry was fatally injured by the Basilisk’s venom, but Fawkes the phoenix swooped in, perched on his arm, and saved the day by shedding a few tears. Harry lived to fight Voldemort another day, and, possibly, that bit of his soul flying around attached itself to Fawkes, making Harry essentially immortal.

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But wait, horcruxes don’t make people immortal — not really. Yes, but when a phoenix dies it turns to ash, and then is reborn from the ashes. Phoenixes don’t die. If a part of Harry’s soul is going to live forever inside a phoenix, then that part of his soul will never die. Basically, Harry Potter is immortal!

It also explains how Harry managed to come back from the dead after defeating Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, since Rowling never really totally explained that bit. If Harry’s soul was still intact somewhere else (like inside Fawkes, for example), then it would have been relatively simple for him to come back from the dead.

mtv.com

There are all kinds of other theories for how Harry came back to life. One is that he wasn’t dead at all in the first place because the only part of his soul that was destroyed was really Voldemort’s soul inside of him. Or, he’d come in contact with all three of the Deathly Hallows, which made him the Master of Death. Or maybe that the Mirror of Erised is, actually, Harry’s horcrux. You get it. But Rowling has said that she wrote Harry’s “death scene” so that it was up for interpretation.

So, if Harry Potter is fucking immortal, then he could accomplish anything. He could unite the muggle and magical worlds. He could go back in time and rename one of his kids after Hagrid like he should have in the first place. He could possibly go a little power-hungry (if Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is to be believed).

theodysseyonline

If he’s around for a while, he might become a little obsessed with making the world a better place, and we all know that immortality rarely turns out to be a good thing. And what villain in the Harry Potter world do we know of that was obsessed with making the world a “better place,” come hell or high water?

Here’s hoping Harry doesn’t become the very thing he set out to destroy in the first place.