I was shocked and disappointed when J.K. Rowling posted on her website that the character Mark Evans has absolutely no significance; the fact that he shares a last name with Harry’s mother’s maiden name was a mistake on her part and does not matter at all. I was on the point of cardiac arrest, as I had developed so many complex theories involving Mark Evans, before I got to grips and realized that I ought to re-read what Rowling said on her site. An in-depth analysis of her exact wording forces me to believe otherwise. She wrote: “Mark Evans is… nobody. He’s nobody in the sense that Mr. Prentice, Madam Marsh and Gordon-Dudley’s-gang-member are nobodies.” This statement of Rowling’s has not led me to believe that Mark Evans is a nobody, but that Mr. Prentice, Madam Marsh, and Gordon are all much more important characters than one immediately realizes. Essentially I believe that Mr. Prentice is with the Order of the Phoenix, Madam Marsh is a Voldemort-supporter, and Gordon is a Squib, although the first two theories are better supported than the latter. This is the foundation for my theory:

When Mrs. Figg saw Mr. Prentice walking down Privet Drive after the dementor attack in the beginning of Order of the Phoenix, she said “Who’s that? Oh, it’s just Mr. Prentice.” The statement “Oh, it’s just Mr. Prentice” is NOT the same as the statement “It’s Mr. Prentice.” I believe that the words “oh” and “just” are highly significant, and may have a hidden implication that Mr. Prentice is not dangerous to wizards in the sense that doing magic in front of him would violate the Statute of Secrecy. In other words, I believe that Mr. Prentice is a wizard. Not only do I think he is a wizard, I also believe that he is an Animagus in the form of one of Mrs. Figg’s cats, specifically Mr. Tibbles. Mrs. Figg explained to Harry in chapter one of Order of the Phoenix that she knew that Mundungus Fletcher had Disapparated in front of number four, Privet Drive because she had stationed Mr. Tibbles underneath a car to keep a lookout. How could she instruct an ordinary cat to remain hidden like that, and how would an ordinary cat possibly understand her? I believe that Mr. Tibbles is a wizard.

Madam Marsh is clearly a supporter of Voldemort. We have seen her both of Harry’s two times on the Knight Bus, and both times she had been feeling badly – violently sick, in fact. I suspect that she is trailing Harry; otherwise, why would she be turning up on the Knight Bus so often? Why would you bother traveling on the Knight Bus when you have Apparation as an alternative and it makes you feel so ill if you are not stalking somebody? It could be argued that Madam Marsh is a member of the Order who is supposed to be keeping an eye on Harry, but I have a feeling that Dumbledore would not force a member of the Order to go on the Knight Bus all the time if it made them feel so sick. With Voldemort, on the other hand, you obey his orders or die. It is therefore reasonable to believe that Madam Marsh is spying on Harry on Voldemort’s orders.

Gordon, the member of Dudley’s gang, is the hardest character of these three to figure out, as he is mentioned very rarely. He is mentioned, however, in Order of the Phoenix, in which he invites Dudley and the gang over to his house because his “parents are out.” My only guess is that his parents could be wizards, perhaps visiting Diagon Alley or something? Although this theory is unfounded, I also hypothesize that Gordon is The Metamorphmagus of book six – don’t ask me why I think this, I have no idea why I am drawn to this particular peripheral character – but it is very clear to me that we have not seen the last of Metamorphmagi. We learned briefly about Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall after the first Divination lesson in the third book, and later learned that this was the secret of the Marauder’s Map/Sirius/Pettigrew/Shrieking Shack/Lupin’s absences from class mystery. We found out about Polyjuice Potion in the second book when Harry and Ron impersonated Crabbe and Goyle to later discover that it was Barty Crouch’s method of disguise as well. Nothing in the series is revealed without a reason, and I don’t think that the reason we learned about Metamorphmagi was to have some entertainment with Tonks changing her nose over dinner.

Due to this reasoning, I believe that Mark Evans may well be a very important character in book six, a possible relation of Harry’s, and remains in contention for the role of half blood prince.

Why did she choose to name Madam Marsh, Mr. Prentice, and Gordon as the three characters that are as significant as Mark Evans? I can name a ton of other “nobodies”: Malcom, Yvonne, Euan Abercrombie, Rose Zeller, Natalie MacDonald, Blaise Zabini, Sally-Anne Perks, Daphne Greengrass, Harold Dingle, Eddie Carmichael, Gladys Gudgeon, Vicky Frobisher, Geoffrey Hooper, Troy, Mullet, Moran, Quigley, Aidan Lynch, all of the other members of the Bulgarian and Irish Quidditch teams (except Viktor Krum) not to mention members of the Order who seem to have no purpose other than being a name: Hestia Jones, Elphias Doge, Emmeline Vance, Dedalus Diggle…Are the characters that J.K.R. chose to mention really random? Among this endless list of Hogwarts students who were Sorted in previous years, Order members, random Muggles, and Quidditch players, why Mr. Prentice, Madam Marsh, and Gordon? Are they simply the first three characters that J.K.R. thought of when she was writing that little blurb? Or is there something more to them, something that can be deduced from the times that they are mentioned? Or am I overthinking this (feel free to say that I am) and are the times that they are mentioned purely coincidence, and Madam Marsh just loves to be violently ill on the Knight Bus, and just happens to be there whenever Harry is?

I agree entirely - Mark Evans can still be important, he can still be the Half-Blood Prince, and J.K.R.'s statement that he is as significant as Mr. Prentice, Madam Marsh, and Gordon could mean that there is more to these three characters (in addition to Mark Evans himself) than we know as of now.

Yeah! At last! People who write longer posts than me!!

I'm only kidding....very rational, logical and well presented theories....you've obviously checked the facts and have evidence to back up your theories which is really good...a lot of the time, people post theories and have no evidence for them whatsoever so they're very hard to build discussions around......

I can certainly see where you're coming from about Mark Evans and you're right...almost everything JKR says can be interpreted in two ways and you could read her statement in the way that Anthony suggested. However, I think perhaps that the wider picture should be looked at really, rather than dissecting every word that escapes her website..... I really don't think that JKR would deliberately set out to mislead her readers. She can be mysterious, yes, and a lot of the time she can be vague, but she has never (to my knowledge) lied or deliberately misled. She has stated that Mark Evans has no significance and I'm sure that the other names she used were just random names that occured to her in that moment. I mean, let;s face it, whichever names she had used there would have been dissected, wouldn't they? She has said there's no significance there and, at least for me, that's good enough. We'll never really figure out what's going on if we refuse to let go of peripheral characters that she has said are not important....(That's not personal to you, Anthony... ...that's the collective 'we'...as in every single HP fan on the face of the earth)

As for the cats, I think they're probably Kneazles, just like Crookshanks (well, okay, half Kneazle) and Mrs Norris. In that case, Mrs Figg might very well be able to talk to her cats/kneazles and tell them to watch Harry or whatever.....although it's possible they might be animagi I guess (it's stated in PoA that there have been 7 registered animagi in this century...of which Mcgonagall is one....who are the others, I wonder?) I highly doubt that a human being would want to spend their entire lives in their animal form. (Unless you're trying to hide from the best friend who went to prison for your crime and the DeathEaters who want to chew out your skinny little behind, that is... )

Again, I can also see your point, Anthony, about Madame Marsh...and to be honest, when I re-read PoA recently, I did kind of suspect that there was something strange about her, but I let it pass....for now.... If she was tailing Harry, then she's not doing a particularly good job of it, is she? If she's on the Knight Bus all the time....and anyway, I don't think LV needs to spy on Harry....he's a legilimens...if he can't get into Harry's mind, he'd get into Ron's or Hermione's....

And JKR has also said that there's not more to Dudley than there appears to be, so if she's cutting him down, then I doubt that she'd bring in a character that is even more background than Dudley is. Besides, they've never been in the films and JKR has allowed them to excise the Dursleys from GoF altogether....she wouldn't have allowed them to do that if anything from their part of the world was going to be significant in the future.

To be honest with you, I still think that Godric Gryffindor is the most likely candidate for the HBP, especially considering the excerpt JKR released a while back..(or...grrr...as much as I hate to admit it...possibly his heir...even though I still stubbornly say that there doesn't have to be an heir....the HBP does not have to currently be alive)

i just thought of some thing what if mark is a relvite of haryy's but not boold.

I've joined this thread and am delighted to be a new member to veritaserum. I too was quite upset to find that Mark Evans will not be playing a crucial role...such as The Half-Blood Prince himself....in book 6. Most upsetting.

Just so you know, I am having a lovely time in Romania chasing dragons!

Hi there, Charlie!!! Welcome to the forums!! Hope you have a blast here!! (Not from the dragons though, hey? )

There's an Introduction thread in the 'Lounge' if you'd like to say hi to everyone and say a bit about yourself 'cos we're a curious bunch!!.....

Anywho!! Welcome again!

welcome charlie!

ok back to the main topic.........i first thought he was the hbp.........but the way she said it ....it cane be interpreted in many ways......

I agree with Dana for the most part, I don't think that JKR would mean to mislead us on purpose. And I do think that had she named other characters instead of those she did, we would have dissected them just as much and tried to come up with ways in which they could be more important as to prove our theories right. Though I still wouldn't rule out that as being her purpose... guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

As for the Dursleys being cut from GoF I was really shocked to find out about that, but I'm not certain that means that they won't have a bigger part in the future... I think Petunia will at least... but it makes you wonder. Same with Snape, his role is being cut to minimal in GoF isn't it? And all along we've been led to believe that he's going to have some major importance in later books (and likely to find out that he had a much bigger purpose in previous ones as well) but if he's being cut down so much... you again have to wonder.

Mmm....yeah, that's true, isn't it? About Snape, I mean..... Unless we are looking into the complexities of his character a bit too much and he really is just what he appears to be - a miserable, nasty, bitter, cynical, cruel, sadistic old creep....(But played very nicely by the delicious Alan Rickman, of course.. )