The thing is, Harry Potter’s story is finished. He’s defeated Voldemort. Friends have died, lessons have been learned, Draco Malfoy is all grown up with a child of his own, and Mrs Weasley said the word ‘bitch’. It was beautiful. And now it’s over.I understand the temptation to revisit old triumphs. It feels dangerous to step away from ground where you know you’ve been successful. Imagine if you wrote something that wasn’t quite as good! Or something that didn’t capture the imagination in quite the same way. Well, what then? Creators all know that the most dangerous thing isn’t to try and fail, it’s to stagnate. Maybe not every new world or new set of stories you make will enjoy the huge success of Harry Potter – but a worse fate would be to keep on ploughing the same old furrow, not able to try anything new.
I don’t say you even have to invent a whole new world. The world of Harry Potter is evidently vast and you’ve barely scratched the surface. What about – and I know this is a radical notion – a novel for adults in the same imaginary space? What’s going on in the Ministry of Magic? What’s up with those dragons in Romania?