The Epilogue of D00M!
So, anyone else think Nineteen Years Later is just a bit suspicious?
By now, a lot of us in fandom have finished reading Deathly Hallows and its epilogue. I’ve seen a lot of discussion going on about the epilogue among people who are really displeased with it, and some of their comments really got me wondering - not about how I was displeased with it, but about it’s timing.
Nineteen years later - all was well. Heh, okay. Sure. Voldemort is gone and vanquished, and I think that’s what she’s trying to prove by making it so much later but… the nineteen years specifically is making me wonder.
See, I started doing some math. James and Lily died in 1981, which means Harry was born in 1980. Therefore, he turned 17 in 1997, and left on his quest for horcruxes with Ron and Hermione that same year. The Battle of Hogwarts and Voldemort’s final defeat occurred in 1998, the next year. So, what’s 1998 + 19? 2017. Right now, it’s 2007. 2017 is 10 years from now.
“I always said there would be seven if there's ever an eighth, it will be because ten years down the line I had a burning desire to do just one more, but I don't presently think that will happen.” - JKR during the AOL Live Chat on May 4, 2000, as taken from here at Accio Quote Granted, that was said in 2000, but I think she meant ten years after the last book was done with, though I could be totally wrong.
Now, I’m not arguing that JKR is going to start writing another Potter book, because I know how adamant she’s been about only writing seven and then maybe an encyclopedia for charity, if anything. However, one thing I’ve learned in the decade I’ve been reading Potter is that JKR does things deliberately, and so I don’t believe that nineteen is just a random number. Maybe it is absolutely random, but isn’t it interesting that if she did decide she wanted to return to Harry’s world in ten years, that she’d have the perfect place to start?