# Harry Potter Prequel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 29, 2008, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013 "2008-05-29T14:51:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/1 "2008-05-29T14:51:56Z")
JK Rowling has written a prequel to the Harry Potter series, apparently. [Story](http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7420000/newsid_7424900/7424970.stm) > [@BBC](#): > > It’s news Harry Potter fans have been dreaming of - JK Rowling has written a brand new story about the boy wizard. > > The 800-word Potter prequel is being auctioned next month for a dyslexia charity, but the good news is that it’s also being published later in the year. > > JK handwrote the tale on a storycard, adding at the end: “From the prequel I am not working on - but that was fun!” ---
**Author:** ![MovingTarget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@MovingTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovingTarget)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/2 "2008-05-29T15:53:48Z")
I knew this was going to happen. I told my friends it would happen. They swore to me she wouldn’t do it because she promised not to. I reserve the right to say “I told you so” to quite a few people. Charities aside, considering the money she made on the rest of the franchise, is it really that suprising that she’s still going to make books about this series? I mean hell, does this woman even HAVE any other series she’s done/is working on? I probably won’t read the books, but I’ll go watch/ then buy the movies. oh well… MT ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/3 "2008-05-29T15:54:48Z")
> [@](#): > > I mean hell, does this woman even HAVE any other series she’s done/is working on? Yes, a mystery novel. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/4 "2008-05-29T16:17:37Z")
It’s 800 words. That’s under 4 pages of double-spaced typing. Cute, but hardly “making books.” ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/5 "2008-05-29T16:18:00Z")
If I were her I would leave a good peice of work alone and start working on a new series. Unless of course I were going to get some cash. Cash is one my favorite things to have. Beyond cash, I have principles. Do you think this wizard world will become another aging whore like Xanth? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/6 "2008-05-29T16:19:32Z")
[QUOTE=WarmNPrickly] Do you think this wizard world will become another aging whore like Xanth? [/QUOTE] Don’t know, but I’m saving my pennies for the Hermione’s Hooters issue of _Playboy_. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/7 "2008-05-29T17:25:13Z")
We’ll see. This hardly represents a full-fledged return to writing novels in this series, and she is offering it up for charity. It could presage a return to Harry Potter novels, but it doesn’t have to, and for the moment I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/8 "2008-05-29T18:16:56Z")
[QUOTE=WarmNPrickly] If I were her I would leave a good peice of work alone and start working on a new series. Unless of course I were going to get some cash. Cash is one my favorite things to have. Beyond cash, I have principles. [/QUOTE] [Bender] Forget it, you can’t tempt me [Robot Devil] _Really?_ There’s _nothing_ you want? [Bender] Hmm, I forgot you could tempt me with things I want . . . ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/9 "2008-05-29T22:09:57Z")
What the hell would a prequel to Harry Potter even be? All he did was live with the Dursleys, and they barely even let him out to eat, let alone have any novel-worthy adventures. Does the world really need “Harry Potter and the Douche-Bag Dudders”? ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/10 "2008-05-29T22:20:52Z")
Maybe it focuses on his mother and father’s final hours and how she saved him. ---
**Author:** ![tds1273](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@tds1273](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tds1273)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/11 "2008-05-29T22:30:34Z")
So what House will Jar-Jar be in? Messa think he a Hufflepuff. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2008, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/12 "2008-05-30T01:02:14Z")
It’s only 800 words? _Eight hundred words?_ That’s about half the length of the shortest feature article I’ve ever written! That’s too short to submit as a “short story,” and it would have to be almost 10 times that long to be a “novella.” Your typical novel these days is 100 times that long. _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_ was [over 1/4 million words](http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/op/book_op.html). Heck, Scylla’s famous SDMB [blimp post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=160851) was over 1,200 words. This thing could be published on a single side of a single sheet of paper without even making it uncomfortably small print. I wouldn’t consider it a return to the world of Harry Potter novels. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/13 "2008-05-30T01:45:23Z")
Perhaps it’s 800 words on Harry’s jealousy re Dudley’s tricycle or Aunt Marge’s dogs treeing Harry… Having just reread the series, I can see JKR giving out dribs and drabs like this for decades more. The thought does not give me pleasure. I likes me some Harry Potter, but IMO she needs to either write another book about him or not. Not this kind of stuff. ( I am finding her writing somewhat pedantic these days). But it’s good the proceeds went to charity, so there is that. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2008, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/14 "2008-05-30T01:46:33Z")
Here are [her own words](http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/news_view.cfm?id=106) on it. It clarifies its origins somewhat. It’s about James Potter and Sirius Black a few years before Harry was born. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/15 "2008-05-30T01:54:30Z")
800 words of slashfic on Dumbledore’s youth. (He’s gay, you know.) ---
**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/16 "2008-05-30T16:15:54Z")
I was so completely disapointed by the last book (killing one of the twins?? Hedwig?? Leaving Ron Hermione and Hagrid completely out of the action???) that not only will I NOT read this, I don’t even think I’ll re-read the series again. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/17 "2008-05-30T17:31:59Z")
From the OP: > [@](#): > > JK handwrote the tale on a storycard, adding at the end: “From the prequel I am not working on - but that was fun!” It’s not like it’s in book form. And any real prequel would likely be about Harry’s parents, not toddler Harry drooling on his lincoln logs. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/18 "2008-06-20T05:25:59Z")
You can read the card. Go to [http://www.waterstoneswys.com/](http://www.waterstoneswys.com/) and click on “Read our authors’ stories.” Click on J K Rowling. There are some other authors you might enjoy as well. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/19 "2008-06-20T08:39:48Z")
She hand-wrote 800 words purely to raise money for charity. As others have said, it’s not even a short story. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-prequel/451013/20 "2008-06-20T13:26:40Z")
[QUOTE=tds1273] So what House will Jar-Jar be in? Messa think he a Hufflepuff. [/QUOTE] How long before it turns out that the ability to use magic is dependent on microscopic organisms?