Ariana is believed to be an obscrurial, but her experience was one terrible traumatic day, while it seems it is implied, that these things are created from long term abuse. Sure abuse is key for the creature, but I wonder if something more is needed. A sort of obscurial seed, that when it finds the fertile ground of a abused child then blooms.

Harry remembers his parents death, it is literally his worst memory. Could that event be traumatic enough to allow for the obscurial to start? The love protection could serve to keep it contained. The horcrux could be considered as a form of abuse, it is often implied the horcrux kinda tainted/contaminated Harry. That might have been enough to sustain the obscrial.

It would be epic if an obscrial could harm dementors or horcrux.

 

Adriana would be much more likely to be an obscurial than Harry. I could see her loathing her magic, and herself in the process, for being the cause of her trauma. I still can't see Harry being an obscurial though. If trauma alone was enough, most of the young children who lived through the Battle of Hogwarts would become obscurials. I just can't see Harry, hocrux or no hocrux, loathing magic or himself enough to become an obscurial.

Also, aren't obscurials OP enough as it is? Being able to hurt demeanors or hocruxes would be pushing it IMO.

 

Yeah, the key seems to be hating and suppressing their own magic for an extended period of time. Abuse/trauma is only significant because it can trigger that reaction.

 

I just had an idea that would solve many issues. Lots of people don't think Harry could have produced an onscrurial as he didn't hate magic as a child. What if instead Harry was exposed in the department of mysteries? It stands to reason they might research such magics down there underneath the ministry.

Another story claimed that Grindleward used the bones of obscrial so as they were tainted with their magic, So if they had their remains down there, Harry could have been exposed. Harry hated himself for Sirius death, that plus the presence of the horcrux, could be enough for an obscrurial to form in him, while none of the others.

 

...what's the connection between Obscurials and horcruxes?

 

There is none unless you consider the vague relationship in which a horcrux causes misery and the fact that an Obscurial is created through misery.

 

I like the idea of Petunia the Midlife Obscurial. A woman that showed latent magical powers but by then was so fearful she managed to suppress them masterfully as no other person could. Cue the inciting situation, and Petunia starts wreaking havoc on everyone who ever made her feel inferior.

That is, of course, not at all in line with canon magical theory and the new Obscurial “lore” but the idea of Postal-Petunia amused me to no end. In general I would have liked for the Obscurial thing to be a condition of extreme suppression of magic regardless of age, though obviously that wouldn’t have worked in the context of the movie.

 

I keep seeing people using Harry being a horcrux to justify him becoming an Obscurial. I've been wondering if we saw the same movie.

 

I just watched the movie again tonight and I had this very thought (that Harry could have potentially been an obscurial) but then I wondered about Harry’s treatment at the Dursleys. It certainly was bad, no denying that, but I oftentimes find that my knowledge or opinion of cannon can become skewed from one too many fanfics which follow the same vein (bashing of a particular character [I now dislike Ron, probably forever], or extreme, couldn’t-survive-if-he-wasn’t-magical abuse from the Dursleys.) Harry definitely had a shitty childhood with them, but I wonder just how “physical” the abuse was in cannon. You don’t see too much of it, besides scenes of great stress for the Dursleys. NOT an excuse, but I’m wondering about the day-to-day. If Harry really was abused to obscurial-level, it certainly would have been interesting to see how the adult characters would have dealt with that. It could have even potentially translated into the “Power He Knows Not,” given proper development and control.

 

Yeah, some fanon really overdoes how badly the Dursleys treated Harry. On normal days they don't seem to do much more than neglect him, show massive favoritism for Dudley, and expect him to do an unreasonable number of chores for his age. And they tone down the chores and such once he's in Hogwarts in favor of just trying as hard as they can to pretend he doesn't exist.

Alas, magic keeps screwing up their lives, in ways that leave them somewhat understandably pissed off. Yeah, it's not Harry's fault when Dobby screws up Vernon's big business deal or Dementors attack Dudley along with Harry, but these are things that wouldn't happen to them without Harry around.

 

Petunia developed a deep loathing of magic due to fact she was denied it. She might have been a squid or near squib. People suggest that Harry could have developed an obscrurial due to the horcrux, what if it instead causes petunia to create her own?
The blood protection placed on the house coul contain it, until it was overwhelmed or simply until Harry became of age. The stronger the wizard, the stronger the obscrurial, so if petunia was a near squib, she would be sure to make a weak one.
It is suggested that an obscrurial can be transferred, so if one was to develop in petunia, could it somehow not be transferred to Harry? It was seeking more magic, or drawn to the horcrux in Harry.

 

This sounds like pure headcanon. I always felt like Harry was terribly written as a character (to the point where we don't know his thought process with anything other than Quidditch) but his abuse was never extensive enough to warrant anything other than some cases of accidental magic, which would have already happened to him one way or another.

 

You made me curious. I never found Harry to be an especially interesting character. Think I like every HP character better than him, really, but what do you mean, terribly written? Would you care to elaborate, please?

 

I think Harry being punished every time he has a magical episode as a child could have been a source for resenting and repressing his own magic. His childhood is a prime breeding ground for obscurial development, if he was a weaker boy. Unlike Ariana or Credence, though, Harry's defining trait is courage. I think character is one of the primary differences between abused magical children and obscurials.

Perhaps another aspect is knowledge of magic. The Dursleys never explained to Harry why he was a freak and he never dreamed what he did was magical. His character, as described in the books, was much too dim for that imaginative nature. Ariana came from a magical family and the Barebone's NSPS actively taught Credence that magic is the devil's work. Both very much believed in and new the cost of having their magic, while Harry was treated like garbage his entire life: I doubt he directly related his suffering to his magic until Hagrid came and liberated him. At that point, magic equaled freedom, not purgatory.

It would be an interesting FanFiction idea for Harry to learn of his magic early on and develop an obscurus through his resentment of being treated horribly every day for his magical nature. It could go a million directions after that point, given the horcrux and prophecy, but I think it would be a hard chip to sell given Harry's character.

For all the people who say Harry wasn't treated that badly, look up some of the mental disorders from children who are forced to live in tight, confined spaces for years. Neglect and isolation are terrible things, irregardless of physical violence.

 

Harry himself is terribly written, he doesn't act like a child in his position would act, neither does Hermione for that matter, but that's beside the point. Whenever I read Harry's feelings or even his thoughts, they always sound flat, one note, they don't sound like they're real nor do they even sound like they could come from a male.

For example, when he first got the letter from Hogwarts and met Hagrid etc... He did not express curiosity for magic itself, JKR alluded to the fact that he read some of his course books, but he didn't practice magic. Sure, it could be because he saw that Hagrid couldn't use magic, so maybe he shouldn't either, but we are never given insight into that, we don't see his thought process at all (unless it's beneficial to the plot). This is further enforced by the wand he got; Holly and Phoenix Feather. JKR writes multiple times that Harry isn't perfect, nor is he a saint, yet he gets the wood that is literally for saints. And the fans can't even decide for themselves, because he is so terribly written, that they need the plot-dumps in interviews just to assess what part of the spectrum he lies on. Then there is the situation with Ron for most of the series, the character of Ron was inherently written to be jealous, and as I was reading through the books I was sure that Harry would end his friendship with Ron and that would be a good chance to further fuel his need to increase his ability with magic (knows he can't rely on his friends anymore). Heck, it happens during the tri-wizard tournament (something Harry inherently needs to train for, especially since he is at a huge disadvantage). But instead of breaking things off in a toxic friendship (like normal people do, and like I would have done, especially at the age of fourteen) he takes Ron back with open arms. I could go on and on about how lacking his character is, but I think that it would come off as "me hating on the books" as a Redditor so nicely put it, so I would just like to say that I love the Harry Potter world But while the world-building is pure genius, the characters always seem to be non-existent to me (despite having a relatively good starting point that could have made this the next Sword in the Stone or even Tolkien).

 

What does this actually have to do with Harry being a potential Obscurial, though?

I don't know if you're "hating on the books", but have you read them recently? Harry really isn't that flat. He's strong-willed to a fault, and when coupled with his occasional hot-blooded moments, he really isn't a saint. That's precisely why he's suited to holly in-universe, and a firm enough argument (I think) to support his canon status as a non-Obscurial, regardless of his treatment.

 

Yeah, it seems pretty strongly indicated that someone only turns into an obscurial if they break and internalize the abuse. Harry never did.

 

Someone asked me why I think the way I did when I said that "While Harry is terribly written, I doubt his abuse was extensive enough to warrant becoming an obscurial". What I mean by saying this, was that we don't see enough into Harry's mind to know if he did internalize the abuse or the neglect. But, we can infer that since the abuse wasn't anything beyond keeping him in a cupboard and lowering his self-esteem, it's not enough to warrant becoming an obsucrial.

 

So we argue on whether Harry could develop an obscrurial, but could one be transferred to him or say drawn to him due to the horcrux? There is a fanon idea that because he was a horcrux, he drew the dementors to him.

I once suggested that Harry could encounter something like this in the department of mysteries. They study powerful magics there, so why not obscrurials. There is this story about Grindleward experimenting with obscrurial based magics by using the bone remains of died obscrurials. Ron got exposed to those brains in a jar, Harry could have been in a small explosion and a tiny fragment of bone embedded itself in him. From that seed, an obscrurial fully developed due to the horcrux.

I wonder if you can be both a werewolf and an obscrurial, being bitten and forced to go through transformations as a child might be enough to hate and loath magic.

 

You're under the impression that an Obscurial is powerful magic. In the movie, Newt noted that it was simply a magical parasite that developed after someone attempted to push back their magic.

Like I said, you're simply pulling headcanon out and attempting to make half-assed theories based on what-ifs. Harry could not develop or contract an Obscurial, it's simply impossible.