# Harry Potter
Harry Potter started as a seven-book fantasy series by J.K. Rowling, published between 1997 and 2007, following an orphan wizard through Hogwarts. What began on paper grew into a sprawling online fandom that filled fan sites, mailing lists and shipping wars for years, and gave the wider internet one of its longest-running arguments over which characters should have ended up together.
## Origin
The first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, came out on June 30th, 1997 through UK publisher Bloomsbury, before Scholastic picked up the US rights and pushed the series worldwide[5]. The final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, hit shelves on July 21st, 2007, and the series was later translated into 67 languages[5]. Warner Bros adapted the seven novels across eight films between 2001 and 2011, closing out with an action-packed second half of Deathly Hallows Part 2 that ended the film series on July 15th, 2011[1].
- **Platform:** Print (Bloomsbury) / online fandom (viral spread)
- **Creator:** J.K. Rowling
- **Date:** 1997
## Overview
The Harry Potter fandom shaped how online communities argue about fiction. The trio at the center of the books, Harry, Ron and Hermione, sat at the middle of years of shipping debates split between the canonical Ron and Hermione pairing and the Harmony camp pushing Harry and Hermione instead[6]. Fan fiction archives grew alongside those arguments, filling out with alternate pairings including Draco and Hermione, and time-travel Hermione and Remus Lupin stories that fans read even when they refused to touch a Harry and Hermione fic on principle[7].
The fandom's online footprint spans daily news sites like The Leaky Cauldron, which covers casting news and licensed merchandise drops, and detailed reference sites like the Harry Potter Lexicon, which catalogs canon minutiae down to which specific enchantment hides Hogwarts castle from Muggles[2][3]. Between the fan sites, message boards and reaction listicles from outlets like BuzzFeed, most of the fandom's public arguments played out in text rather than image macros, giving Harry Potter a very different meme footprint than most film franchises[8].
## How It Spread
Fan sites grew alongside the books. The Leaky Cauldron ran daily news updates on the film cast and licensed merchandise[2], while the Harry Potter Lexicon built out a full reference for Hogwarts geography, characters and canon minutiae[3]. When Half-Blood Prince paired Ron with Hermione and Harry with Ginny in 2005, forum users called the book 'a large, steaming pile of decaying crap' as shipping-camp fallout spread across mailing lists and fan sites[6].
Rowling launched Pottermore on July 31st, 2011 as a closed beta, opening it to everyone on April 14th, 2012 with games and quests tied to the first novel[5]. On July 8th, 2014, she posted a Daily Prophet-style short story on the site written from the perspective of gossip columnist Rita Skeeter, titled 'Dumbledore's Army Reunite at Quidditch World Cup Final,' catching up with the trio at age 34[8]. BuzzFeed and other outlets ran same-day listicles about everything the article revealed, from Hermione's rise to head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to the new scar on Harry's cheekbone[8].
Rowling revisited the biggest fandom argument in early 2014, telling Emma Watson in a Wonderland magazine interview that Hermione probably should have ended up with Harry, not Ron[4]. She said the canonical pairing was 'wish fulfillment' she clung to from her original plot, and that Ron and Hermione would have needed 'relationship counselling' to make things work[4]. Flavorwire pushed back, arguing the fandom should stop treating the trio as a love triangle at all and pointing to Hermione's S.P.E.W. activism as evidence she deserved better than the marriage debate[7].
## How to Use
Fandom shorthand for Harry Potter typically includes shipping tags like Harmony for the Harry and Hermione pairing, which fan fiction writers still use as filter categories on archives[6]. Reference works like the Harry Potter Lexicon are commonly cited by fans in arguments over canon, since the site tracks minor details like the enchantment that makes Muggles see Hogwarts as 'a mouldering ruin' with danger signs rather than a working castle[3]. Fan news sites like The Leaky Cauldron work as the standard entry point for licensed merch drops and casting news[2].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Harry Potter?
A seven-book fantasy series by J.K. Rowling published between 1997 and 2007, following Harry, Ron and Hermione through Hogwarts, and one of the internet's most active book fandoms[5].
### Where did Harry Potter come from?
Bloomsbury released Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the UK on June 30th, 1997, and Scholastic later picked it up for worldwide release[5].
### What does Harry Potter mean?
The name refers to both the title character and the wider book, film, Pottermore and fan universe built around him[5].
### How do you use Harry Potter?
Fans debate ships like Harmony, write fan fiction and cite reference sites like the Harry Potter Lexicon in arguments over canon[3].
### Is Harry Potter still popular?
Yes, licensed merchandise like NOMA's officially licensed Harry Potter lighting collection still ships, and fan news sites still post daily updates[2].
### Who did Hermione end up with in the books?
Ron, though Rowling told Emma Watson in a 2014 Wonderland magazine interview that Hermione should have ended up with Harry instead[4].
### What is Pottermore?
A website Rowling launched on July 31st, 2011 with games and quests tied to the books, opening public registration on April 14th, 2012[5].
### How many Harry Potter films were made?
Eight films, released between 2001 and 2011, with Deathly Hallows split across two movies to fit more material[1].
### How much did the Harry Potter film series gross?
The film series grossed over $7.7 billion worldwide[5].
### What is the Harmony ship?
A fandom name for the Harry and Hermione romantic pairing, one of the two main camps in the shipping arguments that broke out around Half-Blood Prince[6].
### What was in Rowling's 2014 Rita Skeeter short story?
It caught up with the trio at age 34, gave Harry a new scar on his cheekbone, revealed Hermione as head of Magical Law Enforcement, and described Ron's 'famous ginger hair' as thinning[8].
## References
1. [https://www.wizardingworld.com/]()
2. [https://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/]()
3. [https://www.hp-lexicon.org/]()
4. [https://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/02/showbiz/rowling-hermione-ron-revelation/]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/harry-potter]()
6. [https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/If-you-re-an-obsessed-Harry-Potter-fan-Voldemort-2650652.php]()
7. [https://www.flavorwire.com/436907/lets-stop-pretending-theres-a-love-triangle-in-harry-potter]()
8. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/mackenziekruvant/things-we-learned-from-the-new-iharry-potteri-short-story]()
9. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200201140024/https://www.mugglenet.com/wallofshame-special.shtml]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/harry-potter
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