The original names of some of your favorite ‘Harry Potter’ characters

Gary. Gary? GARY!? It just feels wrong. But it's true, newly uncovered illustrations by J.K. Rowling herself revealed the author originally named one of her Harry Potter characters Gary. And there's more!

You really don't know what you're going to find on Pottermore on any given day. While it's changed its appearance this year there are still hidden gems popping up now and then.

TheRowlingLibrary.com recently pointed out that Rowling's old illustrations have been popping up in random posts on the official fan site. They say three are entirely new to fans while several others are now available at higher resolutions than they have been in the past. Here are the new ones:

Found on Pottermore's Peeves entry.

This one is from a bit of writing on potions.

And on the History of the Quidditch World Cup page.

But a fan had a question about another illustration, one which featured Neville, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and someone named Gary.

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Gary, as it turns out, was the name Rowling had previously given Dean Thomas. “I'd forgotten i called him Gary until I saw that pic just now!” she said.

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But this isn't the first time “Gary's” name has surfaced. Rowling's “Original Forty” entry on Pottermore had him listed along with other original characters. Rowling wrote:

Two of my most prized possessions are a pair of small notebooks, which contain my very first scribblings about Harry Potter. Much of what is written in them was never used in the series, although it is startling to come across the odd line of dialogue that subsequently made it, verbatim, to publication.

In one of the books is a list of forty names of students in Harry's year (including Harry, Ron and Hermione), all allocated houses, with small symbols beside each name depicting each boy or girl's parentage.

“Thomas, Gary” is listed right after “[Spungen, changed to Spinks, Draco, all crossed out, re-inserted above]” which is how Draco Malfoy started. Neville Longbottom's last name was “Sidebottom” at first and Hermione's was “Puckle.” Luna Lovegood started out as “Lily Moon.” They don't have the actual image up of this notebook page but it's a cool read anyway.

You'll be able to find more fun details about the Wizarding World like this when Pottermore Presents releases three new e-books in September.

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