AITA: Sister ruins brother's childhood 'Harry Potter' memory by admitting she photoshopped it years ago

The complexity of sibling relationships is not new. The widely used adage "I will give them my kidney, but not my charger" indicates that while most siblings are in love with one another, they still argue for petty reasons.

However, some siblings tend to go too far, even for simple reasons. Today's story is about a sister who admitted to photoshopping her brother's childhood 'Harry Potter' memory.

The Original Poster (OP), with the username 'FunFace3389', took to Reddit’s 'Am I The A*****e' thread and shared how she managed to cheer up her then 6-year-old brother with an edited picture of him with 'Harry Potter' star Daniel Radcliffe. The post garnered over 8K upvotes and more than 400 comments with Redditors sharing mixed opinions.

Woman reveals ruining brother's childhood memory using Photoshop

The Redditor shared that her younger brother, who is 20 now, had a major Harry Potter phase when he was six years old. She said, "He loved the wizarding world and believed he might meet ‘Harry Potter’ (Daniel Radcliffe) or the other characters on a family trip to Scotland since Hogwarts was ‘there'."

She added that although no one assured him of this, he persuaded himself that it was possible to meet Radcliffe. However, her brother was devastated by the cancellation of the trip due to the death of their grandfather.

Being an elder sister, the woman did her best to "cheer" her brother and "decided to craft a 'souvenir'."

"I was 16 and had just discovered photoshop, so I edited a picture of my brother with Daniel Radcliffe to make it look like they'd met," the OP said.

She added, "I printed it, framed it, and gave it to him without telling him it was fake. He loved it and fully believed he’d met Daniel."

"Soon, he had an entire story about the meeting; what they talked about, how Daniel hugged him, etc. It was so sweet, and none of us (my family and I) had the heart to tell him the truth," the OP continued.

The OP shared that her brother was still unaware that the "old, low quality picture of him meeting Daniel Radcliffe" was a fake even after a good 14 years. "I never told him because his memory of the fake meeting felt so real to him that it became one of his proudest stories," she wrote.

The moment of truth

The OP revealed that her brother has long since outgrown his 'Harry Potter' obsession, and the framed picture had been stored away in a box as the memory grew less significant.

"Yesterday, however, we were at our parents' home and we were bringing up old memories, you know how it goes," the author said.

She went on to say how her brother reacted to the moment of truth and said, "The story of meeting Daniel Radcliffe came up, and thinking it was harmless, I told him the truth. I thought he’d laugh but instead he got visibly upset."

He initially refused to believe his big sister because he thought she was playing tricks on him but she told him the truth about how and why I did it.

"He told me that it feels like I robbed him of a real childhood memory that he really cherished, and he feels embarrassed thinking about all the times he's told people about meeting Daniel Radcliffe in person, even recently," the OP expressed.

The woman said that they ended their conversation on a somewhat positive note but she "apologized for not telling him sooner, because I do feel bad that it meant so much to him even now."

Turning to the open forum for guidance, the OP ended her post by saying that she does not "regret" doing what she did back then.

"It made him so happy during a rough time, and I don’t regret giving him that joy. I just didn't realize how much it still meant to him. So I'm just wondering, am (or was) I the a-hole?" she asked.

Internet users divided over woman's 'good intentions' to give her brother joy

Redditors provided mixed opinions over the woman's confession of ruining her younger brother's childhood memory.

One user backed the sister and said, "NAH You did a sweet thing and 14 years later you admitted the truth without thinking it through. He obviously cherished the memory and feels like you ripped it away from him. Neither of you are at fault. Mistakes were made but there was no malice involved."

A second user said, "NTA. It’s like Santa. You did it with good intentions and he never met him. He was 6, now he is 20. Maybe disappointing, but he’s 20 years old…. It would be worse to continue the fantasy for an adult. I am sure no one ever thought at the time this would be the result 14 years later, sounds like he just never got the memo it wasn’t real… much worse things that can happen as an adult."

"I'm a tad surprised that you could convince a six-year-old they'd met their idol when they hadn't, but you're still NTA. Did he even question it at the time??" chimed in a third.

Several users blamed the woman for not telling her brother "sooner" as one wrote, "YTA for not telling him sooner. This is not like Santa or the Easter bunny or unicorns or anything like that. This is something that could have actually happened and there was no way for him to know it didn’t really happen."

"YTA. If you found out that one of your happiest and proudest memories as a child was completely fabricated AND covered up by your entire family, how you would you feel? I would feel betrayed at a minimum. Honestly, this going to be hard to recover from in my opinion. I hope your brother is a better person than me, but I might never talk to you again," remarked another.

"YTA. You lied to him and let him believe a fabricated memory for over a decade. Why didn't you tell him when he was a teenager?" asked one.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online