Seven years after the release of Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling has hinted that she’s ready to go back to Harry Potter. But is that a good thing?
This month marks the seven-year anniversary of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. On July 21, 2007, eager fans were consuming the final words of the Potter saga; some were ploughing through the pages, eager to get to the end, while others were trying to savour the last words they would ever read about Harry and his friends.
Everyone knew that this was where the story ended. Rumours of an eighth novel had been shot down by everyone, including J.K. Rowling herself. This was it, it was done. Live or die, win or lose, Harry’s story would end on this day.
And as expected, the end left the fandom pretty evenly split: some loved it, while others might have preferred… something else. A lot of people wanted more huge character deaths, while others were relieved that our trio and most of their friends made it out alive. Some would have liked a more detailed account of what happened as they grew up and settled down, while others thought even the epilogue was too much.
But one thing was clear to all: Harry’s story was over. Of course we were all still eagerly awaiting the encyclopedia, which J.K. Rowling had promised to write – an extensive account of every little detail of Harry’s world, from the conception of character names and personalities, to Mundungus Fletcher’s family tree (he was the true heir of Gryffindor, you guys), to what the deal was with that damn Veil.
Now, seven years later, we still don’t have an encyclopedia. But the closer we get to the seven-year anniversary of Deathly Hallows, the more hints we’ve found that J.K. Rowling might be ready to write more Potter stories – most notably, there has been her shocking Harry/Hermione reveal, and her recently released short story about the trio at the Quidditch World Cup.
Now, if what Rowling is cooking up is an encyclopedia, I’ll be ecstatic. I want all the backstory, and I want it like seven years ago. I have lived and breathed Harry’s world, and although I’ve changed and grown up a lot since then, a part of me still aches for that ultimate low-down of all the things I didn’t know I wanted to know (did all the other Founders have Chambers too? Why were Madam Hooch’s eyes yellow? All the big questions!).
But I don’t want a sequel. I don’t want short stories detailing their later life; I didn’t even want an epilogue. I believe that the words “the end” exist for a reason, and they should not be followed with, “just kidding!” I believe that once a story is over, it exists in the minds of the reader, and that this reader’s imagination should be allowed to run free. This is just my opinion, of course, but luckily I am entitled to express it.
And I’m afraid, I’m very afraid, that Rowling’s return to Potter (if it ever happens) will give us a very different story than we might like to imagine. Let me explain why I don’t want any more Harry Potter-centric books – and click on to the next page for seven other ways Rowling could return to the Wizarding World.
1. J.K. Rowling is not the same writer she was seven years ago
J.K. Rowling is, of course, always going to be J.K. Rowling. But in the seven years since the release of Deathly Hallows, her writing style has changed a lot. Indeed, through the course of writing the seven Harry Potter books she developed and became a far more sophisticated author; technically and stylistically, she has undoubtedly improved.
But there’s a reason why I, a Harry Potter fan, suffered through every moment of The Casual Vacancy, only got halfway through The Cuckoo’s Calling, and have absolutely no interest in reading The Silkworm. It’s just not the same. While Rowling’s writing has always had dark undertones (Philosopher’s Stone opens with an abused orphan living in a cupboard, hello) there was something hopeful, enthusiastic, and (dare I say it) magical about the first, second and third Harry Potter novels. That was still there in four-seven, but more practiced, and a tiny bit more clinical.
Now, J.K. Rowling is a very skilled novelist. But I’m just not feeling it anymore. Of course, this also has something to do with the fact that just like Rowling, I (and all other Potter fans who grew up with the series) have changed and matured in the last seven years. Maybe I’m the one who’s lost the magic.
But still the argument remains that if J.K. Rowling had written Harry Potter today, it would be a completely different story, written for other reasons and from a different life perspective. Case in point: the fact that Rowling admitted that at this point in time she thought Hermione and Harry was a better romantic fit than Hermione and Ron says a lot about how much she has changed as a person.
2. Who knows what else J.K. Rowling might change?
This is kind of continued on from the previous point. Because let’s face it: we wish Harry Potter was real. We love the story because it feels real, and because we can believe that somewhere, in some alternate reality, it could exist.
The more J.K. Rowling retroactively changes about canon, the more we are reminded that it’s all fiction. The more she reveals she would do differently, the more she critiques the original choices she makes, the less the whole story seems to matter.
And looking at her post-Potter works, she’s clearly on a very clear-cut kitchen sink realism kick; she’s painting a gritty picture of a stark reality in which no one finds happiness and everything is rubbish (maybe she’s been reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series), and I don’t want Harry Potter to be subject to this treatment. I don’t want to see Harry and co. grow up and face all the boring struggles of real life. I don’t want to know that eventually they all die, some probably sooner than later and in horribly tragic ways. I know what real life is like, and I don’t read books to be reminded of the fact that ultimately, magic or not, life sucks and then you die. She might write it, but I don’t have to like it – or even read it.
Will Molly Weasley die of dragon pox? Will Ginny fall to her death in a Quidditch accident (finally leaving Harry and Hermione to find true love in each other’s arms, taking all the kids and moving to France, leaving Ron a drunk, broken mess)? Will George succumb to grief and take his own life? Will Draco Malfoy cut off his own foot? After reading The Casual Vacancy I don’t doubt that Rowling is capable of subjecting us to all of these things, and I am terrified of what kinds of gritty realism she might try to retroactively inject into the fantastic, escapist series I love so dearly.
Ultimately I simply don’t want to know that Harry eventually grows old and dies, because Harry is a fictional character, and the perk of being fictional is that you never age nor die past the end of your story. I’m childish and stubborn on this point, but you know what? Harry Potter was a part of my childhood, which is over. Let’s leave him back there with all the good, less tainted experiences and memories.
3. You can’t have Harry Potter without Hogwarts
The thing about Harry Potter is that while the world is magical and otherworldly on the surface, in actuality, magic is ultimately just an alternate way to do completely normal things. According to J.K. Rowling, life after Hogwarts was going to be very decidedly normal for Harry and his friends.
Part of what made the original seven (six?) novels so exciting was that the protagonists got to experience this world for the first time, and through them, we were allowed to marvel at magic. Adult wizards don’t marvel at magic, so why should we?
J.K. Rowling’s generation grew up with the boarding school genre: children’s books set in these fantastic worlds known as boarding schools, where there were no parents, and adults were only there to help or hinder the children’s adventures. Think of the Jennings books and Malory Towers; if you’re British, your parents might remember them. Harry Potter re-invented the boarding school genre for a new generation, and made modern children around the world long to put on school uniforms and leave home to go to school in some closed, isolated institution, magic or not. Think about that.
A story about a grown-up Harry would trivialise magic, and would trivialise that original, fantastic concept of a magical boarding school. The epilogue already did that, as did Rita Skeeter’s recent blurb. This has made me realise that the main reason I enjoyed the Harry Potter series as much as I did wasn’t the magic, or even (Order of Merlin, 1st class-level sin coming up) the characters – it was Hogwarts.
To wrap up this post, I will just pre-emptively refer all the commenters who will undoubtedly flame this post and point out the obvious, that if I don’t like whatever Rowling writes I can just not read it: the title of this post is not “Why JKR shouldn’t write more Harry Potter.” She can do whatever she wants, it’s her creation and property. We all agree on this point.
But while she might write it, I don’t have to like it – or even read it. That is my right, as a reader and a fan of the existing work.
And you know what? Despite all this angst, I probably (definitely) will read whatever J.K. Rowling may or may not write. And, hopefully, I’ll write a follow-up piece about how wrong I was and how amazing it is, recapturing the magic of the original world and yada-yada.
This whole point boils down to the simple fact that J.K. Rowling once gave us all a gift, and now I’m terrified she’ll take that gift back, rip it apart, and throw us the broken pieces. A lot of things lose their magic as you grow up, and I don’t want Harry Potter to be one of them.
Ways in which J.K. Rowling could return to the ‘Harry Potter’ universe without changing Harry’s story
Of course there are several ways J.K. Rowling could return to Harry Potter without affecting the original series. Read on for seven suggestions.
1. The Encyclopedia
It would give us every minute detail of the world we already love, without any huge post-mortem twists that changed everything we thought we knew.
2. A Marauders/Dumbledore prequel
New characters, new storylines, and more insight which might even allow us to re-read the Harry Potter series and discover new meanings to seemingly insignificant details.
3. A sequel featuring the trio’s children
I, personally, am not that interested in reading about Al-Sev and his friends, but hey, each to their own. It’d be in the present, but not trio-centric – and still at Hogwarts, which would be nice.
4. More history books like ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’
With the Fantastic Beasts movie(s) in development, imagine what other side-stories J.K. Rowling could craft, and what other aspects of the world she could bring to life. Imagine a book full of do-it-yourself spells and potions!
5. Untold adventures of minor characters
I’m a sucker for backstory; frankly, I’d love to see what Hannah Abbott and Cormac McLaggen were up to while Harry was running around being important. Again, anything that allows me to see aspects of the original canon from a new angle would be amazing.
6. The Founders’ story
Forget Harry, let’s just get Hogwarts: A History and travel back to medieval Britain to learn about how the magical school was founded, and how the castle took on such incredible qualities like constantly redesigning itself!
7. A Beauxbatons/Durmstrang-centric story
Expanding the Wizarding World would be incredibly interesting; returning to the universe but not necessarily going anywhere near Harry Potter would allow Rowling all possible freedoms – even exploring a more gritty, social realist genre within the world – without tainting the beloved books we grew up with.