The Saddest Death in Harry Potter Was My Respect for JK Rowling

JK Rowling was my idol

I've read the Harry Potter books

Probably 10+ times

Begged my mom to get me

The whole series

On the edge of my seat 


When she finally let me

Watch the movies

I went to themed parties and events

Flew to the Wizarding World

In Orlando

For my high school graduation gift

I marveled at my magical fantasies 


Come to life off the page

The massive Hogwarts castle

Materialized like it strolled off the screen

I still have a Ravenclaw

Scarf, tie, and robe

Hanging in my closet

A custom wand my first boyfriend

Commissioned for me

And my original box set

Sit on my shelf still

I grew up with Harry Potter

He came out of the understairs closet

And gave me the courage to

Forever a misunderstood, abused boy

Marked from birth by darkness

He never asked for

An outsider straddling both

The magical and mundane worlds

Hope bloomed in me

As he gained real friends and acceptance

I felt seen flipping through those pages

I still don't know how

To reconcile with the reality

That my favorite childhood author

Hates me simply for existing

On the basis of my core identity

Like I really fucking want

To still buy her new books and games

Go see her new movies

But You-Know-Who

Is directly funneling her wealth

To fund political propaganda

With her help

The UK Supreme Court

Just ruled that the definition of "woman"

Excludes trans women

And now thousands 

Of people will suffer

I feel like she's hexed us all

The billionaire author

Of one of the biggest book series ever

Lives in a fantasy reality

Where trans people don't exist

But I'm proof otherwise

My friends shatter that myth

No, we won't just apparate away

Apparently she can imagine

A secret society

Of witches and warlocks

Fantastic beasts

And ferocious conflicts

But she can't possibly envision

A world where women

Expand beyond her narrow definition

Moaning Myrtle

Lurking in girls’ bathrooms

To police their bodies

Popping up in haunted toilets

To inspect genitals

Nothing says

“Your body, my choice”

Like a TERF and surf

Defining women

By reproductive organs

Riding the red waves of

Relentless, rotten legislation

The saddest death in Harry Potter

Is my respect for JK Rowling

I respected her dearly as a writer

But now she advocates for exclusion

For trans eradication

Like she erases her past passion

For diversity, equity, and inclusion

Remember when she pretended like

She secretly wrote Dumbledore

As gay all along?

Does she not smell the irony

In the ink she spilled?

Did she actually read what she wrote?

She is carving out our names in blood

Like Umbridge

And her Hogwarts Legacy

Is now forever

A Dark Mark on her reputation

I hope splitting her soul

Into Horcruxes

For fame and fortune was worth it

The wizard Nazis

She painted so cruelly

Now point to her

With gleeful condemnation

One of us, one of us, one of us

Now she is hellbent

On a new world order

Under soul-sucking fascists

And the only Death Eaters

Are those force fed bigotry

I can only hope her reign of terror

Doesn't end with a landslide

Of Muggle blood

Sweeping away the impure outcasts

Because as far as I can tell

She was the villainous Voldemort

All along