treesandfangs:

“Harry Potter can’t be indian! His name is english!”

BWAAAAMP, WRONG

Potter is a modernized version of the name “Peverell,” which is what his family was known as in older times. Peverell is a name that IRL was heavily debated IRT the etymology of the name; it could be a Latin root name (in which case it would have meaning similar to “the small boy”) or a French root name (where it could be a name meaning “pepper” or “temperamental”). 

Why does that matter? 

Because if we’re thinking of Harry in the context of him being of indian descent, then we have to consider the origins of his name, and where the Peverell line may have come from. If we consider that the Peverells were an old and respected Indian wizarding family, then we have to consider two other things: why would they have ties to the european wizarding community, and where did their wealth come from (which should be touched on more often anyways? james obviously didn’t do anything to earn more money himself, being that he was a rebel soldier in a magical war.). They have one of the deeper and older Gringotts vaults. Their money is old and Harry could spend ludicrous amounts and never put a dent in it.

I believe the Peverells were originally in the business of magical trading- probably merchants of spices and other goods that couldn’t be easily be obtained in wizarding Europe. This would have made them highly in demand, and also given them immense wealth and power throughout the wizarding world at large- another reason for them to be so influential in the older days, and still so respected even up until the last of the “line” was killed out by Voldemort. 

Again, why does that matter? 

Because if the Peverell wealth came from being a family of merchant moguls, then their name may have, too. Keep in mind, one of the potential roots for “Peverell” is identical for the French word for “pepper.” Suddenly, with that in mind, and the theory that the family was spice traders, we arrive at the conclusion that they were colloquially referred to as the Peverells because they were the family of spices and peppers.

Of course, this would have been centuries in the past of the Potter family, but Wizarding money, like blood, lasts forever and is closely guarded. And they certainly wouldn’t be the only merchant family to trade with Europe (and even if you want to claim that such in depth and long lasting trading wouldn’t have been possible hundreds of years ago, not only are you wrong on a historical level, you’re wrong because they were fucking wizards, there’s more than enough reason for us to believe they had the ability to just fly to conduct trades).

So there. If your only argument against Harry being of Indian descent is that it “doesn’t make sense in the narrative,” there’s the reasoning, which is 100% in line with the universe of Harry Potter as a whole. Congratulations, there’s no reason to shit on this headcanon because accepting this headcanon makes many things, including the Potter’s ancient wealth and status in the community, make so much more sense.