Now famously age-agnostic, the frenzied popularity of the Harry Potter books among adults in the early years of the series took publishers, critics, and even Rowling entirely by surprise. Rebecca, the daughter of academics and a Harvard graduate herself, is left floundering and questioning her life decisions when she’s abruptly dumped by her boyfriend, turning to Harry Potter quite by accident. This eclectic cast of characters, we are led to believe, would not have had much to do with each other were it not for Rowling’s books. In 1999-2000, as the internet proliferated, reimagined as a space of sociability rather than mere functionality, die-hard fans of Harry Potter were going through a crisis of their own. Fansites, discussion forums and fan fiction sprouted across the world, taking characters, plots, events and settings from the Harry Potter books and turning them into stories that were entirely their own.

Source: Huffington Post December 14, 2019 10:07 UTC