J.K. Rowling Just Released A New Harry Potter Story, Is There More To Come?

So this seems to have flown under the radar a bit. Today, J.K. Rowling released a new 1,500 word Harry Potter story (roughly the size of a chapter) that takes place when Harry is older and a father. I haven’t read it but it’s reportedly written from the point of view of minor character Rita Skeeter. From the Boston Globe:

The new piece is presented in the style of a gossip column with the headline “Dumbledore’s Army Reunites at Quidditch World Cup Final.’’ Its author is Daily Prophet gossip columnist Rita Skeeter, a minor character in the Potter books, who casts a snarky eye on the group — and most pointedly on Harry, a Hogwarts-bred celebrity whose friends and family members, she writes, reap “the benefits and must pay the penalty of public interest.”

Readers encounter a Harry as a freshly scarred figure, nearly 34 years old, married, and the father of two young sons. He is attending the 2014 Quidditch World Cup Finals with his wife, Ginny, and a coterie of close friends, including Ron Weasley and his wife, the former Hermione Granger.

 

The chapter, free on her site, is the latest in a series of Quidditch World Cup stories launched by Rowling back in March, but the first to reintroduce several major characters from the seven Potter books. The last full-fledged novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” was published in 2007, and the last Potter film, based on the book, came four years later.

 

Rowling has said there would be no further novels featuring the boy wizard.

 

Perhaps Tuesday’s release means she had reconsidered? The closing line of Skeeter’s mock column promises a forthcoming biography titled “Dumbledore’s Army: The Dark Side of Demob,” allegedly to be published July 31, which happens to be Harry’s birthday. Might Rowling have a similar book and timetable up her writerly sleeve?

Rowling has said that she was done with writing Harry Potter novels but with the attention she was given after they became wildly popular it would make sense that she’d want a break, at the least. Maybe time has rekindled her interest.

The chapter is free to read and can be found at Pottermore.com.