Fangirling

Happy Birthday, J.K. Rowling! 10 Reasons You’ll Always Be Our Queen

By Melissa Albert / July 31, 2015 at 11:38 am

J.K. Rowling's bday!Sometimes (late at night, whenever I reread Harry Potter, when I think too long about Sirius Black), I love J.K. Rowling so much I can’t stand it. And in honor of today, her 50th birthday—and Harry Potter’s 35th—we’re celebrating 10 of the many times she reminded us why she’ll always be our queen.
1. That time she wrote Harry Potter
Let’s get that out of the way.
2. The time she graciously schooled a commenter
A reader tweeted this question her way: “I wonder why you said that Dumbledore is gay because I can’t see him in that way.” Rowling’s response:

*swish* *mic drop* *EXPECTO PATRONUM, a second, silvery J.K. Rowling dances out of the first J.K. Rowling’s willow wand with its braided core of phoenix feather, unicorn tail, and mermaid hair, vanquishing ignorance the world over*
3. The many times she’s assured us she hasn’t left Hogwarts behind, AND NEVER WILL, RIGHT?!
Fantastic Beasts, Beedle the Bard, finding out in a Quidditch World Cup story that YES, Ron took over Fred’s half of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes (the kind of unanswered question that can keep you up at night). And now, a Harry Potter PLAY?! She gives us every reason to believe we’ll be getting presents from Potter world for decades to come. And maybe, just maybe, if we’re all very good and clap our hands and believe in magic and bury a tarnished silver mirror beneath a whomping willow on a full-moon night…we’ll get another book?
4. Those times she isn’t held back by reader expectations
She went from Hogwarts to a bleak council estate, then published a good old-fashioned PI story under a pseudonym, which the world descended on like rabid grindylows when we found out who was behind it. The third Cormoran Strike book in a projected seven arrives this October, and though there are no spells to be found, it is filled with magically great plotting. Rowling forever!
5. All the times she responds to her fans on Twitter
Rowling doesn’t tweet often, but when she does, you want to be around to see it. Her ratio of awesome to filler is stacked incredibly high on the awesome side. Most of her tweets are in response to fans’ questions, or retweets of, say, their dogs and children dressed as various characters in the Potter universe. She makes people’s weeks by randomly reaching back—total mensch alert!
6. That time she stood up to Old Man Murdoch.

7. That moment we were given visual proof (as if we needed it) that Rowling is the fully in control emperor-god of the Potter realm, and nothing happens there without her notice and consent.
This is how a high witch of airtight plotting creates a brilliantly satisfying story that stretches over seven books and stands up against the sands of time, rereads, and countless fans peering along the floorboards looking for leaks.
8. When she uses her Midas-like fortune to make the world a better place
No offense to L.M. Montgomery or Charles Dickens, but how many creators of indelible fictional orphans take their care for parentless’ children’s well-being to the streets? Rowling’s Lumos charity is devoted to ending the institutionalization of children across Europe, funding their transfer from brutally inhumane conditions into safe family environments.
9. When she did what all of us dream of doing.
Tuns out Rowling based Dolores Umbridge, seated between Joffrey Baratheon and Nellie Oleson at the “most despicable characters in literature” table on a detested teacher. So far my fanfic about Sherlock Holmes humiliating my mean former Starbucks boss at a dinner party has yet to take off, so for now I’ll just dream of having the power to vengefully create characters as passionately…engaged with as Umbridge.
10. The time she knew how to respond to seeing Neville Longbottom naked.
While the rest of us were like this, she was like this. Funny AND classy, that woman.