45 and counting: Harry Potter is aging like fine wine; what about JK Rowling?

Time of India

2 days ago

It's July 31st!
As Professor Trelawney had voiced the prophecy, "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies,' 'tis the time to mark the beginning of that era that ushered the boy… the boy who lived!
The boy is Harry James Potter, and this year he turns 45!
Now, Dobby might not be able to fish out a feast at the snap of his fingers (rest his sweetest soul), and Hagrid might or might not show up with a hastily written birthday cake (questionable handwriting, but full points for the gesture), AND Dumbledore might sneak some sherbet lemon candies out of those moving portraits, put them in a box, and leave them on the desk… but we're here with our glasses filled with beer (wish, it was butterbeer), raising a birthday toast to the boy who lived – to Harry!
Every year, the Earth takes yet another turn around the sun, and as a millennial—I, along with numerous others in today's world—thank our lucky stars that Harry Potter was born.
For a generation that grew up devouring books—whether comics, fiction, or fairytales—stories have always been our closest companions. Whether or not we had real best friends growing up, we found our fictional best mates on those pages – slightly crinkled, sometimes torn, but always held dear.
Our fictional best friends warded off bullies, helped us get out of closets, and taught us to own our geeky, nerdy selves. Stories, in every way, held (and still hold) our cure.
So, when one of those fictional best friends turns 45, for a proud Potterhead (yep, that's me), it's not only an occasion to celebrate, to cut a homemade cake, to eat a whole muffin, to curl up in bed while binge watching Harry Potter once again (for the 576th time); it's also an opportunity to look back and introspect.
It's a chance to go back to the beginning.
The inception
July 31, 1980. Godric's Hollow, a village in England, was blessed with the firstborn son of James and Lily Potter.
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Undo
Right along came the grim shadow of the prophecy, which prompted Lord Voldemort to attack the Potters. An attack that killed both Harry's parents, leaving the little kid orphaned, with a lightning mark on the right side of his forehead, and a mountain of responsibility – 'to vanquish the Dark Lord.'
As the Dark Lord 'marked' infant Harry as his equal, not knowing the power that little kid possessed, the entire series of Harry Potter witnessed the journey – of a teenager making choices (not the easy ones, but mostly, the right ones) and walking (sometimes, sprinting with wand in hand) an unusual path with his best mates!
Now, after decades of existence—on the pages, as well as on the screens—there's hardly any space left for spoilers.
Everybody knows how it ends. The good triumphs over the evil. The boy who lived, defeats the Dark Lord. The boy then, along with his family and friends, lives happily ever after – until the era of the cursed child arrives (that's a story for some other time).
But what makes it so special? What makes Harry Potter tick?
What keeps Harry Potter still so relevant, even after all this time?
Especially, in a world where The Lord of the Rings has already existed, what propelled the wizarding world to the pinnacle of universal acceptance, recognition, acclaim, and glory?
Swish and flick, and lessons learned
When you sit down with a story book in hand, or with a TV remote, do you really sit down for yet another lesson after you've already finished your homework? The answer to this question, in unison, will be – NO.
And yet, the best of stories leave us enriched. When it comes to Harry Potter—even with re-reads and re-watches—we're always left a tad bit more nourished than we were before.
But what do you learn from a gawky 11-year-old boy who is still finding his own way in a world that's been burst open before him out of nowhere? 'Just a boy' who never thought he'd be a wizard, put in a world of magic and magnificence, where he's still figuring his way…?
On purity of blood and prejudice
First things first! On the very first day of school itself, the 11-year-old boy teaches us a lesson on friendship and loyalty.
Well, on the surface, it is just friendship; if you keep up and dig deeper, it goes way beyond just simple loyalty.
When Draco Malfoy comes to introduce himself to Harry, boasting his family's 'pure-blood' status and belittling Ronald Weasley—the redhead kid Harry shared a compartment with on the Hogwarts Express and befriended during his maiden journey to Hogwarts—saying that he would help Harry choose the 'right sort' of wizards, Harry doesn't just dismisses his offer to establish his independent judgement.
Harry's decision to stick with Ron subtly nods to discard the age-old prejudice that has existed and created hierarchy, even in the wizarding community.
Starting from then, one of Harry Potter's most enduring lessons has been a stark allegory against prejudice. From the outset, the series spotlights 'pure-blood' supremacists, families like the Malfoys, the Gaunts, and even the pompous Delacours, who scorn 'Muggle-borns' as 'mud-blood' or 'filthy blood'.
In fact, Hermione Granger—one of the central characters of the series, Harry's best friend, and a Muggle-born witch—faces intense disgust and hatred from peers of her own age—mere teenagers—who brand her as 'mudblood', a derogatory slur not usually heard "in civilized conversation," yet, has found its way in modern bigotry, echoing racial epithets.
And when Hermione—the brightest witch of her time—defies her pureblood peers, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore delivers in his signature style: 'Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open,' a call for solidarity that feels cerebral, magical, aspirational, and urgently relevant.
On finding unity in diversity
The wizarding community, just like any other real-world community, isn't made of one class or one section of people. In the real world, there are different classes of people based on their financial standing; there are people from different ethnicities, different races, different colors, people with different faiths, different languages, and different cultures. In the world of magic, it only gets slightly more overwhelming, thanks to the inclusion of different species, like elves and goblins, and even giants!
However, throughout the series, Harry Potter keeps a stealthy front against all sorts of discrimination – be it the enslavement of house-elves, the stigmatization of werewolves, even the fear-mongering against those with Muggle parentage.
These narratives map neatly onto real-world prejudices — racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic.
In an era when overtly jingoistic, nationalist movements and racial profiling surge across continents, Harry's and his friends' fight against Voldemort's purity-obsessed ideology feels radical and uncomfortably immediate.
On building resistance and solidarity
What comes next when the hunger for power takes over and, in extension, threatens to change the natural order of things? You resist.
Not only do you do so, but you also learn to stand by your friends, build allies, and practise solidarity.
As the story of the series progresses, and so does Voldemort's shadow spread, the story unfolds to a rallying cry for unity—Dumbledore's Army. The words that still trigger goosebumps—'We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided'—become a blueprint for grassroots resistance, not just in some books or films based on a story made out of thin air, but in contemporary cultural contexts. What better to fuel real-world activism than stories of a fictitious world that might be laced with magic, but effortlessly seep into everyday reality!
The burden of choice
This has been one of the most central, simplest, and yet one of the most layered themes that Harry Potter has navigated.
Harry's character arc is the notion that destiny is not preordained but chosen. Whether it's Harry deciding to question Peter Pettigrew instead of cursing him, or choosing to save Cedric Diggory from being bewitched rather than leaving him to lift the Triwizard Champion's Cup alone – Harry's choices have always echoed with what Dumbledore had preached: 'It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
'
Dumbledore's words, "when the time comes we must choose not what's easy but what's right," have been the moral epicenter of the magical saga, reiterating the importance of agency and accountability.
In today's socio-political climate, crowded by cheerleaders of populist propaganda and catalyzed by an ocean of misinformation, the idea that one must choose integrity over convenience remains crucial.
What Rowling created with the Harry Potter franchise is not only a cultural touchstone but also a relic that's woven into the fabric of global popular culture.
At its core, Harry Potter is a story about the triumph of empathy over prejudice — a tale for resisting authoritarianism, standing up for the oppressed and marginalized, and forging one's own moral compass. After decades of its premiere, the saga of magic, friendship, and moral courage continues to capture imaginations around the world – and rightfully so, resonating strongly amid today's socio-political convulsions.
But, as Harry Potter's relevance keeps up, reassuring millennials of their choice of souvenir to keep from childhood, a sombering sense of discomfort creeps up in the Potterhead club; it's the fall from grace of the creator herself.
The rift regarding Rowling
Although there are many other works to speak of her literary prowess, Rowling's legacy has always revolved largely around Harry Potter and related works. The world discovered Joanne Kathleen Rowling only when she let the world step into the magical universe she had created.
Having conceived the idea for Harry Potter while on a delayed train in 1990, she began writing the first book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" under the name JK Rowling—using two initials rather than her full name—as suggested by the staff at Bloomsbury Publishing. Why? Because, back then, expecting everyone to read a book written by a woman seemed like a ludicrous daydream!
Harry was the chosen one in her books, true.
But parallelly, Rowling kept proving her mettle too. The first book was eventually published in 1997 after being rejected by multiple publishers, and the rest is history.
She has been adored, looked up to, and in a way, even worshipped worldwide amongst the sea of fans, followers, and admirers she had amassed.
Until that changed.
Why?
Arguably, nothing has eclipsed Harry Potter fandom's conversation in recent years more than Rowling's public statements on something extremely sensitive: transgender issues.
As strongly as she has rooted for destigmatization in her most-acclaimed work, in reality, her comments have only perpetuated the same against one of the most oppressed and marginalized communities of our time.
It all started when, in 2018, Rowling 'liked' a tweet describing trans women as 'men in dresses.' Although her spokesperson later attributes it to a pocket-dial accident, in December 2019, she penned down a blog post 'defending' women's rights and decrying 'the concept of gender identity' as undermining biological sex.
Thus, the first sign of fall from grace.
As the years went by, her stance only grew firmer, and her bigotry became uglier.
In mid-2020, Rowling rejected the idea of 'people who menstruate,' as exclusive of trans men and non-binary individuals, stating, 'I'm really sure that sex is real.'
Cut to 2022, Rowling publicly funds Beira's Place, a women-only crisis center, and tweets 'Merry Terfmas,' referring to trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) critics.
For the unversed, Rowling launched Beira's Place—named after the Celtic goddess of healing—a London refuge for women survivors of sexual violence, explicitly excluding trans women.
In 2024, Rowling extended her support to NHS nurse Sandie Peggie in a tribunal case involving a transgender doctor's use of female facilities, framing it as a stand for women's rights. And this year, she took it several notches higher, as she posted a celebratory snap of herself—with a cigar and a glass of spirit—following the UK Supreme Court's decision on the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill, a ruling that affirmed the legal recognition of women is based on biological sex.
What a twist of fate, what a fall from grace!
A crooked queen, a broken heart, and a hurting community
Now, you've got to understand this (or maybe I do, one more time)... for someone who has grown up buried in hardbound books and spending Sunday afternoons on POGO where they cast a Pitradev Sanrakshanam spell, instead of an Expecto Patronum – Harry Potter has been something, resembling the closest to my Holy Grail. Satyajit Ray has always come first, and Sunil Gangopadhyay has been a close second. But then, it was
JK Rowling
!
Harry Potter has been my most reliable go-to companion through all these years.
A bad row at college, come back to Harry Potter. A productive day at work, get back home to celebrate with pizza and Harry Potter. A fight with the best friend, cry it out while watching Harry Potter.
In short, Harry Potter has been the anchor that has kept me going.
In extension, Rowling's works did.
Imagine growing up on the kind of moral values that Harry Potter instills in you, and then one day, witnessing the creator herself breaking her character to defy each one of them.
It's been brutal, to say the least.
Several readers, especially trans and queer fans, have voiced their feelings of being betrayed, arguing that an author who demonizes marginalized identities has forfeited moral authority. Online forums have documented fans unreading the books or distancing themselves from the brand. Several fans even have tooted for pirated versions of Harry Potter books and films, in order not to contribute one more penny to the financial legacy of Rowling.
And for the rest—the ones who failed to let go of the dearest souvenir from our childhood—we have wrestled with our moral compass and settled at a compromising position where we've agreed to make an exception and separate the art from the artist(s). We continue to hold on to the stories, create and build a safe space amongst the members of the Potterhead club, and we sure as hell remember to share the core message that the series brought along in the first place: empathy, authenticity, and courage (all the while bracing ourselves for yet another moment of heartbreak whenever Rowling manages to stoop lower).
So, where does Rowling's legacy lie?
With her creation of a wizarding world that shaped innumerable lives across the globe, Rowling most certainly has etched her name in history.
But, is it written entirely in glory?
At this point, her legacy looks more like a mixed bag – a tapestry of contradictions.
On one hand, Rowling is the one who weaved strong themes of authenticity, courage, resistance, solidarity, empathy, and unity in diversity through Harry Potter.
With charitable ventures and philanthropic footprints like Volant Charitable Trust and Lumos, she has solidified her social stature, bolstering her public persona. In 2014, she even donated £1 million to Scotland's anti-independence 'Better Together' campaign to denounce purity-based nationalism.
On the other hand, today, Rowling is out on a witch hunt.
Time and again, she has not only voiced her opinion on trans-women and trans rights, but she has also publicly questioned the concept of gender identity – essentially disregarding the existence of the idea of self-identifying gender, and the ones who align with it.
Furthermore, she contributed £70,000 to a legal challenge against Scotland's Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which sought to simplify legal gender change, an action that ultimately culminated in a UK Supreme Court ruling (April 16, 2025) affirming a biological-sex definition under the Equality Act 2010.
The one who taught us inclusion through her work once has now dedicated her life to inducing segregation.
In the end, a creator's legacy is measured based on how rich their cultural influence has been, rather than how much controversial capital they have amassed.
Going by that trend, none of Rowling's legacy can potentially eclipse her own creation, Harry Potter.
However, given the contemporary scenario and her current stance, it is not only ignorant to overlook the trainwreck caused by her blasphemies, but also deeply unfair to absolve her of the consequences of her antics – just because she created something we hold dear.
On top of that, it's foolish to expect that this era of her being won't leave a giant taint on her legacy; that is to say – she is humiliating her own legacy.
Ultimately, Rowling's legacy may rest in the very choice she has granted us.
As she unravels more and more in the coming days, the choice lies in us – to choose between complicity, critique, or cautious admiration.
After all, with a Rowling-sized legacy – one either stays true to her own preachings, or deviates far enough to be remembered as a cautionary tale.
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