Editor's note: JK Rowling reveals in one of her interviews that Mrs. Weasley's maiden name is Prewett. The editorial still makes excellent points based on other evidence and theory.

Just a warning, this editorial is a little crazy and doesn't really have much basis in canon, but it's fun to speculate...and it really could happen.

What if Lily Evans was the daughter of Molly Weasley. Crazy? Not so much. What if she was an illegitimate child of a teenage pregnancy? What if Molly's maiden name was Evans? What if she was ashamed and tried to keep it hidden from the Wizarding World by giving birth at a Muggle hospital and then putting her oldest daughter up for adoption? What if the baby's adoptive parents kept Lily's last name as Evans? Sound unbelievable? Maybe. Could it happen? Yes.

Let's start this scenario from the beginning: Molly Evans and Arthur Weasley dated at school. That much we know. We also know Molly got a talking-to from the Fat Lady for staying out late one night. (2 or 3 am, I believe...) Arthur got Molly pregnant. Molly was a thin teenager, and didn't really show her first pregnancy that well. When she did show, the billowy black robes of her uniform covered it up pretty well. She went home, 7 or 8 months pregnant, still nobody suspecting. She is 16 or 17, and going to start her 7th year in September. Now, she asks her parents if she can go away for the summer. They agree, and she goes to a muggle hospital and gives birth to a little red-haired baby. This baby is adopted by muggle parents, whose last name is NOT Evans. (The books never say that Petunia's maiden name was Evans.)

Lily is adopted because something went wrong with her adopted parents' pregnancy with Petunia, and they always wanted more than one child. They have no idea she's a witch, and Molly goes back to school feeling better that her baby is safe. In a couple of years, Arthur and Molly get married. In a few more years, Lily, who looks nothing like her older sister Petunia, gets her letter. At this point, Lily doesn't know she was adopted. Nobody in the magic world knows Molly was even pregnant, even Dumbledore, so even with her red hair, nobody connects her to the Weasleys.

Everyone believes Lily is muggleborn, even Lily herself. She goes through Hogwarts, becomes Head Girl, marries James, has Harry, gets betrayed by Peter, and dies. Harry gets sent to the Dursleys, and a blood charm gets placed on him. Except that the Dursleys aren't his biological family and don't share his blood! That's why the Weasleys always come to get him during the summer. Molly knows who he is because his mother's name was kept as she named her. She knows that Harry is her first and only grandson. That's why she says he's as good as a son...because SHE'S his living relative. Dumbledore doesn't know that Lily wasn't muggleborn, and niether does Voldemort.

Now, let's tie Mark Evans into the picture. Molly's maiden name is Evans. It ties all the way up to her grandfather, who had two sons, both keeping the name Evans. One son had her, Molly, and the other had...a squib. Remember their accountant cousin? That's him. They don't talk about him much, but his last name is Evans. He marries and settles in Little Whinging. He has a son, named Mark. (He's a lot younger than Molly, and married later than she did). That makes Mark Lily's third cousin, and Harry's fourth cousin. Mark is one generation above Harry, even though he is 5 years younger.

Unfortunately, this theory doesn't let Harry and Ginny get together, as Ginny would be his aunt. Lily does look a lot like the Weasleys, and Molly is probably fairly old by now. Lily also presumably got married and had Harry fairly close to when she got out of Hogwarts. It could work.

Unbelievable? Yes. Possible? Definitely.

4/29/04